The Social Anthropologist

Paris

Le Marche Aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves - Flea Market 

One of my most favorite things to do when visiting a city is to rummage through the local flea market. Paris is the gold mine of flea markets with three secondhand and antiquarian markets in the city, Le Marche Vernaison, Le Marche Montreuil and Le March Aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves.

We visited Puces de la Porte de Vanves on a Sunday. Located in the 14th arrondissement, between Avenue Marc Sangnier and Avenue Georges - Lafenstre in the South of Paris. We were amazed at the sheer size of the market ( 380 stalls) as well as the objects for sale. Everything from teapots to typewriters, furniture to furs, nick nacks from the 18th and 19th centuries flooded the tiny stalls that dotted the streets for miles. As we walked, we talked about the temptation to start your own importing business so that people from other countries could be privy to the beauty of the objects we were finding.

A few things caught our eye including a set of gold dessert forks, a tea pot set and a stack of front pages from the Parisian Journal printed over 100 years ago. To date we are not sure whether they are real or fake but mounted on the wall they look fantastic all the same and scream vintage cool. The flea markets are definitely worth a visit, but remember to dress appropriately in winter. The longer you walk the colder you get…..I think frostbite was about to set in which heralded our departure much to my disdain as two hours was just not long enough.