Treasure hunting at the castle

Back in April, we visited a castle where a small antiques fair was being held, which I blogged about here.

Much to our delight, we found out that there would be another one in November, the date of which was promptly pencilled into our diary.

Last Saturday was the day, so we set our trusty SatNav, Marie-Jeanne, for the 30 odd minute drive to Castle de Renesse in the village of Oostmalle.

I wore a chocolate brown polyester polka dotted dress, with long sleeves and a self fabric tie belt. Oh, and a contrasting white notched collar, to which I pinned the first of my brooches: a small blue plastic flower.

Further accessories were some amber coloured beads and a swirly amber plastic ring.

For contrast, I chose a powder blue cardigan and added a plastic brooch with a coordinating duo of brown and cream flowers.

First outing this season for this belted brown Tweed jacket from Think Twice.

Another layer means yet another brooch opportunity so I chose to add more blue with this darling little squirrel brooch. Tying it all together, I wore a silky brown and blue printed scarf.

The pleat at the back, revealing a row of three buttons, is my favourite feature of this jacket.

I decided to try out the little brown leather handbag I'd found at the charity shop event. It turned out to be just roomy enough for my weekend essentials: my purse, phone, a packet of tissues, lipstick and a small tape measure.

We'd packed a picnic, fully expecting to be eating our sandwiches while sat in our car, as rain was forecasted for the early afternoon.

After parking our car - noting that it was much busier than usual - we made our way to the moated castle, which was looking particularly picturesque drenched in Autumnal sunshine, with its mirror image reflected in the water.

At the castle's entrance this fabulous car, probably belonging to one of the stall holders, was parked.

Make no mistake: this isn't your run of the mill flea market, but a proper antiques fair selling all manner of brocante, with a lot of the the wares on offer a cut above the rest, which is reflected in the often exorbitant prices.

Nevertheless, there are still a handful of stalls selling the most wonderful stuff at prices within our budget.

And look whose stall we ran into!  Yes, it's the Brooch Lady, whom we hadn't seen since last May.
When she was absent at last month's flea market in Antwerp, we were starting to get a bit worried. She is, after all, well into her eighties ...

But there she was, with her folders of brooches, from which I selected four beauties to join my collection: a domed brown enameled brooch decorated with flowers, an oval brooch with a pearly border surrounding the painted portrait of a lady, a pink plastic Art Deco style brooch with carved flowers at its heart, and a souvenir brooch from Waterloo.

Two more brooches were bought from another stall: a sweet little cat brooch and a posy of mother of pearl flowers.

From the same stall, Jos bought this highly decorative share of Minerva, the famous Belgian manufacturer of luxury automobiles, which they produced from 1902 until 1938.

Minerva started out manufacturing standard bicycles in 1897, expanding into "motocyclettes", a kind of motorized bicycles which were a forerunner of motorcycles, in 1900, before adding cars to their production in 1902.

Minerva vehicles acquired a reputation for quality and reliability and, by 1914, enjoyed the patronage of the Kings of Belgium, Norway and Sweden.

A search on the Internet yielded a couple of international advertisements for Minerva cars dating from the late 1920s and early 1930s.

After World War II the company produced a version of the Land Rover 80" under licence for the Belgian army until 1954. After the deal with Land Rover fell through, there were plans to re-enter the car market but these did not get beyond the prototype stage.

Sadly, the company, who had their headquarters and factory in Antwerp, became defunct in 1956.

After this little diversion, it's back to the castle!

Upstairs was another one of our favourite stalls, selling vintage textiles, haberdashery, hats and miscellaneous curiosities (top right).

I couldn't resist this delightful little felt and faux fur hat. The retaining elastic needs replacing (it snapped at the merest touch), but otherwise it's in perfect condition.

By the time we finished browsing, and left the castle, the sun had disappeared and a dense blanket of grey, rain-filled clouds, had replaced the clear blue sky of earlier that morning.

As it was still dry, we decided to risk it, so we picked up our picnic basket from the car and made our way to a picnic table with a view of the castle across the lake.

As far as I know, this is the only picnic table in the castle grounds but still we always manage to have the place to ourselves.

This could very well have been our last outdoor picnic of the year!

We'd only just arrived back at our car and were about to drive off when the first drops of rain started to fall.

On Sunday, we had a real flea market to go to, for which I hope you'll join me again in my next post!