Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

Penning a Fall Tableau…

Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, dear friends! Our friend Cindy from County Road 407 finds a photo for us to use each month as our inspiration piece. This month we have been challenged to create a beautiful fall vignette…

If you are just coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home to French Ethereal for the first time, welcome! I am so glad you are here and hope you consider following my blog and my other media channels.

My living room is fresh and clean with the fall cleaning I began just a couple of weeks ago, and I’m happy to share a small corner of it with you today: our lovely library/tea table over by our western facing back windows which overlook our backyard. 🙂

So, let’s get to our inspiration!

Vintage inspiration

I totally love this fall-styled table from Katie Wood at The Cottage Journal magazine, who shared this vignette as part of homeowner Gloria Parker’s antique-filled home built in the 1830’s. There is sooo much autumnal goodness here!

Gloria’s table is artfully arranged with a double-handled olive oil jar, which I learned during this challenge is called a confit jar which is filled with orange winterberry vine. A stack of vintage books, a lovely autumn-colored soup tureen, plus several prettily framed portraits add to the scene! Oooh, I just noticed she copied the pot’s look in the shorter soup tureen with its double handles as I took in a second pass over her photograph. Don’t you just love “repeats” in decor?

Just brings everything together… 🙂

A bit more fall is woven into this vignette with several tiny cream pumpkins and a few fall leaves. Love the monochromatic look!

The orange winterberry branches definitely lend their fall touch to the vignette and set the color scheme. The pumpkins add a festive look and set the scene squarely around October and Halloween time, at least in my opinion.

My tableau

Our vignette begins with finding something along the lines of those winterberries…

I found faux ones at Hobby Lobby but they were a bit pricey so I opted instead for soft autumn flowers in peach and pale yellow paired with creamy pussy willows.

How to Make Your Own Fall Foliage Vase

I arranged these florals in a French vase to mimic the winterberries in the olive oil jar from our inspiration photograph.

A sheet of heavy paper packed around the stems keeps the florals upright (what the cashier wrapped these stems with). I would have used chicken wire but forgot that I had some out in the garden shed. 😉

Pieces of green moss tucked in around the top hide the paper edges and give the vase a finished look.

As you can see, creating a little area for penning a note to a loved one is really showcased with the soft fall colors in our floral bouquet!

I’ve added my signature maiden statue for added height and its soft chalkware hue, plus more whites in a vanilla-scented candle, then a creamware mug of hot tea, play up the creams of the sweetly soft pussy willows.

The little brown jug with its little friar or monk stopper is a prohibition piece which belonged to my father’s mother and father. It plays “How Dry I Am” and it still works! This jug is another nod to the beautiful olive oil jar from Katie’s stylings for the Cottage Journal.

To the other side of our library table, I’ve added a small stack of books in soft fall colors of russet, gold, cream and a pale sky blue. Two fabric pumpkins nestle into the scene just like in our inspiration piece and add more texture to this vignette.

One vintage framed card set inside a gilded frame I’ve had since high school helps complete the tableau. After I began photographing, I remembered this little pewter candle snuffer and added it to my tablescape.

I did indeed use it to put out the candle when I was done. 🙂

The rest of the story

And here is our full fall vignette ready for me to finish writing this notecard. An old favorite story about Hazel the rabbit and her many friends in Watership Down waits to be picked up and read some more. Not a bad recreation, is it? I’m happy with this fall styling.

Thanks for stopping by today, everyone! Up next is Kim from Cottage in the Mitten whose fall vignette is absolutely stunning with her signature blue books! Do stop by and check out all of the other wonderful fall tablescapes shared today… 🙂

Thank you to Cindy for gathering us all together again! Love being part of the Pinterest Challenge crew…

Past fall PC tours you might enjoy…

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Enjoy the tour, blessed friends,

