a special kitchen ware brocante

Continuing to find ideas for those of you visiting France and looking for a good day out.  On the 13th  May next, in the beautiful town of Beaune, 3 hours south of Paris, there will be the annual sale and brocante event La Vaisselle des Chefs.

This is a charmingly French tradition, uniting the best restaurants in the area with the best antique and brocante dealers.  For the restaurants it is the opportunity to sell their crockery and cutlery that is due for renewal, and for the antique dealers a chance to meet with a specialised public, keen to buy anything culinary to embellish their kitchens at home.

On the website for the sale, you can even find a list of the Chefs de Cuisine  and the articles they will be contributing for sale.  We learn for example that one chef will be selling old hotel silver, another will be selling cutlery and table linen and that a château restaurant will be offering a service of porcelain decorated with their coat of arms.

I don't expect to get there that day , but if any of you make it, I would love to hear what you find: your very own culinary loot shoot!

kitchen design - the hood

via Belgian Pearls

Without wanting to put you off reading MFCH by giving you an overdose on reality, I have to tell you that the thing I hate doing most in my kitchen is cleaning the hood over my stove.  UGH, UGH and double UGH!

The easiest solution for never having to clean the kitchen hood is to simply stop cooking, but I mooted the idea here and it wasn't met with great approval so I have to move on to more clever options

With the impending and 10-year-overdue (did I already mention that?) kitchen remake here, the right design for a kitchen hood is concentrating my mind.

I'm thinking that at least if the thing could look almost elegant, then I may be reconciled to cleaning it with a smile, well OK a less broad smirk at least.

So what are your thoughts on the matter?   Do you favour the glass hood over the island, the sleek shine of steel, the traditional stone work ..... or

are you like me and do you prefer above all else a huge fireplace over the stove, as in the kitchen of our friends at the  Château d'Emalleville, which as you may remember happens to be one of my favourite (real) kitchens in the world .. well Normandy at least!

If you have a moment to give me your secrets on living in harmony with your kitchen hood, I would be happy to read and learn from every word,   merci mes amis!