Your CartAs the temperatures start to dip and dreams of fall’s delights start to spark our imagination, get in the spirit of the season and host a small Fall Breakfast, French Country Style! Each year, I can’t wait for September, because that means that fall has begun. Even though it can still be warm here at FrenchGardenHouse during the day, there is a snap in the air early and late in the day.
I eagerly await the time that pumpkins arrive at the farm stand near our house, and pretty much get excited about every pumpkin spice thing I can find at the market. You too? There’s no shortage of ideas for a seasonal celebration, whether you’re hosting an intimate family meal, or a slightly larger gathering outdoors. One of my very favorite ways to entertain is with a cozy, casual French Country style fall breakfast.
WELCOME TO MONDAY MORNING BLOOMS!
My good friends Mary, Pam and Shirley and I are so happy you are here! Grab a cup of coffee {or tea, even hot apple cider! – it’s almost fall!} and join us as we celebrate fall with a floral arrangement featuring fall colors.
The beauty of entertaining with a Fall Breakfast, French Country Style is that it can be as casual as you like. Often, when we go on trips to Europe, breakfast means some crusty bread, really good unsalted butter, and some marmalade, and copious cups of French coffee. {For a country that prizes its culinary excellence, the breakfasts are most often surprisingly plain. } In some hotels Mr. FrenchGardenHouse has quietly told me his bread would be able to make a hole in the wall if he threw it. The bread is hard, you are meant to dunk it in your cafe au lait.
Putting together a simple authentic French Country style breakfast, therefore, is super easy! I recommend you buy the freshest bread at a bakery, unsalted butter, some wonderful French cheeses, perhaps a saucisson, fruit, and two different jams, one favorite in France being marmalade. {I’ll share my recipe for making your own orange marmalade later this week.} If you want to go all out, splurge on some croissants, and those very sweet and delicious Croissants aux amandes.
SET THE TABLE
I set our big table in the middle of our kitchen for an easy breakfast with three friends. Our new linen runner and napkins come in that wonderful green, reminding me of the forests in Europe that I love. Usually I first gather all the parts of my table setting together, before placing each of the plates, napkins etc. in their place, just to be sure it all looks good. Once I think it does, I begin setting the table.
I know that on blogs most people show plate stacks, because they photograph better, but in my own “real life” I find that plate stacks are a bother. So I don’t usually don’t have stacks, unless I’m serving a salad first.
My plates are vintage Pheasant plates that I use each autumn, and the French vintage Ecruis silver plated flatware is always so nice. I am always excited to find more, because they are of such fine quality!
A few antique breadboards, an antique bread knife, and wonderful horn handled little forks nestled in an antique pottery pitcher complete my table-scape. Oh, and those two sweet little antique animals! I love them, they are made of a hard rubber, a sort of pre-plastic from long ago, I’m pretending they belonged to my mom, since she left no toys behind.
Everything combines together to speak of cooler, slightly windy days, leaves rustling in trees and gently falling to the ground, and everything magical that autumn has in store. The colors in the kitchen are so pretty. Even after our breakfast, and even after the flowers have died, I’ll keep most of this little scene in place. The high chair by the sink holds antique French baskets and my new favorite linen apron on the old high chair. I can replace the flowers with new ones, or an antique bowl filled with pumpkins.
CREATE A FALL FLORAL ARRANGEMENT
For this fall arrangement, I went crazy for berry toned blooms, earthy muted flowers and fall foliage to create the perfect country flower arrangement. I taped off the top of an antique cheese preserving crock { I love the blue stripes} to hold my flowers in place.
Flowers in this arrangement:
- Berry wine mums in two sizes
- White daisies
- Chamomile
- Yellow Asters Solidago
- Seeded eucalyptus
- White roses
- Ornamental Kale
- A brown grass filler
- Pittisporum filler
Because it’s a big table and there are just a few people, I was able to style the table a little bit with some antiques. I nestled the silverware, the linen napkins and a few bright green fall apples in an antique wood cutlery tray. Some smaller French country pottery pieces hold fruit, and a French Country wood bench displays a pate tureen of a pheasant for seasonal charm.
I am picturing you creating some autumn magic at home! It doesn’t take much, a little pumpkin here or there, maybe a bunch of branches in a vase? Changing the colors at home makes your whole house feel like it’s been refreshed for the season, doesn’t it?
The give away is OVER. The winner of the GIVE AWAY for Georgianna Lane’s Book Paris in Bloom Is B. Potter! CONGRATULATIONS!
Be sure to visit my creative friends, I’ll see you there! They always have beauty and great inspiration to share!
Shirley at Housepitality Designs
and me, Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse
WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO DO TO CHANGE THE LOOK OF YOUR HOME FOR THE FALL SEASON?! Please share, we’d love to know.
A BIENTOT
Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com
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I can always count on you to add such beautiful antiques to your floral vignettes! Love the arrangement in the blue striped crock…I can imagine sitting at your table with the crisp air flowing through your kitchen windows. When in France, I so loved the traditional French breakfasts…the fruit, the cheeses, the amazing croissants…thank you for bringing back the memories. So happy to join you today to share some flower inspiration and ushering in the beautiful colors of Fall! Have a “fallicious” week Lidy!
