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The couple dine on their balcony all year round


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for both Peter and myself. We found a charming house to rent just outside Cotignac, a beautiful village in the Var, not too far from the French army base. I began exploring the surrounding area, stopping to rummage through antique fairs and brocantes where I’d find interesting bits and pieces to style our temporary home, and improving my French in the process.”


BROCANTE BUSINESS Three years later, Peter’s posting came to an end and Cathy’s by then sizeable collection of French furniture and artefacts was trundled back to Suffolk in a large removal lorry. “Fortunately, our home in Bildeston, while not huge, does have a couple of old stables and an artist studio in the garden so we piled it all in there while figuring out how I’d start a French brocante from home. Having sent out invitations to all our friends, we priced everything up, styled the outbuildings into theatrical room-sets so people could see how decorative these pieces looked when part of a scheme, and waited to see what the response would be. By the end of the weekend there was scarcely anything left!” Clearly the Bullens were


Work-life blend W


ith homes in Suffolk and the south of France, Peter and Cathy


Bullen lead a life full of contrast and travel. “As antique dealers we divide our time between the two, spending roughly six weeks based in Cotignac before driving back to our Suffolk home, the van laden down with the latest items we’ve bought.” The couple initially got to know the area some 15 years


ago when Peter, who was then in the army, was posted to the south of France as a liaison officer with the French army. Peter recalls: “The prospect of spending three years in Provence sounded pretty attractive, especially when compared to some of the other places I’d served in. I went having undergone an intensive six-month long French language course before I arrived.”


66 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2024


While renting a temporary home in Provence, Peter and Cathy Bullen started a French antiques business in the UK, before finally buying – and furnishing – their own home in the south of France, as they explain to Amanda Harling


Cathy, who was working as a


dance tutor and choreographer, joined him in Provence having packed up their Suffolk home of 16 years. “Despite Peter’s army career we’d been lucky enough to avoid spending too much time in married quarters which I’d found difficult, not least because of the constant upheaval of homes, schools and friends. However, the children were leaving school and this posting offered an adventure


doing something right, with the result that the couple regularly returned to France to source more furniture and decorative items for their flourishing business, The Boule-in. “Eventually we did a role swap,” Cathy laughs, “as Peter finally left the army to join me! Word spread and for the last 11 years we’ve been holding our Suffolk French Decorative Fêtes three times a year. The first one is around Easter and then


The timeless drawing room


©ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY


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