Sorry, I had to laugh when Vana had a go at Jenny in the BR for mentioning about her dad being involved in the antiques business and there being a chance he'd know someone who could have got them a mirror at a possible mates rate. I burst out laughing and was shocked when none of the people in the boardroom picked up on what Vana said, so if an item is French you HAVE to buy it in France?

And we all know how impossible it is to get antiques from other countries here! I think she was trying to say the mirror would have been cheaper in France maybe because it hadn't been imported but Jenny's dad might well have known a mate or someone in the business willing to give them a very good deal.

I wish Jenny had just run with the idea anyway and rang Vana back telling her they were going to get the mirror if she'd found a good deal, I think that would have saved her.

It was a good idea. Sadly she let herself be shouted down. Why not spend some time looking at options on both sides of the channel. As long as they kept in regular contact that would have given them more options. Vana's dictatorial style did for them just like Aisha last week.

I think Jenny should have made much more out of that in the BR, maybe she did but it wasn't shown. If I am a TL in a task and one of my team comes to me and says 'Hey, my dad works in the antiques business should I see if he knows someone who has this mirror?' I'd be biting their hand off!

Vana was semi smart though, if she'd taken Selina into the BR Selina would have stuck up for herself and fought her corner, pointed out every single mistake Vana had made. By picking people who weren't in France with her, that couldn't happen as they didn't know what had gone on.

Yes I agree. Very good point.

I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to phone up friends or family to help them out in these tasks, just like they're not allowed to us the internet to look things up.

To be fair, I think Jenny's actual reasoning was a bit weaker than that, and went something along the lines of: my dad collects antiques so I'm sure there must be antique shops we could try.

I think Jenny simply said "my dad's into antiques and he regularly goes to Canterbury - we should go there to get the mirror".

Well, they're allowed to phone antiques dealers, so if someone is lucky enough to have a contact already, why not?

And the fact her dads business was on the coast or as good as. So chances are their would of been a mirror, even a cheap repro one.

Did the boys screw up by not buying the mirror at the first mirror shop in France? Was there something in the specification about a genuine antique or did they just not realise that a Louis Phillipe mirror is just a framed mirror with rounded corners? I think they may have misunderstood why the shopkeeper left them to their own devices after pointing out she had mirrors everywhere.

She did say she "could order one in" so she clearly didn't have that particular mirror in stock, something which was glossed over in the boardroom.

Quite a lot if that contact is a member of their family.

If she already knew names, without them being a contact eg "i know there is an Antiques shop called such and such in Canterbury, why don't we look it up in the Yellow Pages to ring and see if they've got one" then that would be fair enough - it's just local knowledge which anybody could happen to have. If, however, which seemed to be the case, she would need to ring her Dad to find out where they should look, then that would be against the rules and equally, driving to Canterbury because she thought there might be antique shops there without knowing exactly where or if they had it in stock could. Have been a wild goose chase.

I'm sure there are antique shops in Canterbury but then there are in most towns.

I don't think she meant she'd ring her dad she meant she has a basic knowledge of antiques and that Canterbury has antiques stores.

She did have a point. There would have been no harm in phoning round antique dealers in Kent and asking if any of them had one of the mirrors. Vana had a very blinkered approach assigning certain items to each sub-team. Surely the idea of the task was to see what could be bought cheaper in each place. Both teams, but the girls especially, seemed to think that French mirror, French cheese, snails, French lace must all be bought in France because there is no international trade so those items will never be found in England.

I think that would have been stupid beyond belief too. As by their very nature antiques will have been around for decades if not hundreds of years and imported into this country a long long time ago.

That's a good point which wasn't made clear on the show.
Was the specification that it had to be an actual Louis Phillipe mirror or a Louis Phillipe style mirror, which may ubiquitous in France?

Yes, that is what i thought too and it wasn't a bad suggestion to ring a few to find out and would have been perfectly within the rules.

It would have crossed a line if she'd actually rung her Dad to ask for somebody's name which is what some people seemed to think she wanted to do.

My thoughts exactly and she said it on the phone before they even went to the shop, too.