When planning this trip to Paris with my daughter, I had a list of places I simply had to see. I’ve had 60 years to imagine Paris through all the movies and television programs I’ve watched, so there were a few obvious stops: the Eiffel Tower, of course; the Musée d’Orsay to see the Impressionists; the Louvre and the Winged Victory of Samothrace; and both Notre-Dame and Sainte-Chapelle to admire the beauty of these iconic churches.
My daughter had only one request of her own: she wanted to visit the Paris flea markets.
So, I did a little research. There are a number of flea markets scattered throughout Paris, but the most famous is the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, just north of the city. Since our time in Paris was short, we decided to make the most of our morning. The plan was to take a taxi from our hotel in the 8th early on Sunday, explore the market for a while, and then make our way down to Montmartre to visit Sacré-Cœur and have some lunch.
I had read that the market is enormous—the largest flea market in Europe—with around 1,700 vendors. We knew there was no way we could see everything, so we would simply explore until we were ready for lunch.
Our taxi dropped us off, and somehow we managed to take a wrong turn almost immediately. I later learned this is what was known as the “Clignancourt trap.” Instead of arriving at the charming, eclectic flea market we had envisioned, we found ourselves diverted into a long, uninterrupted row of street vendors selling cheap knockoffs.
And it was not easy to get out. The crowds and vendors seemed to funnel us farther and farther into the fray. We couldn’t find an obvious way to escape, so we finally did an about-face and retraced our steps back to where we had started. This time, we found our way to the real flea market.
And it was worth it.
Once we found the right place, the market was exactly the kind of place we had hoped to discover. We wandered through La Galerie Dauphine, one of the many covered areas of the market, taking in the seemingly endless assortment of treasures.
There were vendors selling small items such as postcards, jewelry, books, photographs, record albums, street numbers, keys, just to name a few, while others had much larger pieces on display—elaborate suites of furniture, grand chandeliers, and all sorts of wonderfully curious objects.
Oh, and there was that small spaceship. I’m still not quite sure if it was for sale.
Since we didn’t have much room left in our suitcase, our purchases had to be on the smaller side. I found a small milk crate, which now holds my collection of decorated place cards. My daughter found a beautiful painting and a very cool glass negative, which pretty much drained the last of my euros.
Not a bad way to spend them.
With our treasures in hand and our suitcase a little heavier, we headed off to Montmartre for lunch.
More on that later!
