There are two trips I make every year that I plan around nothing else.
No detours, no distractions. Just Paris, the dealers I have come to know and trust over years of sourcing, and the quiet, unhurried work of finding things worth bringing home.
Two weeks ago I made one of those journeys. The Paris Collection, dropping this Friday, is what I came back with.
The Dealers
I am often asked where the pieces come from. The honest answer is that most of what makes Atelier Châtelaine different happens long before anything appears on the website. It happens in relationships built over years with a small number of dealers in Paris who know exactly what I am looking for and hold things back accordingly.
These are not casual encounters. They are people I have returned to season after season, whose eye I respect and whose knowledge I trust. When I walk into their spaces I am not browsing. I am being shown. There is a difference, and it matters enormously to the quality of what I bring home.
For this collection I was looking specifically for art and frames. Paintings that carry genuine presence, not just decoration. Frames that are beautiful objects in their own right, pieces with age, character and a story in every layer of gesso and gold. Paris, more than anywhere else I source, delivers this consistently. The city has an extraordinary density of serious dealers working at this level, and twice a year I give myself the time to go deep into it.
La Foire de Chatou
This trip also brought me to one of the great pleasures of the French antiques calendar: the Foire de Chatou.
Held twice a year on the banks of the Seine just west of Paris, Chatou is not a flea market and it is not a trade fair. It occupies a particular territory between the two, a specialised antiques event that draws serious dealers from across France with genuinely exceptional pieces. The atmosphere is unlike anything else: several hundred dealers spread across a vast space, the river just visible, and everywhere the particular quality of light and cold air that makes early spring sourcing in France feel like a privilege.
I go to Chatou with a list and I always come home with things that were not on it. That is part of what makes it worth the journey. Several pieces in this collection arrived that way, found in moments of recognition rather than intention, which is usually when the best things happen.
What Is In The Collection
This Friday's drop brings together a carefully edited selection of original antique art and frames, every single piece sourced on this trip.
You will find original oil paintings from the 19th and early 20th century, works that reflect the full range of what French painters of that era did best: intimate florals, atmospheric landscapes, luminous still lifes, and one or two pieces that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. Each one is accompanied by everything I know about its origin, technique and condition, because I believe you should be able to make an informed decision about something you are going to live with.
The frames are presented as their own edit within the collection. Antique French frames are one of the great undervalued categories in the decorative arts market, objects of extraordinary craft that most people still think of as secondary to whatever goes inside them. This collection has some of the most characterful frames I have ever brought home, from an elaborately carved Baroque Revival frame with confirmed antique construction to a pair of matched small frames in the same tradition, a polychrome carved frame with sage green painted insets that feels genuinely singular, and a circular tondo frame in burgundy and warm gold that is one of my favourite single pieces from this entire trip.
Everything drops Friday. One-of-a-kind, as always. When it is gone, it is gone.
A Note On How I Source
People sometimes ask whether they could do this themselves. The answer is yes, eventually, with time and repeated visits and the patience to build the relationships that make it possible. But there is a faster way.
If you have ever thought about experiencing a sourcing trip to France with someone who already knows the dealers, speaks the language and understands the market, that is something I offer. It is not a tour. It is the real thing, the early mornings, the right addresses, the conversations that open doors. If that interests you, get in touch.
For now, I hope this collection brings something extraordinary into your home.
The Paris Collection drops Friday, March 27.
Atelier Châtelaine sources twice yearly in France, bringing original antique art, frames and decorative objects to North American collectors and interior designers. Browse the full collection at atelierchatelaine.com and follow the sourcing journey at @atelierchatelaine.