French Flea Market Finds
Gathering Antiques and Friendship

By Corey Amaro

When I was a kid, one of my mother's favorite things to do was to take my four brothers and me to find treasures at the junkyard. At that time, there used to be a gravel pit outside of town where many people went to dump their junk and garbage. Illegal now, but acceptable then. The gravel pit was enormous; it was deep, damp, and if you looked around the pit's edge, often you could spy treasures popping up like mushrooms. Cheap entertainment, loads of fun, as we piled junk up in the back of the pickup and drove home.

My mom had a knack for taking things and turning them into creative vignettes. She put flowers in canning jars and planted flowers in zinc buckets that had been discarded. She was a Recycling Queen before recycling was a word. I grew up thinking that home decor came from what you could find, not from what you could buy in shops.

Before my father died last year, my mother had been planning to open a small shop with her friend Holly. Last October, they opened their shop called "Gathering: better junque."

Holly has the same eye for gathering things as my mother. Though the junk yard is no longer their hunting ground, they have a passion for primitive style. They like everything country: checked, cotton, wool, animal sculptures, scales, white ironstone, tin stars, baskets, worn-off painted furniture, pie safes, grain bins, pull handles, dish towels, zinc buckets.... They even have baked goods on the counter to share with their friends.

With each season, the decor of their shop changes.

If you are in Northern California or passing through, I hope you will stop by their shop and say hello. My mother has met a few of you already and that makes her day even brighter.

Photo: Corey's Mom's Shop

Corey Amaro is an American living in the south of France. Her blog (Tongue in Cheek, Living in France & French Antiques, The way I see it) can be read at http://willows95988.typepad.com/. Her email address is coreyamaro@aol.com
(Photos, courtesy Corey Amaro.)