Hello my name is Gail, Faded-Grandeur is my shop on eBay. Here is a little bit about me and Faded-Grandeur's raison d'etre .

Restoring the old school.

We have bought the old school of a rural village high in the mountains in central France. The project of restoring the former village school and Mayor’s office has been our labour of love since 2003. We are currently converting the old schoolroom into luxury holiday accommodation, and we hope this will be ready for summer 2010!

I am always on the lookout for items to use in our home, and am often to be seen frequenting the seriously addictive vide-greniers (literally ‘empty attic’ sales) in my area. I come across many wonderful items at these rural events, and I love to share these beauties with others – now you can profit from my rummaging and unearthing of treasures from a by-gone age. I buy the things I like myself, and would be happy to have them on display in our house.

When the schoolroom project is finished we shall be furnishing it with many of my finds including antique monogrammed wedding (dowry) linen sheets to go on the antique upholstered beds, fabulous linen pillowcases, vintage patchwork quilts and bedspreads, exquisite torchons and hand towels, damask tablecloths and napkins. I have decorative collectibles to use in innovative ways – an enamelware pitcher for flowers, a galvanized steel coal scuttle as an umbrella stand, vintage tapestries on the walls, and graniteware items as part of the decorative display of found items during the restoration.

Treasure Hunting

Finding ephemera items when restoring what was once the Mayor’s office but is now the master bedroom in our house ( we found posters encouraging the locals to have their vaccinations in the 1940s, voters’ cards, school workbooks and registers,) has sparked an interest in collecting old newspapers from WW1, magazine adverts from the 1920s (which look wonderful framed), school education certificates from 1900, school textbooks and pages of music etc, some of which I have for sale in my shop.

I have boxes and boxes of items I bought at a Nun’s estate sale and convent closure in nearby Puy-En-Velay, a town famous for its lace making. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase most of the Nuns’ lace items which they had made by hand and prepared it for sale – lots of it has their writing on and prices, along with their lace making patterns, bobbins etc.

Sadly, the family of the last Nun did not want her items, so they were put up for sale with the rest of the items from the convent, and I bought as much of the linens that I could, including vintage clothing, nightgowns, bonnets and caps and confirmation clothing, together with embroidered tablecloths, napkins and napkin pouches to keep the napkins in. The Nun’s family’s loss is your gain, and many of these items are now for sale in my shop!! True vintage items, and with a history too!

I have a great deal of unlisted items that are still ‘undecideds’ whether to use them in the house or the holiday accommodation, or whether to share them with you, so if there is something in particular you are looking for, do drop me an email – I may just have that item lurking in my collection!

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for visiting my shop – I know that you have a great choice on Ebay, and am so happy that you are stopping by. Sign up for my newsletter, and be the first to know about my promotions and latest finds, and keep up to date on the progress in our schoolroom renovation, and whether we will be actually ready to take customers by the summer of 2010!!

Enjoy your browsing and thank you for visiting Faded Grandeur!

When -26 C Seems Bearable

We live in the mountainous, rural, de-populated centre of France, where seemingly unaffected by climate change, there are 4 distinct seasons in the year, and the snow can last from Nov to April. Our house is at the same altitude as Snowdon, in my native Wales, (1000m/ 3000ft) above sea level. That is cloud in the photo billowing up from the valley, not mist or fog.

The lane past our house is very steep, and needs to be taken in first gear, but in the snow only a 4x4 would be successful, (and most of our neighbours have these - they're called tractors!) with everyone else finding themselves skidding back down.

For our first winter we were prudent and parked our car up at the top of the hill and walked down, using a toboggan to slide the shopping down to the house, but if we forgot and left the shopping in the car overnight, the milk would be frozen and the lettuce dead! Even with good boots on the gradient of the lane makes slipping over very easy, and I would hold Andrew's arm, ready to drop him like a hot potato if he slipped first! After falling over 5 times we snow chains for shoes, which are an absolute blessing and I could jog across an ice rink with them and not slip once!

But now we have more confidence (and snow tyres!) we drive down the hill. The driving at snail’s pace down our lane isn't the problem, it is then getting onto our land, needing enough momentum to bash through the snow ridge that the snow plough leaves, but then managing to stop before skidding into the tree or the wall. Andrew is now an expert on doing this with a combination of handbrake and wheel turning.

I am fascinated by just how deep the snow can get. It rarely snows for days on end and yet the snow can get deep. Between the snowy days there can be bright sunshine, but this may not be enough to melt the snow layer, before the next snowfall, so it can accumulate to terrific depths

Even without the snow temperatures can plummet colder than my freezer, but with the bright sunshine, temperatures of minus 26°C seem bearable, and even fun! The snow is dry and doesn't make satisfactory snowballs, but I like to make them and throw them for my cats who get so excited chasing them, as well as the water when I hose the garden, - who said cats don't like water!! They also like to lie on the top of the water butt which is perfectly situated to catch the evening sun, and is almost guaranteed to be a warm ledge from where they can peruse any passersby. Due to the high winds we can experience we put a heavy stone on the water butt to keep the lid on, after seeing Harry cat jump onto the water butt expecting the lid to be on, and diving head first into the water!! He was out within a second and scampered off across the garden before I had managed to take 2 steps towards him. A couple of nights later Harry cat woke me up at 4.30am asking to go out and play. As I opened the front door I noticed that the stone was gone and the cover for the water butt had blown into the garden. So, not wanting him to do a repeat performance of the water butt dive, that morning sees me in my PJs, dressing gown and snow boots retrieving the cover, only to discover that the water butt's contents were frozen solid. It is 1 yard high, and full of solid ice! There was no way that he could have drowned on that!! Skidding and slipping back to the house in my haste, I noticed the thermometer on the wall read minus 20, and I was not very well dressed for the occasion!!!