To Market, to Market

Yesterday afternoon my friend Carrie, from high school, and a friend of hers that she met in Besancon (Charlottesville’s sister city!) came to Paris to stay with us for a few days.  This morning we all trekked out to the Puces St. Ouen, a lengendary flea market just outside the city limits to the north.  As soon as we got out of the metro, it was as if we stepped into a shopping city.  Guys on streetcorners tried to push fake designer bags and sunglasses, while others ripped off tourists playing three card monte, and in between the streetside stands of the “renegade” market sold everything from batteries and combs to clothes.

Paris puces: the everything market

Paris puces: the everything market

We had the best luck at these renegade market stands because they sold the less expensive scarves and jewelry that we were looking for, but we also ventured into the labyrinth of the “real” market, which had its own maps and “submarkets.”  Here there were lots of antiques: old maps, jewelled crowns, mirrors, rugs.  Basically anything and everything.

I didn’t think I was going to buy anything, since I usually despise haggling over prices…it’s somewhere up there on the list of things I hate most with splinters/discovering too late there’s no toilet paper in the bathroom/drying off with a wet towel.  But somehow this time, maybe because it was in French, or maybe just because I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money, I actually had a lot of fun bargaining and walking away feeling like I had gotten a good deal.

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