Fancy French Florals

The Mr’s parents have a house in the Loire region of France where we stay most summers and this year we visited Chateau Chaumont for the day, where they hold an annual garden show, this year’s theme was “Body & Soul”.

Now don’t ask me what most of the designs had to do with the brief, as my French is appalling, but I found one particularly inspiring (and thankfully was in English) ‘Tea Revives You’.





Garden No.16 "Bon thé, bon genre" Which roughly translates as good tea, manners/good way of life - By George Richardson and Jules Arthur. See http://www.domaine-chaumont.fr. The festival is on until 17th October.

This ‘garden’ captures perfectly one of my summer fashion fetishes, florals! The tea party is a quintessentially English tradition and by looking at the cups and saucers on display you can easily see how china patterns have been influenced by the British garden, delicate roses and pretty pastel colours galore. I love that in the middle of France, at an 15th Century chateau you can still see how people are influenced by a good English cup of tea (I personally am a coffee girl, but I can see the appeal).

Now, I have quite a few floral pieces that I’ve picked up on the highstreet over the years (don’t we all?!), but funnily enough my all time favourite is this 80’s Laura Ashley style dress which I picked up from a vintage shop in Paris back in February (for only €8) – I just can’t get enough of it!



Dress - Vintage,
Brogues - Urban Outfitters,
Bag & Sunglasses - Primark
Socks - Topshop

I wear with white lacy ankle socks, two-tone brogues and of course my huge sunnies for a garden party or picnic in the park with friends.


Or team with gold lame shorts and my trusty fluoro reeboks for a quirky 80’s revival! (picture to come)

Come winter this dress isn’t going to get lost at the back of the wardrobe either, I’ll wear it with thick black tights, a slouchy chunky knit cardi and brogues!

Loves VW x x x