Weekend tip: la Brocante

My favorite season started: brocante season! Visiting a flea market on Sunday is like a national sport here in France. After visiting numerous marchés aux puces, I must admit that I became quite addicted to the art of junk hunting. It's a nice opportunity to visit new places in the Oise, discuss (or negotiate!) with locals and maybe find that one thing that I've always wanted but didn't know I needed.

The best online resource to find out if there's a marché aux puces going on somewhere nearby is vide-greniers.org. The site really hurts my eyes, but has very up-to-date info on brocantes all accross France. You simply select the region or département of your choice and off you go. I always prefer the vide-greniers (empty your attic) over the brocantes, because it's more exciting when there are less professionals selling their overpriced antiques. Simply strolling around the streets, watching people and their old stuff… aahhh I love Sunday mornings!

My best find ever was a pair of near new Ann Demeulemeester riding boots for 10 euros. Unfortunately they were too small for me, so they were sent off to a lucky Australian eBayer…
Do you like visiting flea markets? And what's your favorite brocante treasure?

12 thoughts on “Weekend tip: la Brocante

  1. Happy weekend!! And happy junk hunting!! I think it is an art in itself, unfortunately I never learned to enjoy the hunt. I think maybe when I get older!!

  2. In the past I wasn't so into flea markets, but since we are in SF, I love them. We visited the Alameda Flea Market, the biggest one in NoCal with over 800 sellers and it was great, besides that I got sunburn. Unfortunately here are not so many organized flea markets, more garage sales. And it's difficult to find them. But however, I love them!

    Happy hunting!
    Ana

    1. Thanks Ana! Massive flea markets with 800 sellers don't exist in the Oise… There's this huge braderie in Lille but there are lots of professional sellers which is less fun I think. What kind of stuff did you find in SF?

  3. I just love flea markets. I am so exhited because in my city, Berlin, just started the flea markets season (during winter time it was too cold)

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