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Home Decor

Share Your Style #404

Bonjour, mes amis! Bienvenue a Share Your Style #404!! I’m watching a new favorite vlog on YouTube called XO Macenna and she and her fiancé and mother over in Paris right now. Totally excited to see a flea market (brocante) on her channel since Amy and I didn’t get to any when we were there. We missed one by one weekend…. Next time!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Well, last weekend I was down in Corsicana, Texas, for an IOOF meeting. Was a good event but I am glad it is over! 😉 My mother-in-law went with me and she prepared the luncheon ~ which is her specialty and heart, really. We enjoyed eating out and an ice cream treat stop at Braum’s down there. I took Gini over to a women’s dress shop called Cato, and we had fun checking out all of the clothing there. I tried on a super cute blue jean jacket but it was too big. I did find a nice deep green long-sleeved shirt for fall and that came home with us. Oh! And we stopped by Buc-Ees in Ennis (about 20 miles north of Corsicana) and we found some fall Buc-Ees t-shirts for the season. I think that makes the 18th Buc-Ees t-shirt I own… 😉 TRUTH!

I’m still working on painting and varnishing the buffet so no new posts yet for you. Still has a cigarette or old wood smell… Might be painting the whole thing. And that’s okay as I like white painted furniture anyway. Just this little update here. 🙂

Well, let’s get to the party!

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

Our first entry this week is all about snacking ~ Sunday Afternoon with Cookies from Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland are the perfect early fall treat (okay, any time of year, lol!). Yum!!!
No photo description available.
Michelle from Weddings by K’Mich shared this precious pup from her Facebook post and blog post ~ Dogs in Your Wedding Don’t Have to Be Hard. Adorable floral collars!!! Soooo happy Michelle figured out a way that allows me to share her photos (Facebook) and posts with you! <3
Niky from The House on Silverado shared her Cozy Fall Bedroom. Love the grey floral with the cream, tan and beautiful green headboard! Stunning!!!
summer-planter
Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz shares her lovely fall garden ~ Updated Curb Appeal: Landscape, Front Pad & Sidewalk. Looking just soooo pretty!!!
Lois from Walking on Sunshine Recipes, who is a newcomer to SYS, brings us these delicious looking Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Jar recipe… Seriously, I am in need of pumpkin spice yummies! How about you??? Welcome, Lois! Glad you are here!!
40 USA October Vacation Ideas
Dave and Jamie from Photo Jeepers shared 40+ October Vacation Ideas in the US by Region. I am sooooo there!!! Ready to get out of town for a real fall tour…
Completed set of homemade wands laying on a greenery.
Perfect to make with your kids and grands!! Newcomer Darcy from Darcy & Brian shared how she made these adorable wands for her little trick or treaters. 🙂
Welcome, Darcy and Brian!! Glad you are here. <3
How to Make a Wizard Wand Out of a Stick.
Fall front porch with fall tree, lanterns and pumpkins
Wendy from WM Design House brings us this luscious fall entryway in her post ~ 35 Fall Front Porch Decorating Ideas on a Budget. Is your porch all ready for the season? Or are you like me and you are just waiting for pumpkins to arrive at the local garden center and church bizarres. Pretty!
Our final entry for this week comes from Debra over at Common Ground who shares this fun post ~ Book Page Pumpkin {Fall} Candle Covers. Lovely!!!

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Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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A bietôt, y’all!

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crafts, Home Decor, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #403 & a Formal Apology…

Hello, dear friends, and welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #403! For those of you who were here last week, we found out the source of the cigarette smell… My family member is vindicated and I must make a public apology. There was no hidden vaping/smoking involved.

Turns out that the new-to-me buffet must have been from a smoker’s home as it was leaching odors into our home. A combination of really high heat with temps up to 109 F. (111 F. on the heat index) and high humidity, the move from the kitchen to the living room, and two ceiling a/c vents blowing on it caused the whole mess. Made me very sick and caused me to smell smells and accuse this family member of maybe taking up vaping. I have since apologized but I need to “clear the air “with you, too. Please forgive my not trusting this sweet person and thinking the worst…

And I thought the buffet was smoke-free… (think “eye roll!”) Boy, was I wrong!!!

It is now in the garage and in the process of being revarnished and painted inside. If that doesn’t take care of the problem, I’ll have to sell it.

Bummer as I really like the buffet, just not the smoke odors.

