A French Antiques Buying Trip: Four Days, One Very Full Van & Quite an Adventure

There’s something particularly exciting about setting off for France with an empty van. You never quite know what you’re going to come home with. Our plan for this trip was fairly simple: spend four days travelling around France, searching brocantes, warehouses, private houses and vide-greniers for beautiful antique furniture and decorative pieces to bring back to Relish.

We wanted to fill the van & We certainly achieved that, but getting the van — and ourselves — home again turned out to be another matter entirely…

Day One – France Bound… Eventually

Before we could even think about France, we had two Relish deliveries to make. Our first stop was Romsey in Hampshire, where we delivered an old ship’s rudder to an interior designer who works on hotels, restaurants and cruise ships. After temporarily losing our sat-nav signal, we eventually found our destination and continued towards London.

Next came Putney and the former Harrods warehouse, where we were delivering a French-Canadian sideboard. Getting it into its new home involved travelling four storeys in an open lift — something Shaun, who isn't particularly fond of heights, would probably describe as one of the less enjoyable moments of the trip.

Deliveries complete, we headed for LeShuttle and France. Unfortunately, a delay of nearly two hours immediately put us behind schedule. We had collections arranged beyond Calais and suddenly found ourselves racing against the clock. We made it though, collecting a beautiful parquet-topped extending dining table along with several smaller tables from a farmer before finally heading towards our hotel.

Our late 10pm arrival meant using the automatic check-in, which informed us that we hadn't paid. We had. Nevertheless, we ended up paying again, only to discover that our one-star accommodation — booked because buying trips are about antiques rather than luxury hotels — was far from habitable! Thankfully we were eventually moved into the sister hotel on the same site and finally got some sleep.

Not quite the smooth beginning we'd imagined.

Day Two – The Hunt Begins Properly

After relocating to a much nicer basic hotel, day two began in one of our favourite French supermarkets, Grand Frais, with a croissant, pain aux raisins and supplies for the van.

Then the proper hunting began - Our first stop produced some beautiful decorative French plates, including several furniture pieces that immediately caught our eye, plus a lovely terracotta platter decorated in wonderful greens and ochres with birds. We also spotted a rustic French farmhouse table, probably dating from around 1890–1920, with four chairs. It was beautifully weathered, but we weren't completely convinced. One of our rules when buying for Relish is that we both have to love it. If one of us isn't sure, we generally walk away, So we did.

The next warehouse we'd carefully pinpointed on the map no longer existed — one of the occupational hazards of antique buying — so we carried on to an indoor vide-grenier.

A vide-grenier is essentially the French equivalent of an attic clearance or car-boot sale, and although this one contained plenty of clothes and children's toys, persistence paid off. We found a lovely old oak wall-mounted coat rack with a shelf, ready for Shaun to restore and polish, and Amy discovered a beautiful old ironstone bowl with a floral border.

After a break from the heat, some admin and one of our favourite French supermarket salad lunches, it was back on the road. The afternoon's warehouses were slightly less productive. Plenty of pieces were simply too new for Relish, although we earmarked several pieces of furniture to reconsider if there was space later in the trip. We did, however, find three wonderfully oversized decorative fans featuring elephants, tigers and Chinese junks. They're real statement pieces — the sort of thing that could look fantastic hung over a bed.

And then there was that table be saw earlier in the day! We'd put it to a vote on Instagram and, after doing a little more research ourselves, decided the rustic farmhouse table we'd left that morning deserved another look. So we rushed back hoping it was still there. It needs work — including trying to correct a slightly bowed top — but that's exactly where our Shaun's skills comes in. Even better, while we'd been away, a pair of lovely bedside tables had arrived, along with another decorative plate. Sometimes going back really does pay off.

Then came the increasingly complicated game of antique-furniture Tetris. Tables, chairs and bedside tables all have legs, and legs create awkward spaces. Everything had to be carefully rearranged, protected and strapped into position. The van wasn't full yet, but we were making progress.

Day Three – A Garage, a Change of Plan & Some Brilliant Finds

Day three was supposed to be our busiest buying day, but instead, it started in a garage. A worrying noise had developed around the passenger side of the van and, by Wednesday morning, we decided it wasn't sensible to continue without having it checked. A local mechanic very kindly managed to fit us in at midday. After inspecting and cleaning the brakes, he believed dust was causing the noise and we were sent on our way.

Our carefully planned morning itinerary had disappeared, so we did what small-business owners tend to become quite good at doing - We changed the plan.

We squeezed an entire day's buying into one afternoon, and actually, we found some of our favourite pieces of the whole trip. There was a wonderful collection of Quimper plates, including one we believe could date back to the 18th century, with beautiful hand-painted details. We found a classic French oak cupboard with a drawer above, which will be stripped in our workshop to reveal a much lighter natural oak. Then came a lovely bobbin occasional table, probably originally intended to hold a jardinière. It needs repair, but its turned base and unusual proportions made it impossible to leave behind. We also found a small woodland oil painting before arriving at what was probably the largest antiques warehouse we've ever visited.

