Many folks are curious about where we stay when we travel to Europe.  For this Antiques Buying trip, we decided to try out a 15th century brewery that has a hotel attached, called Hotel Carolus. 

Back in 1471, a group of women lived together and did good works (known as Beguines - similar to nuns but not exactly), including taking care of the sick in a hospital.  They brewed beer on this site as a healthier alternative to the local water supply and also as a form of medicine.  The Gouden Carolus brewery offers a tour, which ends with free tastings of their award winning beers!

We greatly enjoyed our stay at Hotel Carolus in Mechelen, Belgium and give it two thumbs way up!  Next time you're in the area, you should stop in and have a Gouden Carolus Classic, which has won quite a few awards, including the World's Best Dark Ale in the Abbey/Trappist division in 2010.

Now that we've finished up our work for the container, we have some free time to enjoy a bit of sight-seeing.  If you enjoy World War II history, be sure to tune in to our next video.

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After a week driving across Europe visiting antique markets and wholesale dealers, we've finished buying a wonderful selection of antique furniture, chairs, and vintage chandeliers.  We'll still visit another indoor market to focus on smaller decorative items, such as Blue Delft ceramics, vintage chalkware and enamelware, and antique religious treasures.  However, as we no longer need the large van to pick up furniture, we'll trade it for a smaller car.  We stop to fill up the gas tank and discuss the price of diesel gas in Europe - which is actually cheaper than regular gas.  If you hate the cost of filling up your gas tank in the US, wait until you see the prices in Europe!

Now don't you feel better about filling up here in the US?  Not really?  Oh well, I tried.  Be sure to come back for the next episode of the Antiques Buying Trip video series as we're going to take a tour of a 15th century brewery!

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After a week in Europe, Greg and I met Mishka, a very friendly and helpful French bulldog.  We love animals - in fact all five of our fuzzy children were rescued, so we always enjoy making new fuzzy friends.  As you know, we spend a good deal of time loading the van during our Antiques Buying trips, so it was very nice of Mishka to help us load the van!

Did you know that a portion of all sales at EuroLux Antiques is donated to help save homeless pets?  EuroLux Antiques supports Pets, Inc., a local no-kill shelter in Columbia, South Carolina.  Adopt a shelter animal today and you'll have a buddy for life!

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If you've been following our Antiques Buying Trip video series, you'll know that we've been on the hunt for interesting and unusual vintage lighting.  On the 6th day of the trip, we find vintage chandeliers aplenty!  Some of the warehouses we visit are so full of antiques and vintage pieces that we literally have to crawl our way through like a rat in a maze, and this is one of them.  This particular antiques dealer in Belgium clears houses when someone dies and the family doesn't want or need their possessions, so we never know what we'll find there.

By the end of our Antiques Buying Trip in Europe, we found 135 wonderful antique and vintage chandeliers!  It will take us some time to get them all checked out to make sure they are working properly, photograph them, and then upload them to our website.  In the meantime, check out our collection of vintage chandeliers! 

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We weren't expecting snow in March, but we ended up driving through a snow blizzard in the French countryside on the fifth day of the Antiques Buying trip.  After taking care of business for EuroLuxAntiques.com in the hotel room in the morning, we headed out with a few flakes coming down.  By later in the afternoon, a good five inches of snow had fallen - I guess I should say nearly 13 centimeters since the Europeans are on the metric system.  It's a good thing we weren't planning to go to outdoor street markets that day.

Did you bring your gloves and scarf?  You'll need them today!  Thanks again for coming along on the buying trip - stay tuned for the next episode as we still need more chandeliers!

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After a few days on the road buying antiques in Europe, Aimee and Greg at EuroLux Antiques count how many cubes of antique furniture and vintage chandeliers they've purchased.  If we decide to bring in a 45 foot container, we still have quite a bit of space left to fill. 

Guess we'll have to keep buying!  Aimee shows off a beautiful antique Renaissance-style dining room suite carved in solid walnut:  a large, heavily-carved buffet, a marble-top server, a set of 6 embossed leather chairs, and a dining table.

Thanks for tagging along on our European Antiques Buying Trip!  Stay tuned for the next episode!

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"How do you ship your antique furniture from Europe?" is a question we are often asked at EuroLux Antiques. All of the wonderful antiques and vintage lighting that we find on an antiques buying trip are loaded in either a 40 or 45 foot container and shipped from Europe to the Port of Charleston in South Carolina. From there the container is trucked to Newberry where it takes us about 5 hours to unload it into our warehouse. Then the work of processing everything begins: cleaning and waxing, photographing, and writing product descriptions!

Stay tuned - there are more antique buying trip episodes to come!

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Sometimes when I'm tired, I get a little silly.  On the third day of our Antiques Buying Trip in Europe, I believe jet-lag was catching up with us, as evidenced by my explanation of gummi bear couture.  Despite the long days, I hope you're still along for the ride as we search the French and Belgian countryside looking for wonderful antique furniture and vintage lighting to bring back to EuroLux Antiques.

Care for a handful of gummi bears?  I'll gladly share.  I don't eat them very often in the US, but I love to partake in my secret indulgence on European antiques buying trips!

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"Where do you buy your antiques?" is a question we are often asked.  Our methods are much like those of Mike and Frank on the popular History Channel TV show, American Pickers.  We rent a large van that we drive across the country on a quest to find unusual, interesting, and beautiful antique furniture - we just do our searching in Europe and Asia instead of in the USA.

The answer is that, over the years, we've developed a large ring of wholesale antique dealers in Belgium and France that specialize in exporting antiques.  We're always on the search for new sources, so we make sure to visit the warehouses of new dealers on our buying trips, as well as those of our old friends, whom we've known for years.

We also visit antiques markets, some of which are held indoors and some are held outdoors, even in the snow!  Market days begin very early in the morning - we usually leave our hotel at 5 am in order to arrive at a market before the sun rises.  Although neither of us are morning people, I admit that going to antique markets is one of my favorite things.  We never know what we'll find and it's always an adventure.

So come help us look for some great antiques at a street market in Belgium, but if you find a fantastic (and heavy) Art Deco Mantel Clock in marble, you're the one who is going to carry it back to the van!

Thanks for visiting the EuroLux Antiques Blog!  Be sure to sign up for our RSS Feed so you don't miss the next video in our European Antiques Buying Trip series!

Aimee

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Most of our customers volunteer to come on our antiques buying trips, so we thought we'd bring you along on our most recent trip to France and Belgium to stock up on antique furniture and vintage lighting.

We've stopped at the grocery store and are now enjoying lunch in the van - won't you join us?

Thanks for stopping by the EuroLux Antiques Blog!  Be sure to sign up for our RSS Feed so you won't miss the next episode of our Antiques Buying Trip series!

Aimee

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