But, I love my family more. 🙂 💜 

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

So, after all the mad cleaning, washing walls with white vinegar and baking soda (works great for taking off grease!), steaming other walls, trying to figure out why my throat burned, having eyes that were constantly watering, having a house smelled like an ashtray… Washing every object in our spare bedroom/office and cleaning massive amounts of bedding, pillows, etc. around the clock… Plus some carpet cleaning…

It took almost two weeks of wondering WHY the smell was worse in the evening than in the morning… No clue, on my part…

It finally dawned on me that it must be the buffet. As soon as Mr. Ethereal and I moved the buffet outside to begin airing out, the inside of the house became noticeably less stinky! Two days later there was no residual smell in the house. Yeah!

So, with all that, I have documented working on the buffet and some of the house cleaning. Lol, on the bright side ~ most of the fall cleaning is done! 😉 I’ll share that soon… Once I figure out if the buffet gets to stay or go. 😉

Let’s check out this week’s featured posts, shall we?

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

Our first entry this week is this lovely table created by Sandra from Dinner at Eight ~ Setting the Table for Early Autumn ~ just lovely!!
A bouquet of Halloween rice crispy treats.
Too cute!!! Perfect for all those little creatures who will be stopping by on All Hallows Eve, newcomer Ann from Ann’s Entitled Life shares these adorable munchies ~
Easy Halloween Rice Krispie Treats Recipe. Love ’em!! Welcome, Ann!
keto pumpkin bread sliced slathered with butter
Aren’t y’all ready for baking season? This Easy Keto Pumpkin Bread recipe from newcomer
Hilda from Fit to Serve looks just delicious!! Welcome, Hilda!!
The five things every collected fall home needs to have.
Jamie from Anderson + Grant shares 5 Things Your Rooms Need to Have This Fall Decorating Season. Yes!!!!
Really cool idea for fall is this Repurposed Spoon Racks idea from Lisa at Fresh Vintage by Lisa. Really fun idea!!!
Fall DIY dried  Floral arrangemnt on the wall
One last entry from Wendy at WM Design House who shares How to Make the Prettiest Dried Floral Wall Arrangement. Love this!!!

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Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party and Happy Fall, y’all!

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Home Decor, Thrift Shop Finds

Share Your Style #402

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style, dear friends! I’m sorry I didn’t get this up for you yesterday but I’ve been carpet cleaning and washing everything that is fabric based. We had our lovely guest here the weekend before Labor Day, and…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Apparently we have a closet smoker in the family… 🙁 Not happy! Anyway, we are having to steam walls, ceilings, and I just think how I hope I don’t have to repaint over what I have just painted this past year, plus the previous years. I don’t have the strength (or time!).

Anyway, this is why I haven’t been very prompt the past couple of weeks (and when we picked up the new truck). But the house is getting better. 🙂 Might be getting new carpeting sooner rather than later. Will keep you updated!

Now let’s get this party started!

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Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

An Early Fall Buffet with a Move to the Living Room ~ one of my first fall posts of the season! Yeah!!

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week we have Shopping an Estate Sale from Lynne at Thrifting Wonderland. Great finds! I know you will love checking out what all Lynne found.
tie dye kimono, Fireside Collective kimono, maxi skirt as a dress, thrifted style, DIY, rope sandals, boho style, festival style, Shelbee on the Edge
Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge is back and she has The Coolest Outfit to share with us all! You’ll find her blogpost here: Weekend Fun at Stony Fork Music Festival & Spread the Kindness Linkup. Sounds like fun! (pardon the pun) 😉 Perfect for an end-of-summer trip!

Shelbee also hosts a monthly Life Imitates Art post linkup and you’ll find her Holly Hobby one here: SIA Gallery of Style ~ “Blue Girl” by Holly Hobbie. More great outfits and beautiful art!

old barn
Debra from Gma’s Photo shares a love of old barns and abandoned buildings with us this time ~
Old Barn. Love this week’s huge variety of posts!!!
Pumpkin cold foam coffee
Newcomer Nicolle from Our Tiny Nest shares this delicious recipe for all you coffee drinkers (tea for me, but Mr. E loved coffee!) ~ How to Make Pumpkin Cold Foam Coffee. Looks wonderful! Welcome Nicolle!!! 🙂
Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Blog shares a fun Late Summer/Early Fall Apples & Sunflower Kitchen, Final Part 2023. Really fun! Sooooo ready for fall…
Fall candle in a glass hurricane with acorns. This hurrican vase is sitting inside of a wooden lantern with faux fall stems.
Our final entry for this week is from Wendy at WM Design House who brings us this natural tablescape in her post ~ 10 Simple Fall Decorating Ideas with Hurricane Glasses. Love all of it!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Happy almost fall, y’all!

