Francine Gardner - Art de Vivre: March 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

Dering Hall

A new online market place? you may ask... The design field seems overloaded with daily emails from online stores, flash sales from immensely successful sites.... so much so that I've become somewhat wary of these glamorous flash sales sites, having been burned for the second time in a row quite recently. Caught in an impulsive moment, I purchased 2 pieces of furniture for a small guest room. Let's just say that the old saying "you get what you pay for" is too often accurate. Being non refundable these 2 pieces will find their way to Goodwill.

Then came Dering Hall. By way of background, last summer, I received an email from Peter Sallick asking to set up a meeting. Having just relocated Interieurs to 58th Street in midtown New York, across from Waterworks, I assumed the meeting was related to Waterworks.

Five minutes after we sat down in my showroom, I said: "count me in! His timing was absolutely perfect. I was, at the time, working on a marketing strategy for IDS, the interior design component of my business. How does one strategically promote an interior design business, outside of advertising? Interieurs' showroom is part of 1st Dibs, Interior Connector, Newly Wish, etc.... These sites are great vehicles to promote Interieurs' showroom and products, but they are not the venues for promoting my interior design business.

Peter was so enthusiastic about his new venture with co-founder Steven Gambrel, I knew that his latest brain child Dering Hall was bound to become a success. As explained by Peter, "Dering Hall is the first market place for designers, architects, artisans, top dealers to offer the product they have historically offered to their private clients." It also is the only site that offers a platform for designers to showcase their work. Dering Hall is a market place for unique products as well as a venue for clients to look at Designers' portfolios, meet designers in a virtual space and communicate directly with artisans.

Come in and browse; I'm certain that you will be thrilled by what you see....

And when you surf through Dering Hall's offerings make sure to stop by Interieurs' pages. I would love to hear your feedback.

Interieurs Design Studio on Dering Hall here

A Bientot,

Francine

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The village I call home

This month, "By Invitation Only" members are learning about each other hometown.

Do you really want to know about my home town?

My village, Clermont Dessous

I still and will always call home my village of Clermont Dessous, still standing since the 12th century, with 500 inhabitants, overlooking the Garonne valley and surrounded by vineyards, wild poppies and sunflower fields.

Image by candy2nd's photostream

I grew up on a vineyard and fruit farm and our lives were closely linked to the rhythm of seasons. At a very early age I went to boarding school to the main city in Lot et Garonne, Agen.
Agen is famous for 3 things, its prune trees, its museum and most important of all, its Rugby team

To this day, I love to watch a good rugby game. Both my sons were on their Harvey school's rugby team

Growing up in the countryside was just wonderful. I lived in a rather large house with my parents and grandparents and during the summer, Easter and Christmas vacations, the bedrooms would fill up with all my cousins, their parents, our friends. The house was noisy with kids running everywhere, chasing the cats and the dogs. The poor cook could not keep up with our insatiable appetites. I had my own share of the vegetable garden with a tiny attached cottage and started to play house at a very young age.

Lot et Garonne is one of France's best kept secret. It was home to the famous and notorious King Henry IV, and it was there that the "french mousqueteers" were born. They have become over the centuries, heroic figures in literature and on the big screen. The villages of Lot et Garonne are still unspoiled and one can still appreciate life in the french coutryside as it was once.

The tiny village of Port Sainte Marie where one would buy all groceries, newspaper, have a coffee, since Clermont Dessous does not have any shops, only an excellent restaurant.

Henry IV castle in Nerac

Beautiful Bed and Breakfast

From Paris, one can fly, hop on the TGV or drive to Agen. Discover the small street of that laid back city, lined with house still standing from the Middle Age. From there you can take a wonderful cruise on a Peniche (traditional boat that sails on the canal) all the way to the Mediteranean. This is life at its best, slow, with time for naps, great meals, for reflexion and appreciating the beauty of the countryside.