READERS COMMENTS

Just had two interesting comments from  my Blog readers, who are always very welcome to add their comments to whatever they read and/or interested in themselves.
First I have the very exciting news that one of them from U.S. is coming to England to visit my Rag Market on May 19th - we have a very good friend in common, Kaari Meng of Hollywood, who has inspired hundreds of followers to take part in her design/jewellery/fabric business, shop and craft lessons andis a great friend and personality.  She takes parties to France to introduce them to French Culture and Broccante, and may one day bring a party over here.
The second, a query was to ask if Elizabeth Baer had written any books on her experiences as a dealer in French textiles.  I confess I have never got down to the work and talent that a good book deserves, and really, the main reason I put down some of my thoughts and memories  of my French explorations is that it gives me such great pleasure to recall the wonderful times I and my husband Derek had exploring every corner of France and learning a lot about the old way of life in France, just before it all disappeared after the end of the last war and when plastic, nylon and instant communication were to kill off a lot of the broccante dealers and young people travelled away from their area, so many traditions and skills were lost for ever.
The slow and careful way of life of the peasants was disappearing with the event of easy transport and many of the domestic tasks were lightened with the advent of domestic machines.  Many of the dealers I met when I first started buying were already quite old but could remember so much of life before the war and I was an eager listener.  None of these things get in to the history books but to me it was a fascinating aspect of dealing with the traditional old dealers.   They are now all at rest and the new younger dealers are much more about what sells best and finding what the so-called rich foreign buyers are asking for -