One of my dear readers, Colette, has just dipped her toes into blog land! Hailing from

the intriguing world of South Africa, dripping with talent and good taste, on a steady

diet of all things French, and currently rifling through the brocantes in Chateauroux

with her husband and adorable daughter, Colette is a natural with her camera,

capturing exactly what I want to see as if I was peering over her shoulder or elbowing

her out of the way for a choice piece of French linen. The photos of her home in South

Africa are incredible. I love the expectant feeling captured as furniture is unwrapped,

ladders still scaling the upper reaches of her gorgeous vaulted and beamed ceilings.

Last November Colette sent me a charming email…

Dear Trish, I discovered your blog by chance one evening and just simply forgot everything
around me...it was like picking up this most wonderful book and being transported into
 another world...so inspiring and so reliable- I receive your feed every eve at almost
the same time -  between 10pm and 11pm in South Africa....so it is my relax and enjoy
 moment....my last thoughts and the best bedtime story to fall asleep with and dream on
.....gosh that sounds soppy, but just love your blog! congrats on your 200th!
kind regards from another francophile....way down South..
 

What perfection in a photo: the symmetry of the arched tall windows,

the French parquet floor, nuanced cafe au lait walls,  the glistening globes

of crystal dripping down from the ceiling’s enormous height…

We’ve exchanged many emails since and I’m so excited that she’s taking this leap…

Like so many of us, she is an amazing woman, with a wonderful and unique

perspective towards the beauty in her world and the desire to reach out and share it….

In one of her first posts at  La Brocanteuse Colette writes:

Both my husband (de Villiers – Nel) and myself(nee-Marais) descend from the French Huguenots that

arrived in South Africa in 1685. These French Huguenots that fled France when the edict of Nantes

was repealed , settled in the Western Cape,  most of them in the wine regions of Stellenbosch, and a

little village not far from where we live now, called Franschoek (if you translate this directly:

“French corner”). My maiden name was Marais- we traced it  all the way back  to this little village

between  valleys and mountains in the Luberon.

A wonderful start…the first step is always the hardest!

A glimpse into yet another beautiful world…

Visit La Brocanteuse here…

Tag along while she travels through

the south of France…and be sure to say hello!