Brocante hunting: come shop with me at my favorite thrift store

Bonjour everyone, welcome back to my channel. In this video I'm taking you back to September when Olaf and I went to our thrift store here Emmaüs, which you find everywhere in France, because we were looking for a couple of small pots to put some herbs in, in the vegetable garden. But I always take a tour around to see if I can find anything. This space outside is what they call They do not cover this when it rains, that's really awful to see sometimes. But the nice thing is that they put basically all the things they think aren't worth very much or don't sell very well. And this is actually where I find most of my best finds. Typically I like things that aren't modern, so people don't like it as much as I do, so they put it in the parking. And I really have found some beautiful gems here over the past three years. After this I'll also take you inside of course to discover more there, so please come along and shop with me at my local Emmaüs. And also please if you see anything that you would have picked up, please let me know down below in the comments. As you can see, this clearly isn't a curated offer, which is honestly what I like most about this place. I don't like shopping at Brocante as much as going here, because it feels like when I find something really nice here, it really feels like I found a treasure. This is by Sargemin, one of my favorite brands. And I actually explained a whole lot about how these brands work and how you can recognize them at the end of this video, so if you're interested be sure to keep watching until the end. You can tell I'm hesitating with this one. There are so many crocks like this, but this one has a very particular shape that I kind of like, so I think this is going home with me. See this crock right here allows us to see the difference between the two. The right one is actually very modern and mustard is still being sold in these crocks today. For our big kitchen, I recently found a vintage sink very similar to this one, just a little bit smaller. And I said to Olaf I found it online, because they never have anything like that at MAU's, so we were so surprised to find it here today. Although this one was too damaged, you items that they feel are worth more or wanted more. I have hardly ever picked anything up from this section. We've just gone up the stairs to the first floor where there's the vessel section. That's all the kitchen wears. And I often find some really nice items here. I'm still looking for nice champagne glasses or coupe for when we have honeymoon guests. I found really nice ones a couple of months ago, but our guests accidentally broke them, which is fine, that happens. And it gives me a reason to come back here and look for new ones, doesn't it? These glasses are crystal, it's crystal dark, and I don't think they realize because they usually put all the crystal glasses in another section. So we went to MAU's to find pots for Olaf for the vegetable garden and the greenhouse that he built. And there isn't really a lot of choice lately. We've been going there a couple of times in the past month or so, and we don't really find what he's looking for. We did find one, this one, and it's just a very simple one, but it'll do. And let me show you which other things I got, because I realize I hardly ever really show what I buy, I think, when I go to these MAU's or charity stores. I film a lot and I don't think I really show you what I got, so I'll do that this time. Here we go. So this is the pot that Olaf got for his plants. It looks horrible, but it's very functional. And this, I spotted this straight away. There's usually just so much junk, to be really honest, I don't know if you agree with me. And it's so easy to spot the real nice ones, because you can just see these vintage colors, they really stand out, because there's a lot of modern stuff in our MAU's. And I could see this was Sargamin straight away. And then when you look at the bottom, you can see it's Diguin Sargamin. I can't see what it's called. I could look that up if I wanted to know which model this is. It's a little, it looks a little more modern, so it looks a little more 50s, then I'll look it up. But I liked it. I just love to have many of these to store vegetables. And when you like cook a lot of salads and stuff, I have many and it's just nice. I love having all different ones. It's always just so fun to have so much color at your table. And these, I'm getting a lot of these lately. I think in one of my earlier videos, I said I wanted to remove as much plastic from my kitchen as I can. And these are so traditional. They're also Diguin. I don't know if you can see it. Yeah, so they're so, this is such a, yeah, it's so well known here in this region. So that's also why I like it. It's about maybe an hour and a half away from where we live. This is another one. I have many. You have to like them. I love just these natural colors. And then there was a few extra ones. So I found this one. See, all from the same. You find many here because they're made locally. Here the glaze seems to be broken, but this is just gorgeous to sit on the kitchen with some onions in it, maybe. And this one, they have recently started making these again. And then making the glaze with, in all these bright colors, like bright yellow, navy blue, bright green. This kind of looks like a newer one, although I don't think they make them in this color. I think they do have like cream, white. Anyway, I just love this because it looks so neat and clean. And then, well, just more of those. The last one in this color. And then I found this one. I just really liked the style of this one. Because I have many, but then the tops are always a bit the same. And I loved how this one was a little more elegant. And, you know, with a couple of spoons or kitchen utensils in it. So that is all what I have today. And nothing that I needed, but all very practical and will for sure be used and serve well in our kitchen that we're still building on the other side of this. But that's an update that I gotta keep for another vlog. I've been trying to figure out the name of this model and also the production date. And it made me think of something that I haven't shared before. So this particular, there's a couple of brands that make this French, these plates that I particularly like most. And one of them is Diguant Saint-Germain, because that is the majority of the styles that I like are produced in that name. Now, let me try to explain to you why it's sometimes so difficult to try to figure out the model and when it was made. And for that, I need to explain to you how this factory even came about. It started in 1790. So that's the end of the 18th century. When in Saint-Germain, which is in northeastern France, I forgot his name, I think it's Joseph something, started a factory. And a factory in Fayence making terre de fer, which is like the traditional version of these, which typically are white beige like ceramics with a one color pattern on them. So something like this. So not with all the colors like this one has. This is definitely later than this. So let me stick to the story. That was 1790. And it grew. And