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Home Decor

An Early Fall Buffet With a Move to the Living Room

Happy September, dear friends! We had slightly cooler temps this past week ~ down into the lower 90’s. With that, I’ve begun a little fall cleaning around the house. So nice to bring in a little fall color around the house.

When Gramma Gini and I brought the buffet home, it ended up under the kitchen bar in our dining room. Seemed like a good place for it at the time.

I began a post with this crystal bowl I inherited from my mother, who inherited it from her mother, my Grammy Helen. She inherited it from her mother who had a bunch of crystal pieces. Back in the 1930’s or so, Julia had to sell many of the pieces because back then you were taxed on the number of things you owned.

Sounds weird, but true! Kinda like when people were taxed on the number of windows they had in their houses. (I think that was in England.)

She kept four crystal pieces and each of her children were blessed to inherit one piece.

Anyway, I never finished the post. 😉 This simple bowl of dried hydrangea blooms looked good on the buffet!

Over the long weekend, I asked Mr. Ethereal if he would move the new buffet from the dining room into the living room for me.

Decorating the Buffet in the Living Room

I started with this fall table runner I found earlier in the summer at Home Goods. It is perfect with the soft cream pumpkins added around the hydrangea bowl.

An addition of a vanilla scented candle on a nubby clear glass candleholder was the perfect finishing touch.

And even though the rest of the living room is in cleaning chaos, it’s nice to have a bit of fall here on the buffet!

How is your fall decorating going?

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Happy September, everyone!

crafts, DIY Projects, Fashion, Home Decor

Share Your Style #401

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #401, dear friends! Last week, of course, I was at the Dodge dealer picking up our new Ram Longhorn truck. It’s a beauty and will be what we take into retirement in a number of years. 🙂

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

No posts for me this week again. Our daughter Amy was here and we spent the weekend hanging out with her and my mother-in-law. For the first time in two months, we had a day in the low 90’s so it was nice to cook in the kitchen, then sit down and have a family meal together. 🙂 And we went out to dinner one of the other nights Amy was here! Wish she lived closer…

I do want to put together some fall posts, it’s just getting them done. 😉 Let’s look at what you’ve done, now…

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week we have Penny of Penny’s Treasures who shares her beautiful hallway here in this post ~ My First Fall Floral Design Features Pink Sunflowers. Lovely!
How to Decorate a Glass Vase with Twine
Carol from Bluesky at Home shared this easy tutorial on How to Decorate a Glass Vase with Twine. Super cute for fall!!
butterfly-bee-theme-wreath-close-up
I love this sweet wreath from Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz! Easy Refurbished Butterfly & Bee Themed Wreath. Fresh fun for the season!!
bookcase makeover
Robin from Junk is My LIfe brings us this awesome furniture redo ~ Bookcase Makeover. Love it!!!
trinny woodall advice
Newcomer Nicole from Mom Fever shares this funny fashion forward post ~
Houston, We Have a No Waist Situation! Love Nicole’s outfit tucked in and out!!
Welcome, Nicole!
101 in 1001
And something yummy for our upcoming fall baking season, Debra from Gma’s Photo shares this post ~ Bake a Treat for Neighbors. Wonderful blessing!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party,

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Fashion, Home Decor

Share Your Style #400

Happy Wednesday, friends! Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #400!! I jumped in on SYS #189, I believe. Then, I took over as sole host shortly after in February 2019 on SYS #197. It’s fun to be here at #400 now. 😉

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

I am working on an early fall post but it isn’t ready yet, so no post from me to share this week. Our family room’s painting is almost complete (what I’ve been doing on the weekends since school began), and Mr. Ethereal and I have been looking to replace our 18 1/2 year-old SUV so we have been out for several test drives.

All this to say that I haven’t been working on blogging much though lots of things are getting done.

