Les Puces -- The Second-Hand Scene in PARIS

My recent trip to the Czech Republic by way of Paris explains my gap in blog entries. But fear not -- I have returned armed with information for those savvy travelers interested in the antique scene in Paris.

Paris, as some of you may know, is the birthplace of the flea market. The name "flea market" comes from the flea-ridden cast-off rags and clothing once worn by royals and merchants, sold in the makeshift pop-up storefronts along the Marches de Pouces in Paris' northern suburbs. So it was to Les Pouces de Saint Ouen that we ventured, to see where all this madness began.

(Here is their website in case you are interested.)

Our marche began in the city center. The easiest way to access Les Puces is to take the Paris Metro line 4 (maroon in color maps) to Porte de Clignancourt and exit at Porte de Clignancourt, the last stop on the northbound line. Follow the Sortie, Marches aux Puces signs. Once you exit, turn around and look for the highway overpass (white bridge). Walk underneath it, then turn left onto rue des Rosiers. From here it is difficult to give exact directions to the "best" part of the market, but for those veterans it should be easy to follow your nose past the knock-off Pepe Jeans, purses and Looney Tunes stuffed animals to where the real flea market (read: not wholesale and knock-offs) begins.

When we visited I was starting to think we might never find a real antique amidst the bad leather and keychains, but slowly, Def Leppard and Britney Spears t-shirts gave way to architectural remnants and antique light fixtures.


Here we are making our way past the wholesale and knock-off section:




To something a bit more authentic:




Look! Vintage Doc Martens! (And there were TONNES.)




There were a lot of army surplus vendors with remnants from many years and many armies:




Check out this happy soldier:





We bought a Saint Christophe medallion from this vendor (€1 or about $1.49), to keep us safe on our travels:





There was a large vintage vinyl record store, specializing in jazz and blues.




I loved this little guy, however pricey at €25 (approx. US$36.75).




The year-round flea market allows for some pretty well-established storefronts, like this dealer in architectural remnants:













Many of the other dealers had small tables of trinkets outside their shops.




We were totally surprised to find this antique cabinet at the Paris flea market:



Jem's mom owns the exact same one back in the States! We were told it had just sold for €3,500 (about US$5,145).


Look: signs in French!






Not everything was antique. There were plenty of mid-century/modern furniture and fixings to go around.










If the exchange rate were better and my suitcase bigger, I would have bought this red wire two-tiered serving platter for my friend Andrea:




The flea market seemed to go on forever...




Squirrel or Satan for your garden?




More stuff for your lawn that definitely won't fit in a suitcase:






Happy shoppers, Jem (left) and Katherine (right -- yup, that's me).




I was starting to wish I had a bigger suitcase...






Books galore.







Ooo la la!





The market is open Saturday 9:00 a.m. -- 6p.m., Sunday 10:00 a.m. -- 6 p.m., Monday 11:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m., and closed Tuesday through Friday. YEAR ROUND. (We were there in January.)