The "other" Paris flea markets...

For the first two weeks of my stay in Paris, I was staying with my daughter and her boyfriend near the Père-Lachaise cemetery. They didn't get up very early so on a Sunday I trucked over to the market, across the highway from metro stop Porte-de-Montreuil.

At first I thought I was in the wrong place because all I saw was a highway overpass bridge and a huge roundabout. Then I saw, huddled under this huge building, the lines of umbrellas and stands...

This "marche aux puces" is open from 7:30 am - 5:00 pm on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I got there around 8:15 and a lot of merchants were still setting up, which is quite entertaining to watch - they squeeze their vans into the tiny spaces between the rows of booths and the neighboring shopkeepers help them so nothing (much) gets knocked over.

There are quite a few booths with used clothes piled high and scores of used shoes and boots. People were tearing avidly through the piles, but not in a frightening way - they were methodical rather than aggressive.

There were many vendors selling new "stuff" from shower curtains and bath towels to hardware fixtures. And there were the booths that appeared to be portable garage sales - just the miscellany of a person's life. And then, some of my favorites: scary dolls. See below.

All I bought at this market was a little necklace for my mentee, but if I the weather had suddenly turned cold, this would have been a good place to pick up a jacket to wear for the rest of my stay and then to throw out if I decided I didn't like it.

I took the subway to the bottom of the hill, the actual heart of (and terminus of) the rue Mouffetard outdoor market. There was an accordionist playing and an older couple was waltzing, doing the tango, and encouraging others to dance; a friend was distributing song sheets so the audience could sing along. While I was watching, the church bell rang and mass let out; I watched the priest saying goodbye to his parisioners.

Again, I wasn't really in the market for anything but I bought some cherries just to be supportive. The street winds steeply uphill and is full of cheerful pedestrians. It was just lovely.

I was blow away by how huge and wonderful this sprawling open air garage sale - antique store - curiosities shop megaplex was. I took the subway down there and spent hours. Go early or you won't have time to see everything before the merchants start packing up their booths!

I bought most of my souvenirs here: two pieces of handmade lace for 1 euro each, two clay masks from Gambon (the vendor told me they served as passports?) for a total of 30 euros, and a few other assorted goodies. I wish I'd gotten there earlier.

Watch out, there is only one toilet for the whole place. Inconceivable.

I probably wouldn't have bothered with this one except it was close to where I stayed for the third week of my trip. It's a nice walk there and it's in quite an old section, which I always like. It's dominated visually by the big building that looks like a railway station and which is full of shops (including the one with the suckling pigs on a spit, see below). I did buy some melon here and it was delicious.