Wednesday 12 December 2012

The 'F' Word...


Wool spinners based in the Creuse...

Creators of some very nice yarns at reasonable prices. (And not a million miles away from where I live).

When I discovered that Fonty were not TOO far away from me, I decided I would take a trip to see them.  I found they had a factory shop that was ONLY open on Wednesday afternoon so I decided I would go this week and today was the day!

It was not, after all, very near to me ( a two hours plus journey) but the weather was good and the scenery was pretty.

I was surprised, at the factory, that I was directed to the shop through the factory itself, where all the machines were working...





It was an amazing experience.  One you would never get in England because of Health and Safety regulations.  But this is France.  Health and Safety?  No thanks -we're French!

The shop is simply a large room at the far end of the factory. Part of it is laid out much like an actual shop and part is just a series of long aisles with shelves full of wool. I forgot to take a picture of the shop itself, but here are a couple of the aisles or 'lots' as the lady called them when I told her where I had found a couple of odd balls of mohair...

Fonty 2

Fonty 3

I could have stayed there for a week or so.  Such a shame they don't have a coffee shop - or even a machine!  Next time I'm taking sandwiches, a flask and my knitting!





7 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

Looks interesting. We often remarked on the lack of coffee shops in places where one might happily spend hours looking round but the French just don't seem to do that - maybe something to do with taking business from a cafe or sticking to one's own metier?

Annie said...

Wow. You lucky thing to have somewhere like that to go to. It looks the sort of place I could spend a whole week just stroking the wools :-)
Hugs,
A x

Debra in France said...

Wow! That looks fab Penny, I bet you were in heaven! You'll have to let us know what you bought.

The French don't do coffee shops or cafes within another business. None of the garden centres have tea-rooms either. They are really missing out on business. Mind you, who would run the cafe at lunchtime when all the French go for their 2-hour lunch break?

Floss said...

What a lovely experience! Even as a non-wool-buyer, I can see how lovely that was...

But as a Toulousaine I can tell you that the coffee shop is coming - our Botanic garden centre has an organic café attatched. It does lunches and cakes etc... never tried it but perhaps I should, in the interests of research.

Also, as a teacher of business English, the French think they are seriously constrained by health and safety restrictions. Little do they know.

Carol said...

What a wonderful place, yes, you are so right H & S certainly wouldn't allow it in UK, so many stupid restrictions.
I would be planning my next trip too.
Carol xx

Babajeza said...

I love, love, love textile facturies. What a great place! We could stay there together ...

Annie Cholewa said...

How marvellous! Did you buy much?