Five years ago, Sydney and her family left the hustle of London for the slow, sunlit rhythms of a small village in the South of France. That leap didn’t just transform their daily life — it inspired Les Six, Sydney’s curated collection of vintage French homewares.
We caught up with her to hear about the move that changed everything, the family rituals that make life so rich, and how she’s built a brand rooted in beauty, sustainability, and slow living.
Hi Sydney! Let’s start with your big move — what inspired your family to leave London and settle in the South of France? Was there a specific moment or feeling that made you know it was time?
Provence has always been a special place for my husband and I. Separately, we spent happy summers here as kids growing up, and then happy summers here together after we met. We got married here and would come here as often as possible, and it was our retirement dream to have a house here one day. Then five years ago, deeply craving a slower pace of life, more space outdoors, and more time for connection as a family, we took a huge leap of faith and moved out here.
My husband was working remotely at that time and so really the specific moment for us was seizing the opportunity while we could. We moved out here with only a month of accommodation lined up, and 3 months of remote work but we’ve been here ever since!
You’ve described your new lifestyle as “simple but rich.” How has this slower pace shaped your day-to-day family life?
It’s very much “less is more”. Back when we lived in London, life was so much busier. It felt like a relay race of work, childcare, bath and bedtime routine and weekends packed with seeing friends, kids’ extracurriculars and as much housework as we could manage, with little time in between to rest, to go slowly, or just be together. Nowadays, my husband and I both work from home, on our farm. We can walk our children across the fields to their village school, we do all the school runs together. We can have a coffee together in the middle of the day, we spend lots of time outside tending to our animals and eat dinners together as a family every night. The slower pace means so much more time for connection as a family and is such a dream come true for us.
From screen-free play to family sleepovers, you’ve created some lovely rituals. What daily or weekly traditions are most meaningful to you and your children?
The simplest one is eating dinner as a family every night. It’s the best kind of chaos. The kids love to help us cook and lay the table; we have a little cow bell that they take turns in ringing to announce dinner time. We always light candles and every night our baby sings happy birthday and blows them out and over dinner everyone takes turns to share a good thing and bad thing that happened in their day.
A weekly ritual we love in winter is climbing to “our spot”, the top of a secluded hill on the edge of our village, to watch sunset. This is how we spend most Fridays for months in the winter.
We have so many rituals though, creating them and coming back to them feels so fun and connecting.
Let’s talk about community — how has living in a small French village changed how you shop, eat, and connect with others? Has it deepened your commitment to sustainability?
One of my favourite things about living here is small village life! Everyone knows everyone, everyone is so proud of the village and works hard to look after it and look after each other and, villages in Provence all have their own rituals and practices which feel wonderful to contribute to and be a part of.
Each village has its own market day, and it’s here that we do our weekly food shop, buying fruit and veg from sellers we know by name. Buying from the market means we eat locally grown and seasonal produce which we love and has definitely deepened our appreciation for the seasons and our commitment to living more sustainably. We look forward to and savour stone fruit season for example compared to life in London where I could walk into a supermarket and get any fruit I wanted at any time of year. We shop from our village boucherie (butcher), épicerie (grocer), and buy fresh bread every day from our village boulangerie (bakery), and it’s such a special feeling of community to buy from your neighbours, whose kids go to school with your kids, and who know, without you even asking, what baguette you want and how well done you want it.
I feel like in a village, it’s really normal to depend on your neighbours too, and we’re really close with ours. We have them over for dinner, they look after our animals while we’re away, we borrow and exchange garden tools. We’re very lucky.
You recently launched Les Six — congratulations! Can you tell us the story behind the brand, and what the name means to you?
Thank you! For years, even before we lived in France, coming to the brocantes here would be the highlight of my trips. I loved treasure hunting, exploring all the old things, brocanteurs’ beautiful curations and displays, negotiating, and bringing as much as I could back home with me. We moved out here with hardly anything at all and when eventually we found our farmhouse, we turned to the brocante for pieces to furnish and fill it.
I began sharing our finds online and connected with so many fellow lovers of French vintage, all over the world, who began asking if I could help them find pieces for their homes too, and that’s how we started.
Back then I’d source for the house with my whole family in tow: my husband and I, and our four kids. We’d do the rounds of the brocantes and became known to the brocanteurs, who would call us “les six” and when it came to picking a name, it felt fitting that the name be one that reflects what our whole journey revolves around: our family.
