I found Serge's advice mostly useful and it would have been churlish tohave refused his invitation to accompany him on a trip out in the countryto “forage for hidden treasures". If the truth be known, I secretly couldn't resist the novelty of passing time with a bloke called Serge Bastarde.'When ex-blues drummer John Dummer decamps to France to start up as an antiques dealer and live the simple life, he doesn't count on meeting Serge Bastarde. The lovable (if improbably named) rogue and brocanteur offers to teach John the tricks of the trade in return for his help in a series of breathtakingly unscrupulous schemes. As the pair trawl through antiques markets and old farmhouses looking forhidden treasure, they get into more than their fair share of scrapes: whether they're conning hearty lunches from unsuspecting old peasants, secretly manufacturing priceless collectibles or losing a Stradivarius to gypsies. Filled with eccentric characters, high jinks and unlikely...

The roguish Serge Bastarde teaches John the tricks of the French antique trade–a must for FrancophilesWe sat and stared balefully at the walnut buffet. A rich customer had complained it was "making strange noises in the night." It was around midnight and we strained our ears to hear, hardly daring to breathe. And there it was–a kind of crunch, crunch, crunching sound.John's life as a traveling brocanteur (antiques dealer) in rural France is decidedly less colorful after his unscrupulous yet affable partner in crime, Serge Bastarde, marries and decamps to Martinique. But, like a bad penny, Serge returns, his personal life in tatters. What follows is a madcap adventure in which John is coerced into striking deals with the Romanian "mafia," reroofing a huge Basque house, and getting trapped in a skip in the dead of night, while Serge rides an emotional roller coaster. Serge may be as faux as some of his antiques but, with John's help, he eventually strikes gold...