Winter Antiques in the South of France

Some of you may have noticed that I have been missing in action of late (gee, I hope so, but perhaps not...). Well, I was lucky enough to be able to take a jaunt to the French Riviera for a week-- hubby and I gave ourselves a gift in honor of Christmas, my birthday, and our anniversary. 

We visited the Nice flower market just three blocks from our hotel. 

 

On Mondays, it becomes an antique market. Hooray! We had other plans for that day, so we got up early and popped over to check it out. 

 At 8 AM, it is still dark there and also chilly on an early January morning.

But I took pictures anyway and with the help of some editing to bring some light to them, I want to share them with you.

The dealers appeared to be hard core, old-timers (even the younger ones). My French is spotty at best and I also did not know the proper haggling etiquette, so I was too intimated to even try to buy anything. Not to mention that it all seemed to be rather expensive.

Not only that, but several of the price signs were in francs. France has had euros for 10 years. It's tricky enough to calculate euros into dollars, but francs? Forget it! Even though I did see some small things I really liked, it was too mentally confusing for me.

 Can you see the Mediterranean sea through the arch?

It was fun to be there as daybreak came and the sky lightened.

I wanted to share my favorite piece. I asked the dealer if I could take a picture ( in a kind of sign language with my camera!) and, in the usual French way, he shrugged and turned away from me (I'm part French, so no disrepect intended). I took that as a yes and snapped away, with a flash.

This most amazing necklace was full of beads, coins, and who knows what. Isn't it wonderful? I can't imagine how much it weighs, but it is truly a statement necklace!

We thought the market was only in the morning, as is the flower one. But it went all day and later on, after we finished with our other plans, we returned for another quick look around.

This was taken from the top of some stairs we found. The weather was rather dreary that day.

It was a lot of fun just to look, but I wish I'd been a more intrepid soul. Well, maybe on the next adventure...