There we bought a wonderfully worn French upholstered armchair in faded blue velvet. We haven't quite decided what we'll do with it yet, we may strip it back to see what's hiding underneath, or we may preserve some of that lovely faded character.

More ceramics followed, along with Shaun's favourite purchase of the trip: a wonderfully naïve still-life oil painting of strawberries and cream. It's simple, rustic and charming — exactly the sort of artwork that would look completely at home in a kitchen.

Amy's favourite find that day was very different: a small, round, hand-thrown vase with a wonderful green glaze. Quiet, tactile and beautifully imperfect.

We also picked up an unusual grey confit jar without handles and, at a private house sale, a substantial dark oak chest of drawers with four drawers and column detailing.

By the end of the day, we were tired but very happy with what we'd found. There were receipts to organise, videos to edit and social-media messages to answer before bed — the less photogenic side of running an antiques business.

Day Four – One Last Push

By Thursday morning, the worrying noise from the van had returned. Nevertheless, we had a ferry to catch and two nearby private collections already arranged. First, we unloaded and repacked the whole of the van, spending around an hour creating every possible inch of additional space. Then we collected one of the standout furniture pieces of the trip: a beautiful Parisian oak sideboard from a florist in the middle of town. Our French and the seller's English were equally limited, but between us we made it work. The van couldn't be parked outside, so the sideboard had to be loaded onto our sack truck and wheeled from the florist, along the street and back to the van. Antique buying is nothing if not glamorous.

A private house collection followed, where a lady who was relocating sold us a beautiful dark-wood chest of drawers. At that point, we'd achieved our mission.

There was no floor space left in the van.

But apparently that doesn't necessarily mean there's no room left for antiques. On our way north towards Calais, we squeezed in one final warehouse when it opened at 2pm.

Shaun's final purchase was a wall-mounted coffee grinder decorated with a windmill, hand crank and little glass drawer. Amy found a zinc bucket, several coal scuttles, a small oil painting of a boat at sunset and one of the pressed botanical pictures she loves — although Shaun remains somewhat less convinced by those.

And that was it, four days of buying complete.

Homeward Bound… Sort Of

Before reaching Calais we'd completed all the necessary customs paperwork, organised our receipts and paid the appropriate VAT and duty for the stock we'd bought. After negotiating busy holiday passport control and customs, we boarded the ferry and decided we'd earned a treat: the P&O Club Lounge. After four days without a proper hot meal, sitting down somewhere quiet with food, a glass of Prosecco for Amy, a beer for Shaun and views across the Channel felt remarkably luxurious.

Unfortunately, much of the crossing was also spent talking to our breakdown recovery company. The van's noise had become progressively worse and we were not confident it was safe to drive 300 miles back to Devon. Once in Dover, we parked somewhere safe beside a Travelodge and spent several hours working out how two people and a very heavily loaded antiques van were going to travel nearly 300 miles back to Devon.

Eventually after a battle with our recovery insurance, the decision was made for us to stay overnight and have the van recovered the following morning. A glass of wine and a bed had rarely been more welcome.

At 7:30 the next morning, the recovery truck arrived. The current suspicion is that the problem is the driveshaft, and the van — containing almost the entire haul from our French buying trip — is now waiting for repair. Not exactly how we'd planned to finish the week.

So, Was It Worth It?

Yes. Ask us during the breakdown and the answer might have contained a few different & strong words, but after some sleep and a little perspective, absolutely yes.

We came home with a van packed with French antique furniture, rustic ceramics, artwork and decorative pieces that we're genuinely excited about & cant wait to get working on.

And this trip was about something bigger for Relish, too - We don't normally close the shop during the school holidays because they're traditionally one of our busiest periods. This year, however, things have been quieter following the damage to the road at Torcross. 

We decided to use the opportunity to invest in the next chapter of Relish - That means continuing to welcome customers to our shop, whilst also growing the collection available through our website and beginning to take Relish to more antiques fairs.

Because we're a small business without additional staff, there may occasionally be changes to our shop opening hours while we're away buying. We'll always make those clear in advance.

The original plan was actually to take some of this French collection to an antiques fair immediately after returning home, but the van had other ideas, so that particular fair will have to wait.

But the bigger plan hasn't changed. Once the van is repaired, we'll unload everything, get the furniture into the workshop and begin restoring, photographing and listing all those pieces online.

And then?

We'll book another ferry of course!! Because despite the delays, the hotel dramas, the disappearing warehouse, the garage visit, the breakdown and the rather expensive repair bill waiting for us, France delivered exactly what we'd hoped for: beautiful, characterful pieces that we're incredibly excited to bring to Relish.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who followed the trip through our social-media stories.

We received so many messages from customers, friends and fellow antique dealers checking that we were okay, offering encouragement and reminding us that we're certainly not the only small business navigating a challenging trading year.

The antiques world can be wonderfully supportive, and those messages genuinely meant a lot while we were sitting in France wondering whether the van was going to make it home. It did, Well… almost.

We'll be back with smiles on our faces, the shop doors open and a van full of French antiques to show you very soon when we can get to unload it!

And once we've recovered, we'll see you again soon France