However, this week is all about getting ready for fall. let’s look at this week’s featured posts. 🙂

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

fall decor
We start this week off with MaryJo from Master”Pieces” of My Life who has gathered together
Fall Decor Ideas for a Beautiful Autumn Season. Love all the inspiration for the coming season!
Our friend Debra from Common Ground brings us a nice roundup of her late summer and early fall decorating ideas in this post ~ Cottage ReView: Late Summer Bakers Rack. Love them all!!
Mix and Match Set Outfit
Jennifer from Curated by Jennifer brings us some great late summer/early fall fashion inspiration in this post ~ Mix & Match Set Outfit. Fun!!!
Fall is a great time to get your garden growing again with fall and early winter veg and Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland shared this post ~ The Herb Garden. Yum!!!
As the weather cools it is a perfect time to getting cooking! Niky from The House on Silverado created this wonderful dish ~ One Pan Caprese Chicken. Delicious!!!
Our final feature for this week comes from Penny of Penny’s Treasures who shares this farm-tastic post ~ Late Summer Mantel. Very mooooving I must say! 😉

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Blessings to you and I hope your weather has cooled off. We have cooled to the low-90’s which is heaven after so many weeks from 105-109 degrees.

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Big hugs to you,

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DIY Projects, Fashion, Holidays, Home Decor

Share Your Style #399

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #399, friends! No posts for me this week as Mr. Ethereal and I just enjoyed a weekend of yardwork and some time to rest. He has been going gang-busters at work and then working in the yards on the weekend, so he needed time to recover from being sick. 🙂 We had fun watching Bruce Willis in REDs and REDs 2…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Has it been super hot where you live? Here in North Texas we have been over 100 degrees for the past month now. This week we really heat up to 108 and 109 degrees with the heat index even higher!

I am sooooo ready for fall… How about you? Our plants have been suffering but most of them seem like they are making it. 😀

But besides that, we have a bunch of great posts to share ~ some DIY, a little fashion and much friendship! Worth being a little hot… 😉

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

This week we start off with a little trip to Michigan with Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy who shared Postcards from the Lake: Welcome, Dear Friend!
Newcomer Tanya from Twelve O Eight shared these adorable Ruffled Linen DIY Stool Slipcovers + A New Hutch. Love the slips!!! And a hearty welcome to you, Tanya!!
Christmas Home Tour
Carol from Bluesky at Home brings us this fun Christmas in July post sharing her lovely home ~ Merry & Bright Christmas Home Tour. Perfect to cool us all off and to inspire us for the season to come!
It’s been a minute since Kelli from 3 Boys and a Dog stopped by, but I’m so glad she has as this Soothing Lavender Oatmeal Soap Recipe is wonderful!! Love lavender soap…
Inspired By Frida Kahlo - July's Thrifty Six, Mexican top, handmade flower headband, Vivaia pink mules
Another new friend Emma from Style-Splash wears her super fun outfit ~
Inspired by Frida Kahlo – July’s Thrifty Six.
close up photo of wooden bench after staining and painting
Natalie & Taylor from A Ray of Sunlight brings us this DIY post ~ How to Paint a Wooden Bench.

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Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party,

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Gardening, Home Decor, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #398

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #398, dear friends! We have so many hot features this week to match our summer weather… Let’s check ’em all out!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

I’m back to school this week and it promises to be a good year! I love what I do working in the library and I love seeing how our students grow throughout each year. I’m excited to see what this year will bring.

Here at French Ethereal, I am excited about seeing you here every week. 🙂 This week I’ve got a forgotten post, a look at the gardens at Versailles, which I started last year but never finished. I think I published a version of it, I’m not sure, but here is the post I should have written. I hope you will stop by to read it!

