Tagged: French traditions
French antique furniture styles guide pt 1
Most of the French antique furniture Frenchfinds supplies are from the late 1800s or early 1900s. Almost all of these items are made in certain in style harking back to definitive earlier periods of French furniture design.
From the 1830s, starting with Gothic and Rococo revivals, it became more and more popular to reinvent these styles to fit the tastes of the day. As tastes blended and fashions became more mixed up, motifs from eras cross-fertilised the craftmanship changing furniture from true reproductions to interpretations to please clients of the time.
In order to help understand these categories we have put together a quick guide to the antique French furniture styles we sell. Below are the first 3 categories in the series – Rococo, Henri II and Louis XVI.
Provencal, Napolean III, Empire, Louis XV, Louis XIII, Breton and Louis Phillipe styles will be covered in forthcoming posts.
Happy April Fish Day! The French version of April Fools Day
Children tape paper fish to their friends’ backs and when the young “fool” finds out, the person shouts “Poisson d’Avril!”
The Independent in an article today indicates that the origins of April Fools could be linked back to the French change to the Gregorian calendar, “Still, whether it’s true or not, one popular tale dates the tradition to 1564, when France formally changed its calendar to the modern Gregorian version, and thereby moved the celebration of the New Year from the last week of March to 1 January. In this version of events, those who continued to celebrate the end of New Year’s Week on 1 April were derided as fools – or, as they are known in France, poissons d’Avril.”
It is not known exactly why a fish is used but there are several possibilities:
- It is in the zodiac sign of Pisces, the fish
- It is in the period of lent when traditionally it is not permitted to eat fish.
- Confusing a simpleton by offering a fish at a time of year when fishing was in fact band
Everything points the fact though that what ever traditions you take to across Britain, France, America or the rest of the world the whole place goes as mad as a fish!