I think it at some point started to work with Villeroy & Boch as well. Well, I don't know how you pronounce that. That's how we say it in Dutch. And it grew and it grew. But I believe it's 1870 around that time, this part of France became German. It became part of Germany, which meant that for the factory to continue production in the site in Saint-Germain and selling also to France was more complicated. They say it had to do with customs and stuff. And so they decided to build two new factories in France, of which one in Diguin, which is about an hour and a half away, which is what I told you where these are still being made by the way. And so that is when I believe the name has been changed to Diguin Saint-Germain. Now this particular model, Roya, it's pretty well known, has only one color, which should tell us... Okay, let me do the disclaimer first. I love brocante. I'm not an antiques expert. I believe there's a huge difference between brocante, which is basically selling second-hand items, if you're a brocanteur, that you like just because you like the style of them, could be something quirky about them, you just love it, and that is how you just pick your items for your brocante. I believe an antiques seller or an antiques expert is way more about understanding what it is exactly that you're selling, knowing all about how things are made, the history of the brands, the dates, the value, and it's a very different value than brocante. So I just started doing all this since Moving to France because I love it so much. I definitely don't have the knowledge of an antiques expert. And anyway, I was talking about Roya, and as you can see, this is called Saint-Germain. So this doesn't have the name of Diguin in it. This is definitely older. I believe this dates back to the early 20th century, so that should be somewhere 1910, 20. Another way to try to figure out what date things were made and what the brand is and everything is to look at the logo. So the stamps that are under your plates, usually they should be on there. This one has one, but the name is wrong, which is why I can't figure out what it is. But the stamps change, and that also tells you a little bit about when they must have been made. It is difficult to find online. I've been doing a lot of research to really, really be very specific about when exactly all those logos changed, and it doesn't seem to be very chronological. So it seems to be like, okay, from 1900 to 1920, it was this one, like with a big square, and then the name, and then Saint-Germain below, and then say 1920, 1950, it was this. And as you can see, it's already quite different. But this was definitely after 1870, when it turned into Diguan Saint-Germain. This doesn't have Diguan. Saint-Germain continued making files in Saint-Germain even after it was taken over by the Germans, or that part of France became German. They did continue for some time. They don't anymore. That factory is closed. So this, and I actually see this quite a lot, because this one's written like this, but so is this one. So I can tell, if I hold these, like you see this one, and then you see this one, you can see that the stamp is the same. And here you can read Touraine very clearly in the stamp, and this one in that should be a rectangle, that said the name at some point, and it just doesn't show us the name. I do believe, though, that whenever they started using multiple colors, that is more recent. Also, the difference that I think I see between these two is that this is transferware. This is a print that's been transferred onto paper, and then onto the plate, and then baked, or however you say that. This seems to be hand-painted. You can see there is some structure on it, so this is definitely a different style. You also see this particular style, a very well-known model. Gun is what it's called, and again you can see it has that same type of logo. This is a more classic blue and red, and they've made many different ones that look all a lot like this. I really, really like this style. That is what I wanted to show you, so that I could help you figure that out. As you can see, these two prints, for example, are very much alike, but this one's called Touraine, and this one's called Paradis, so they're not the same. Also, the detail in the rim looks very similar, so just to give you a feeling for how complicated it sometimes actually feels. Now, honestly, my all-time favorite is these, these typical transferwares. These are just the older ones that I really, really appreciate. I have a huge set of this. Anyway, so when you're hunting for anything Polka, my best tip and advice to you, really honestly, would be, especially if you're buying for yourself, to just buy what you like. Don't worry too much if you're paying too much for it, or if you're getting a good deal, or whether it's worth anything. Honestly, I buy what I like. I don't always know if it's a good brand. It usually will have a stamp. It will always have a stamp. Sometimes you can't read it, but it will have a stamp. If you want to do research what you can do while you're in the store, Google, and you'll find online shops that tell you what they sell it for. But then again, honestly, when I sell something in my shop, I just sell it for the price I think it's worth. Maybe also sometimes how much time it took me to even find it. I know, for example, this particular model, Graziella, I have a client that bought many of this, and I had like hollow plates, big plates, and then I found smaller plates, and actually sent her. And as you've seen, I have eight small breakfast plates now that I got, because I thought you might be interested. If not, I'll sell them to someone else, and she really, really wanted them. So sometimes I just know that, because she said it was so hard to find them, she'd been looking everywhere, and this is not typically a model that I buy. I'm not typically into these bright colors, and especially not the golden details. That's just not what I usually buy. I like this. I really like this. So don't worry about it. If you feel this is something that you want for your house, and you love it, then that is what it's worth to you. And of course, you can sometimes find something that's very rare, that maybe could be worth a fortune. I'm not in it to make a fortune. I'm in it for the love of these old beautiful, beautifully decorated plates, and just the love of this tradition from France. Before I close this video, I wanted to share with you this gorgeous chair that I found, not while I was at Emmaus. This is months later, just online on Leboncoin. It is a true tournée, and I've been looking for these forever. It's hard to find a set, but I found this one for only 25 euros, somewhere in somebody's barn, really close to where we live. Olaf will need to put in some new screws to make it more stable, but I absolutely love it. This is what I mean when I love finding something that is not at a brocante, or somewhere curated, where somebody else has had the pleasure of finding it. Anyway, thank you so much for shopping with me today. I hope you liked it. Please do let me know what you've taken from this video, or what you would have picked up, and I'll see you in the next one.