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Retourner en France: Les Jardines de Versailles

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

Penny from Penny’s Treasures shared this lovely basket in her summertime post ~
Designing a Picnic-Themed Pocket Tobacco Basket for the Front Door. Beautiful!!! And this looks so cool with all the summery pastels…
It’s a little early but that’s the life of a blogger, isn’t it? (Plus at this point, I think we are all hoping for a bit of fall weather!) DeeDee over at Clover House is sharing a sweet craft DIY ~ Revamp Your Dollar Store Pumpkin: Budget Friendly Makeover Ideas.
HUH, RVERS PUT THEIR TOILET PAPER WHERE? #rv #motorhome #camper #travel #camping #toilet #convenience #ToiletPaper #DieselPusher #TravelTrailer
Grammy Dee from Grammy’s Grid brings us this funny post called appropriately…
Huh, RVers Put Their Toilet Paper Where??! I love it! After four years living in two RVs, we went up to clean and reset our Prairie Home RV’s stabilizers a couple of weekends ago. Makes me laugh to read this!
Ephesus-Turkey-Celsus-Library-arches
If you are looking for a wonderful trip destination, check out Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz post ~ Aegean Cruise: Visiting Ancient Ephesus, Turkey. We all need places to visit, even if vicariously. 🙂
Plum Hand Pies using 2 Ingredients Dough Recipe @ treatntrick.blogspot.com
We are getting hot in the kitchen with where Trick’n’Treat shared this incredibly yummy recipe for Plum Hand Pies Using 2 Ingredients Dough. Delicious!!!
How To Make A Lemon Wreath For Front Door (Budget Friendly)
Meredith from Arts & Classy shared this really fun wreath in her post ~ Discover How to Craft a Fabulous Lemon Wreath for Your Front Door – Inexpensively! Soooo pretty!!!
Last up for this week, Sally from Within a World of My Own shared her rendition of a recent Style Imitating Art party ~ Pink & Blue Summer Outfits with a Magenta Viva Tee. Love it!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Blessings to you,

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Click here to enter

Uncategorized

Retourner en France: Les Jardines de Versailles

The Gardens of Versailles – a very quick tour

I realized that as school began a year ago, I never finished sharing from out trip to France, so… Let’s return to France, shall we? My daughter and I visited the Château de Versailles, this quintessential French national treasure, on our very last day in France (a Tuesday, actually on 26 July 2022). We took a guided tour of some of the main rooms within Versailles then headed outdoors to see the gardens.

a view from inside the château

I had read online that the Latrona fountain (the central fountain) should have been going that that day, but it wasn’t. Maybe it is only turned on during weekends or only for certain events? We could see other fountains spraying plumes of water in the distance, so maybe it was under repair. If we had had another hour at Versailles, we could have walked down the pathways to see them (next time!).

A view left of the Latrona fountain…

Since we had walked miles already on this day (walking to Notre Dame in the morning and out to breakfast and then taking lunch back to our air b’n’b) and because we had been standing so much (and walking more miles!) the day before at the Louvre, Amy took time to just sit on the long steps and just enjoy the views while I ran off to shoot pics…

A view of a fountain and gardens to the very left as you exit the back of Versailles out into the garden. The boxwood were suffering from heat stress and maybe blight. Versailles seems to use a lot of xeriscape planting.
A view of the Latrona fountain as I walked by on my way to quickly see some of the other places…

It was about 6:00p.m. and we had to meet up with our driver at 6:30 to go back to our hotel in Paris, so Amy went to meet him after a bit while I scurried about snapping photos as fast as I could! We kept in contact by phone texts (international plan through Verizon).

I don’t know if these photos are in order from left to right as you’d be looking at the gardens but each area is interesting on its own! I love the clipped trees into very tall hedges!! I know in England yew and hornbeam are some of the trees which can be clipped this way.

Looking down from the tops of the steps to The Grand Canal… Isn’t this where the Founding Fathers of the United States got the idea for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? Perhaps so.

More from the Château de Versailles’ website:

André Le Nôtre’s design for the Grand Canal transformed the east-west perspective into a long open section filled with light and stretching as far as the eye can see. The work took 11 years to complete, from 1668 to 1679. The Grand Canal is 1,670 metres long and its banks have played host to legendary parties, such as in 1674 when it was lit up along its entire length with thousands of jars placed behind transparent decorations. From 1669 onwards Louis XIV sailed different kinds of boats here, including rowing boats, and in 1674 the Republic of Venice sent the king two gondolas and four gondoliers. The gondoliers were housed in a series of buildings at the end of the Canal which was thereafter referred to as Little Venice. During the summer the canal played host to the King’s fleet of vessels, while in winter the frozen surface was used for skating and sledding. The transversal branches of the canal granted access by boat to the Menagerie (to the south) or Trianon (to the north).”

