Ah, the Marche aux Puces in St Ouen Clingencourt. It's yesterdays treasures and today's trash all jumbled into a chaotic maze. Armed with our map (it's not one market, it's many) we fought our way past row upon row of knock-off Nikes and cheap clothing to get to the far more interesting markets shooting off of the Rue de Rosiers. Our favourite by far is Vernaison. We were on the hunt for some cool vintage flatware, and while this place isn't where you'll find the deal of the century, the selection was vast, and there was room for wheeling amd dealing. The overall experience was fantastic. We chose these beauties from about 1880. A set of twelve. They're in pretty great shape, especially considering they've been in use longer than Vancouver has been a city. Seriously. The knives are still the original steel. One of them is a little pitted, so if you come to our house for a 12 person dinner party and you are the last person to arrive, you're getting the pitted knife. Consider yourself warned.
Our other 'treasure' is a lovely little painting done on a slat of tongue in groove. It reminded us of Normandy, which has been on our minds, and of our house. We think we have the perfect spot for it at home.
On our way home we Stopped on Caulincourt for an apero and some live music. They love their jazz trios here. Afterwards we walked to Clichy to check out the cinemas, but instead stumbled on a street book sale and rounded off our one day of shopping with some great book bargains. Loaded down with all our new treasures, we collapsed into a Belgian restaurant for espressos and a dessert that included speculos (my fave Belgian cookies) and made us excited all over again for our upcoming visit to Belgium.
Not that we're in any hurry to leave here.
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