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Treasure hunt in the Northern Vosges

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From Bombay via Lourdes

In the barns and the many nooks adjoining the Alsatian farmhouse where Théophile and Sophie have moved in with their children; religious icons, earthenware and chinoiserie huddle together in cleverly organized mounds... Because by choosing to leave the city for a rural village of 400 inhabitants in 2008, the couple realized their dream: to live a in accordance with his passion for worthless treasures, for forgotten marvels; one of those where the small, strange and colorful things are the most important. “Our house is an old farm (barns, hangar, barn, beet cellar, pigsty, chicken coop, etc.) on land planted with fruit trees, large trees and crossed by a small stream on the edge of the village, explains Sophie. When we bought it, it had been uninhabited since the 90s. Its roof was gutted and the water before ruined the floors... There was no water, no electricity, no heating. A stonecutter friend spotted door and window frames dating from the renaissance, from the 17th century. The lintel of one of the barns bears the date 1848 engraved, and the most recent development work in some rooms was carried out in the 1950s.

Chunky sweaters and rain boots are the two must-haves for autumn walks in Weinbourg!

"Magic Brocante is a pretext to collect and share our passion. We love discrepancies, confusion of genres, colors and eras. It has to sing!"

It is in this decor at the crossroads of many eras that the couple's collection, itself highly variegated, is exhibited: here, there are no designer pieces or industrial furniture. The duo agrees around a notion full of “fake” vintage, tinged with an admiration for traditional cultures and “ignobly beautiful” jerry , as Théophile so aptly qualifies them. Both were introduced to the art of china from an early age: “With my mum we did the bulky items, with my dad we did the landfills, remembers Sophie. With the Parisian grandmother we talked about beautiful objects and we went to museums. With my great aunt in a small village in the Marne, I went to the attic of the farm to search and find treasures, old baskets and prams... Magic Brocante is a pretext for collecting and sharing our passion. We love discrepancies, confusions of genres, colors and eras. It must sing! Ever since I was little, I have loved taking walks in cemeteries, for example. So much beautiful ironwork, wreaths of ancient pearls, first names, angels, past lives and stillness. And then there are those flowers. Especially those that are thrown away! The large bins are for me like the floats of the flower parades of the Belle Epoque in which I can help myself and plan to make wonderful decorations. »

In the living room, the "Magic Brocante" alchemy works: Alsatian antiques and a cocktail of colorful vintage decades!

And Théophile agrees in his own way: “In the village where I spent my holidays when I was young, there was a scrap dealer whose mess exercised a very strong fascination on me that I still feel today. I remember wandering through the maze of old furniture and rusty objects piled up in the yard, I was in heaven... When we visited our future home with Sophie, we immediately fell in love. It had been abandoned for a long time, the remains were full of poetry, and there was a huge pile of car wrecks from the 1930s in the barn! I like rusty cars, flat tires, tired, full of cobwebs and dust as if they were discovered by opening an old door. This state affects me a lot. We feel the time that has passed and is no longer. I find their wings, their handles, and all the accessories so sculptural... We can not throw away objects that have become obsolete but rather recognize their charm and their usefulness; recognize the beauty of an old plastic basin or a dubious religious painting...»

Inveterate collectors hunting everywhere and all the time, even when travelling, the two spouses quickly had to find a solution to put part of their exponentially growing collection back into circulation: Magic Brocante was then born in 2018. This was to free up space has quickly become a pleasure and Théophile readily admits that packing and shipping orders gives him the impression of celebrating Christmas every day!

Sophie's collection of faux graveyard flowers fill the barns and outbuildings of the house...

Sophie and Théophile with Minuit, the recently adopted Giant black hen from Jersey, and the quince jam made this fall

"We are not going to erase the history of the forge, but to underline it and leave the traces of this activity anchored in the walls."

Nature and eco-museum lodge

This sensitivity to ecological ramifications will soon see the birth of a new large-scale project, because this green living environment in which Romeo (12 years old), Gretel (11 years old) and Magic Brocante were born, also allowed an idea to germinate. The couple want to make this everyday life that is so dear to them accessible to their future visitors, and will open an eco-museum lodging in an old forge adjoining their house by the summer of 2025 . motivated to dare to leave the city: it is invaluable to us. Our children can walk alone, ride bikes, build huts, and play outside all the time! We see the seasons pass, the trees bloom and we slide in winter. It's silly, it's simple, it's a real pleasure...” says Sophie.

“When we look for a house to spend the holidays, explains Théophile, we always try to find a place that has hardly been renovated, a place where you can feel the passage of time. Too many gites are renovated in a functionalist way, and comfort stifles the sensitivity and poetry of the place, he laments. We want, on the one hand, to safeguard the forge and the atmosphere of the district, and, on the other hand, to restore it while trying to respect it. For more than ten years, we have immersed ourselves in this country life. It took us all this time to settle in and now we are starting to create. We have come to a kind of maturity to give back and share what we have received here. »

Théophile's vintage cars sunbathe under the barn

On the left, the old forge whose renovations begin in the fall of 2022, and on the right, the stairwell built by Théophile to create a large entrance of light in their small dark Alsatian house.