Perhaps the only thing better than touring the great castles of Europe is being able to shop in them. On our recent trip to Belgium Bob and I were at an antique fair early one morning. The weather was dreadful and it began to rain so all the dealers were packing up and heading home. One of my favorite dealers doesn't speak English and I don't speak French, yet we spoke the same language: antiques!! We discovered he was charged with cleaning out the horse stable and barn of a castle and I saw the COOLEST French and Belgian antiques and they were all FOR SALE!! The only problem is that we had purchased so much at the antique fair that there wasn't much room left on the bus. But alas, we re-packed, pushed and shoved and - VOILA- we were able to load 12 shutters (from the castle, no less!), a bench, French farm table, 200+ French books, 300 French terracotta garden tiles, and a few other cool objets de art. Did I mention that I LOVE being a European antique picker???