Happy Monday Morning Blooms, dearest friend! Happy “fallicious” week to you too! xo
Lidy, Your kitchen and table is the perfect spot for a fall breakfast or meal! It’s so welcoming and beautifully appointed with your wonderful boards, wood tray, crocks, pottery and those sweet animals! I love the mix of your floral material in your handsome striped crock with all the textures and color. I had to chuckle at ‘bread would be able to make a hole in the wall if he threw it’. 🙂 Your plates remind of Furnivals Quail, which is my mom’s everyday pattern, but in blue. As always it’s always a treat to share blooms with you on my favorite Mondays of the month. Happy almost fall. <3
Mary, wishing we could sit there and talk for a while! The plates are just that, I love the Furnivals Quail, isn’t it so pretty? It’s always a joy to share our special Mondays with you.
I would enjoy winning the book as I know so little about French anything. I think any interest in anything French was squashed in Mrs Flook’s 8th grade French class so many many years ago so perhaps it’s time to explore. Thanks for the beautiful pictures.
Cindi, so happy to have you here today! Naughty Mrs. Flook! {Isn’t it funny, it’s why I hate knitting! My teacher in second grade killed knitting love.} I hope you enjoy some French research, there is so much to love about France.
Wish I were coming to your house for breakfast! What a gorgeous and inviting breakfast table. I do love a simple French breakfast!
Fall is my favorite season so when September arrives I pull out the Autumn pillows, ribbons ribbons and faux pumpkins. Then I add real pumpkins and gourds. I LOVE Fall!!!
Ah, Vicky, a kindred fall friend! I LOVE fall too…just like you. Wishing you a blessed week ahead filled with falliciousness!
Goodness, Lidy, my eyes were immediately drawn past the beautiful floral arrangement to the pheasant tureen! It’s a beauty, and with all the wood pieces on the table, a perfect fall feast for breakfast as well as the eyes!
Rita, thank you for visiting. I know you and I could have quite a great time sitting at this table before we went antiquing together!! Happy Fall, dear Rita. I hope you week ahead is blessed. xo
Lidy, I am crazy about anything French (despite the fact that Americans are currently on their merde list)Your table and floral arrangements are always a pleasure to behold with the combinations of rustic and glamour. Tres belle
A trip to Paris via the “French Garden House” would be very exciting especially since due to family health concerns I am unable to travel.
Patricia, thank you for your visit. I am so happy to hear from you, it’s always a treat to read your comments. Wishing you a beautiful week ahead, friend!
Beautiful, cozy pictures. Fall is here.
Thank you Annette! Wishing you a fallish and wonderful week ahead!
Magical autumn colors presented in the best of cozy settings, Thank you for filling our lives with such JOY
Thank you Babs, that is so sweet of you to say! I hope you are having a blessed Monday!!
I love the casual feel of your breakfast buffet Lidy, and the flower combination is a lovely nod to the changing seasons. The apples are another iconic symbol of Fall, and again I love the casual way you styled them. Anyone would feel at home in your lovely kitchen setting, Happy Fall!
Jenna, thank you for your sweet visit. {Wish it could be a real one!} Happy Fall, friend, I hope you have a blessed week ahead!
My eye is drawn not only to your blooms but to things in the background. Your high chair is so sweet, the pig behind the Wolf range, the rack holding the majolica plates to name a few. I am head over heals for marmalade and look forward to reading your recipe. Breakfast is my favorite meal. It gets my day off to a good start and who in their right mind would not love to sit with a good cup of coffee, a croissant and good butter. And the kitchen where all this love takes place is ideal to sit by a warm fire in the chilly weather. Love this post.
Alice, thank you for loving my simple kitchen as much as we do! That high chair is one both my girls sat in, and our little people too. And the pig is my favorite {Mr. FGH not so much in love with it!} I find him cute. : ) Breakfast is so good, isn’t it? Wishing you a lovely, fallish week ahead, friend!
Lidy, your breakfast table has all of the fall feels. From the beautiful arrangement to all of the antique and vintage pieces, it is a warm and cozy space to welcome guests. I do enjoy a French style breakfast especially the croissants with butter. Mr. FGH sounds like my RM with the bread comment. I would be so excited to sit here with a cup of coffee and enjoy a sweet conversation that would include France.
It is always a treat to join you for flower inspiration and Monday Morning Blooms. Wishing you a Happy Fall!
I would be excited for you to sit here with a cup of coffee too! It’s always so fun to share our special Monday Morning Blooms together, I wish you a blessed fall, dear friend.
Very pretty flowers and yummy looking food.
Thank you Linda! Wishing you a beautiful week ahead!
oh Lidy, I want to go back to France and enjoy a breakfast just like the one you set up today. And I agree with you to just modify your table a bit to refresh as needed….and leave it set up. Your choices are perfect for a Fall setting and I look forward to my inbox on Mondays to see what you talented ladies and friends have to offer. hugs always
Kari @ Me and My Captain
Kari, thank you so much for joining us, I love meeting you here!
Your floral arrangement is so beautiful. I absolutely love the colors. Setting down at your table for breakfast would certainly be a pleasure. Thanks for sharing .
Thank you Della, it would be a pleasure sharing breakfast with you in our kitchen!
You’ve inspired me to plan a little French style breakfast for some girlfriends when our husbands go on their annual fishing trip…
Oh! I love that, Sue! I know it will be so much fun!!
Your eye catching floral arrangement is the perfect compliment
To the boards and wood pieces. Breakfast is such a special
Meal when shared with family or friends.
Lovely.
Thank you so much Darlene. I agree, breakfasts are so fun when shared with the people we love!
xo
What a lovely setting for un petit dejeuner Francais.
Would you please help me to identify the bone-handled flatware in the first pictures? I have been looking for pieces similar to those. Do you happen to have a source? Thanks.
Peyton, thank you so much. The Appetizer forks are antique, silver and horn from our shop. I’m so sorry, they sold out almost immediately after we had them.