#Treasures found in the #markets in #southern #France

In a previous blog, I wrote about the amazing produce, cheese, meats, pastries and breads that can be found in the le marché, market, in France. There are other markets in France called marchés aux puces, the Flea Markets. They are held on a regular basis, either weekly or monthly. Enthusiasts may also wish to check out the many periodic fairs and vide-greniers (basically, "emptying the attics") that take place on a less frequent basis in communities across France.

There are hidden treasures, bric-à-brac or knick-knacks to be found at these markets. You must be in the mood to shift through piles of clothes, boxes of books or racks and racks of items, to find that one hidden gem that you can not live without.

At the marchés aux puces in Mirepoix, we stumbled across a vender selling box after box of books. Mini-Lili loves her books, especially Les Schtroumpfs, (the Smurfs), Asterix and Obelix, Boule & Bill, and Tintin. So we started our search... book after book, box after box until we struck gold! 3 Les Schtroumpfs!! Which one to buy? We had given Mini-Lili 10 Euros to spend at this market. Each book was 7 Euros each. She looked at each one, read a few pages from each one and then decided.

That evening at dinner Mini-Lili read her purchase. As you can see from the picture above (wearing sunglasses that were also purchased at the market by her papa), she was very pleased with her purchase and very involved with the story all throughout dinner.

I recommend visiting at least one marchés aux puces while travelling in France. Marché aux Puces de Paris-Saint-Ouen de Clignacourt is the world’s largest flea market, located on the outskirts of Paris. It features almost 3,000 stalls that sell everything from antiques to cheap clothing. My favourite is in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Often called the antiques capital of France and sometimes the Venice of France, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has the largest marchés aux puces outside of Paris, and many antique and bric-a-brac dealers set up shop all year round.
Happy treasure hunting!