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 ________________________________________________________________________
34 comments
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!!!
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.
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
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!