The Grand Canal

The Royal Way or The Great Lawn

I started to head down to the long pool but turned left into the forest… Loved the statuary here! Thinking about how much I don’t remember, I looked up what each of these areas are called.

The Royal Way is also called the “Great Lawn”, because of the turf strip that runs along the middle. It measures 335 metres long by 40 metres wide. It was laid out under Louis XIII, but Le Nôtre had it broadened and added twelve statues and twelve vases, placed in symmetrical pairs.

Château de Versailles website
An entryway into a secret garden (my thought, anyway!). Love the latticework… This was directly ahead, left as you come down the stairs from the fountain, heading into the left-hand radial pathway.

It was 95 degrees F. that day and this area was lovely and shaded (a welcome respite as I was literally running to capture photos!), perfect for stopping and enjoying all the trees and birds singing… I wondered what people at court thought while wandering amongst these trees? Was it as shady 200-300 years ago?

I imagine not as these trees would have been babies, or perhaps these are even descendants of those original trees. Fun to think about though!

I think it was this photo which drew me to the restaurant… I thought, “What is that?” I do remember thinking what these fences were trying to hide, maybe some mechanical equipment?

You know how when you visit a theme park like Disneyland or when we went to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park (it has a different name now and I never can remember it), there were glades like this and it was specifically for hiding elephant enclosures or air conditioning equipment.

Gotta make it beautiful, right? Maybe this was to keep little children (or curious adults) from getting lost in the forest. 😉

A restaurant in the forest

I can’t tell you what all these statues are but somewhere I saved a map from Versailles and I’ll see if I can tell you about this bosquet (forest). Wait! I found this photograph which puts more of this in order (yeah!).

There was this little restaurant in the middle of the forest, La Girandole, but it was closed for the day.

I think this photograph is really from the beginning of the day, but it may be to another part of the gardens within Versailles that we didn’t have on our tour. Maybe some of you know? If so, leave us a comment.

I thought that this was where we met our guide, which from the front of the palace would be outside the gates to the left as you face the castle, by the Starbucks (of all things!). I remember a Greek building like this there.

*I thought I’d leave my original thoughts in here so you could read them, although now I know that this was La Girandole restaurant. 😉

Here I was leaving the Bosquet de Girandole. This was one of the last photos in my folder. This tour, though really only 45 minutes long, was sooo enjoyable!

Heading back to catch our ride. A look at Le Château de Versailles from the rear… Magnifique!

Yep, running! Sorry it was blurry. I was literally running back to meet with Amy and our driver, who was kind and waited until 6:45 so I could get more photos and see more of what I could.

They oranges weren’t ripe yet but they were getting there!

I found this orange tree apparently after passing the restaurant along the way but we never made it down the Orangerie where lots of orange trees are in cute moveable crates.

I didn’t see any orange trees out in the upper gardens like we had seen at Le Jardin des Tuileries, behind the Louvre the day before (between the Louvre and Le Place de la Concorde.

I did see a short row of oranges along the left side of the staircases on my way out!

A different perspective as I had just run up the long steps heading to the exit. I would love to have had time to tour each of these garden areas and really see what was planted.

Maybe this is the Orangerie area normally?? Happy to see this little row of orange trees again!

Sweet lights!

A look at Versailles city surrounds

A gorgeous building at the exit of Versailles as I was walking out?? Maybe as we walked in? I wish I had finished this post last year when my memories were still fresh. I know you couldn’t get back inside the palace once your tour was concluded (which was a bummer!).

The gardens were open until like 8:00 or 9:00p.m. sp we could have picked up something to eat and stayed, rested and then toured down the far end of the gardens. if we’d only known we could have scheduled out driver to come at 8:30!! Oh, well. 😉

A look back across the street to the statue of King Louis XIV…

I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city’s rush hour traffic! The evening was just beginning to cool off, I remember that.

A last look at Versailles up close. Love the architecture and soooo many statues!

The main gate ~ a look back

Our driver took us through the main part of Versailles city and we saw more lovely buildings from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Thanks for stopping by today and taking a tour around what I could see of the gardens at the Château de Versailles! This has been fun to visit the gardens again with you, a year later.

Blessings to you all,