Paris Flea Market

One of the things I thought would be fun to do while we were in Paris was the Flea Market. Les Puces de Paris St Ouen is the oldest flea market in Paris. It is only open weekends and Mondays so it worked out perfectly for us to visit. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain when we visited, but we still had a great time browsing the many stalls of new merchandise outdoors, then the antique stalls in the Markets. There are several collections of vendors in 12 different Markets. It seems as though many were closed, but we had a good time browsing around and I was pleased to find the vintage postcards I was hoping for! To get to the flea markets our instructions included getting off at the end of a subway line and following the people going under the highway overpass. Sounded a little odd, but it really was just as easy as that! I was nervous, having been warned repeatedly about pickpockets, but we never had any problems. I had a dummy wallet in the pocket of my totebag, and managed to never lose that, much less my real wallet tucked deep in the zipper pocket in the middle of my tote with my passport! You can see that despite the pouring rain there were plenty of people out shopping.

There was every kind of item available for purchase in these stalls. I ended up buying stylish "Paris" themed baseball caps for me and my husband at one of these. Inside the Dauphine Market we browsed through antique furniture, a really cool vintage clothing store (the clothes were so small!) and lots of vintage book dealers. There were dozens of stalls on different levels and we found so much to drool over. This is a book I had to take a picture of for my husband, who is a Postal Carrier! I chose about a dozen postcards from a stall that had lots of them for sale. If I happened to live in Paris I would have so much fun shopping for furniture among the cool antiques we saw in the shops here!

After shopping to our content here, we traveled by subway over to the Bon Marche for a look at the first Department Store ever! I didn't take any pictures there, but I wish I had - it was so nice. I was looking for some special souvenirs for my friends, and found wonderful kitchen towels that were perfect, so ended up buying those, and a wonderful french book on Paris for myself. We had a wonderful time browsing the goodies there - it was fun seeing all the stylish clothing, shoes, and household goods they had displayed! I enjoyed the splurge, after all it's not every birthday I get to shop at the Bon Marche!

Next installment will tell of my birthday dinner and first visit to the Eiffel Tower - very special!