The name also allowed me to focus: while I love most old things, I have a very distinct style and am mostly drawn to natural materials. My favourite six are wicker, clay, wood, linen, metal and stone and the Les Six shop offers these specific materials.
For the sourcing side - we’ll help you find whatever it is you’re looking for, under the umbrella of ‘French vintage’. But for the shop side and the collections we curate for you, it’s “les six”.
Where do you find the pieces you feature in Les Six, and what makes you drawn to them?
I source at brocantes all over Provence, I have my favourite brocantes but I also love discovering new ones. Brocantes mostly take place on weekends and then during the week I source from my network of sellers at their various (secret!) addresses. Going to addresses is so fun as I get to see pieces which most buyers at the brocantes don’t.
For Les Six, I’m drawn to our six materials, but we offer a sourcing service too for private and commercial clients and on these trips, I’m drawn to whatever is on my clients wishlists.
What are your favourite types of pieces to source? Are there any you just can’t resist?
I love tableware and pieces for the kitchen. Our kitchen is the heart of our home, and sitting down to eat with everyone is one of my happiest times of the day. I love laying the table, putting on a big spread, and so anything I can use to serve food in or on I usually cannot resist. And baskets! I’m a firm believer that you can never have too many, and we have an endless collection!
You’re raising four children and running a business — how do you balance creative work and family life? Is there such a thing as a “typical” day?
This is a dance that is constantly changing- as the business grows, as my children grow, as I get more help with childcare and so on.
I don’t strive for balance. I have ADHD and a brain that can find it really hard to get stuck into a task, then once I am stuck into it, find it really hard to be interrupted or pulled away. So, I just go with it as much as possible, leaning into family life when my kids are home from school, and leaning into work when my kids aren’t around.
Mostly I’m working around family life. Even with the kids at school, there’s still laundry to be done and animals to be fed, or herded around, or walked, which is another challenge of working from home—but this was main objective of our moving here, a slower pace and connected family life and I’m always mindful of that.
While there’s no such thing as a typical day, there are ringfenced times when home and my family are the focus and my phone goes away: morning time before school, our school walk home, when I’m helping them with their homework, dinner time, and I try (except for when I’m sourcing in the mornings) to be offline on weekends too.
You’ve long been a voice for slow, sustainable living. How do those values carry through into how you run Les Six?
I’m really proud of our sustainability commitments and running a circular brand. Sourcing and selling antiques comes with the knowledge that the pieces we find are beautiful, functional, and stand the test of time in a way that mass produced modern pieces often do not.
We ship pieces in reused boxes, and everything is wrapped in compostable packaging and tape.
What advice would you give to families looking to embrace secondhand living — whether it’s in the way they shop, decorate, or play?
Start with one thing and commit to buying that second hand only. It might be your kids’ clothes, or children’s toys, or clothes for yourself. Get to know sites, markets, car boots and make shopping secondhand for whatever that category is, your default. Once you’re well practiced in that area, you can move onto categories.
Finally, what’s next for you and for Les Six? Any new launches or creative projects on the horizon?
This year we’ve had great success with sourcing commercially for the American market. Next year will see us launch our buying trips where we guide collectors coming to Provence to explore the region and find the treasures of their own! In the meantime, as usual, clients can shop our monthly collections – our September collection at the end of the month.
To make the business sustainable for me— orders are shipped within a fortnight, and I work with a really wonderful team of women, including one of my best friends who assists me, and a brilliant Provence based photographer who shoots all of our beautiful pieces.
What advice would you give to families looking to embrace secondhand living — whether it’s in the way they shop, decorate, or play?
Start with one thing and commit to buying that second hand only. It might be your kids’ clothes, or children’s toys, or clothes for yourself. Get to know sites, markets, car boots and make shopping secondhand for whatever that category is, your default. Once you’re well practiced in that area, you can move onto categories.
Finally, what’s next for you and for Les Six? Any new launches or creative projects on the horizon?
This year we’ve had great success with sourcing commercially for the American market. Next year will see us launch our buying trips where we guide collectors coming to Provence to explore the region and find the treasures of their own! In the meantime, as usual, clients can shop our monthly collections – our September collection at the end of the month.