Who doesn't love a parade?

On Easter Saturday last year, we drove into the town of Sommieres to shop its weekly flea market. Hearing distant music, we followed the sound to a brass band playing on the quai. And in France, where there's music, people dance.




Suddenly we heard music and drums coming from a different direction and found ourselves in the middle of a parade.








Even an elaborate float from the Maison de Retraite, the town's retirement home.


Only this lonely and stressed dog failed to catch the spirit of the fete.


In a couple of weeks we'll be back in Sommieres for the Saturday market. We won't be surprised if there is a parade or a band playing on the quai. But my real hope is to see my dog again.

Why a chambre d'hote

instead of a hotel? First of all, hotels in hamlets are often less than comfortable. A chambre d'hote may be a single room in a private home or one in a separate guest wing. The architectural details of these often historic buildings offer delightful surprises and the furnishings far surpass what could be expected in a hotel in the same price range and locale.



Saint George fighting the dragon is one of many carvings on the front of this 12th Century abbey in Saint Arnoult
(click on image to see better view of the carving)





The host at an ancient mill has built a viewing platform inside the room that holds the waterwheel.





Rooms are usually large and reflect local style, here with beamed ceiling, stone walls and tile floors.







And then there are these floors...














Visits from the house dog or cat are free.













But one of the greatest attractions of a chambre d'hote is the generous hospitality of the hosts. Without exception, these are people who delight in sharing their homes and their communities. Unlike the anonymity of staying in a hotel, we have left every chambre d'hote with the sense of having acquired a new friend in a land that is now less strange.

It all began

one July at the Palmer-Wirf antique show in Portland, Oregon. I overheard two dealers talking about this 'fabulous' antique market in country France. Actively eavesdropping for details, I finally insinuated myself into their conversation and learned about Barjac, a village on the westernmost border of Provence, where a large antique market materializes twice a year, at Easter and at the mid-August Fete d'Assomption. We were in the habit of visiting Paris once a year for antique and food events, and I thought to myself, "We can do this!" "This" was the beginning of what would become an obsession with country antique markets, remote villages and France's wonderful system of bed-and-breakfasts known as chambres d'hotes.
The market as seen from the bedroom window of our chambre d'hote in Barjac.

You are invited

to walk in our footprints through France, vicariously visit remote villages and flea markets, be on the lookout for the unexpected, enjoy the hospitality of under-the-radar lodging, the conviviality of an evening meal shared at your hosts' table. Sometimes discoveries will be closer to home but they will always be special places off the beaten track.