When I was a kid school started on September 1st, and we got to buy all the new books, notebooks, pens and pencils. Now I still get excited and buy myself a few stationery things but the real happiness comes from the garden tasks that can be accomplished only in the fall.

It is the almost the end of the summer and the house is basically finished. With a few tweaks here and there, and the work on the laundry room scheduled for September, we now have this house for ourselves to live in and enjoy.

As is always the case I have too many favorites to mention in this post. After all I impose my own limit of three. And there's always the questions, what might interest my readers?

On the first visit I really liked the house and its potential, but the garden was a proverbial "cherry on top".

As I am writing our first summer in Bourgogne is slowly fading. It is early September, we wake up to cold mornings, cobwebs in the garden,

The same evening I told my husband "you have to see this house"

Once you have bought (or fell in love with) your first ironstone piece, the obsession to collect it starts. Plates, sugar bowls, tureens...

Walking through a French flea market you will notice heaps of beautifully embroidered vintage and antique linen sheets, kitchen towels...

And by "lavender country" I mean Provence, bien sûr! We spent a few days in the area of Gorge du Verdon, in the Alps de Haute Provence...

If you have been following me here for a while, you know that brocante is my life - I dream, live and breath "les puces"...

What defines the style that has been around for ages? When asked what is exactly French Country style, I picture natural wood, stone walls.