Paris Shopping: The Flea Market

The Different Markets in the Paris Flea Market complex:

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Vernaison Market : the original market, and the cheapest: bric-a-brac heaven! The whole place, including the little stalls, is covered in Virginia creeper. Don't mis the Chez Louisette restaurant.

Malik market : the place to come for second-hand clothes, old uniforms, helmets, leather jackets, trainers, cameras, incense, make-up etc. The atmosphere is more like that of the Forum des Halles in Paris than that of a second-hand goods market.

Biron Market : the upmarket market: more expensive stuff, e.g. top quality old furniture, gilt wood, glassworks and porcelain.

Jules Vallès Market : slightly off the main track, but worth a detour. Traditional flea market spirit: unusual objects, posters, antique weapons, bronzes, books or records and a host of other things.

Paul Bert Market : surrounds the Serpette market. Shop furnishings, Parisian bistro furniture, garden ornaments, decorative ornaments from the first half of the 20th century, Renaissance objects, Primitive Art and so on.

Cambo Market : A completely restored area on two floors with twenty dealers. High quality selection of furniture and fine arts from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Serpette Market : not only for fashionable goods, but also for art nouveau, up until the 1940s. Reputation for being expensive.

Malassis Market: The usual antique dealers, with some thematic boutiques e.g. oriental stands, tableware, bistrot furniture, naval objects, a writer’s library or artist’s studio, collectors of watches, toys, postcards, etc., pearly trimmings and jewellery. Also twentieth century stuff, especially furniture.

Antica Market : A miniature market, just a dozen stands in an elegant gallery alongside the Vernaison Market. Objets d'art, tapestries, ornaments, Art Deco, Napoleon III, etc.

Rosiers Market : Just ten stalls, which specialise in light fittings, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, glasswork and bronzes from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. Gallé, Lalique and Daum, lithographs by Mucha, lacquerware by Dunand and furniture by Majorelle.

L'Usine : This market is not open to the general public.

L'Entrepôt : The traders here specialise in out of the ordinary, outsized pieces: monumental staircases, bookcases and woodwork from stately homes, even a garden pavilion and a castle gate. Also bric-a-brac and more traditional furniture.

Dauphine Market : 6,000 m2 of floor space holds around 180 antiques and bric-a-brac merchants. Anything from a Renaissance period dresser to the rarest texts from the Torah, not to mention the collections of saucy corsets and underwear or the thousands of rare books, the 18th century gilt wood pieces or inspired decorative pieces from the 1930s and 40s.

Next page : How to get to the Paris Flea Market