 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
L'Ile de France, the French General Store, to close
The two had run their unique shop alone since opening on South Water Street in the spring of 1996, then moving to Federal Street and a couple of years ago, finding a good location on India Street next to Black Eyed Susan's. They considered their place as much a cultural center as a retail store. From early 1996 through the fall of 1999, they published a newsletter called "La Gazette de L'Ile de France" that included recipes and articles on travels to France by customers as well as by the likes of journalist Pierre Salinger. Unexpectedly, everything changed for the Berruets in the middle of October last year when Michel was diagnosed with cancer. Joyce closed the store to care for him at home, but the disease had taken a deep hold on his body and he died at the end of that month. Since then, Joyce has carried on their business on her own, always acknowledging that it was her husband's imagination that sparked its creation. She is also carrying on their vow to retire and will shutter all but the shop's Web site after Christmas Stroll. "I'm not retiring because Michel died, I'm retiring because I'm exhausted," she explained of the long days required to maintain the business. Though she said it has been difficult in a number of ways to run the store without her husband, she had been handling all their ordering and was able to continue at least that part of the necessary obligations without strain. "However, when things go wrong in France or when there are questions or when there are calls to France to see how many Euros I got for my dollar, I have to do that now in French," she explained. "He would handle things on the French side and I would handle things on the American side." Joyce began coming here in the late 1960s during the island's off-season when she was a school teacher in Baltimore and as a "glorified" babysitter for a few Nantucket summers. She was married then to John Krebs, and they began operating The Ship's Inn in 1971. Michel was born in Nantes, France. He was a freelance journalist and came to Nantucket to visit his brother Jean-Charles Berruet, who used to own The Chanticleer, and to write several commissioned articles about the island. Though Joyce and John Krebs divorced, she stayed on at the inn to receive patrons at its restaurant. One evening, Michel came in with Jean-Charles and a photographer. "One thing led to another," she said. L'Ile de France continues to take orders for fresh, crusty bread flown in once a week from the French Poilane Bakery, but many items are already on sale at the shop which carries a number of one-of-akind pieces made by French artisans the Berruets came to know personally. The shop has French country furniture, decorative home accessories, hand painted pottery by Quimper, named after the town where it is made, custom copperware by Alain LaGorsse, who was awarded the title of France's finest coppersmith, baskets woven by a man who grows his own wicker, buttery-soft leather handbags, soaps from Marseille, woven table linens from a third generation family of weavers, "cellar rats," which are steel candle holders used in the Burgundy region's wine cellars and much more. This is a time of finally winding down the business, and Joyce Berruet recognizes that with a poignant sense of relief. "People have really been so nice. I've sort of been hugging customers goodbye," she said. "It is a double sadness of closing and closing without Michel. This store really was Michel's imagination. I think of myself as the enabler. I knew what to do, but it was his imagination that gave rise to L'Ile de France. Right now I'm putting L'Ile de France to bed. I'll think about the rest next year." After the shop closes, Berruet intends to continue living on Nantucket and have some of the store's items available through frenchgeneralstore.com. She may be reached by phone at 508-228-3686. I |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
