We started out today headed for the Louvre to see the recently opened series of 18th century rooms that had been undergoing an update over the last couple years. On the way we decided to go to a little Brocante that was just across the canal on the Rue de Flandres thinking it would be 8 or 9 local people getting together to sell garage sale type things, BIG Mistake. We got over there and it was over a hundred booths setup selling everything under the sun. Paintings, clothing, cameras, collectibles of every sort and description. Needless to say we immediately changed course because what's the use of being a flaneur if you can't view the street life of Paris up close and personal? I got to feeling like a 1.8 meter pile of S**t because every time I stopped to get out of the basic flow I seemed to be surrounded by flys just circling around me to grab and inspect suddenly fascinating bits and pieces of things. Seriously this was a sort of frantic conga line, all these tiny and not so tiny madames ready to body check you out of the way. I loved it!
We toured the entire length, probably a kilometer in length twice and even managed to snag a couple things we absolutely could live without, but were so interesting that we opened the pocketbook. A 19th/early20th century terracotta bust, a 1909 etching of construction of the Paris Metro near Notre Dame, and a 1960's Paris street atlas, a silver plate fork & spoon, and some regional sausages. The Louvre will be there Monday but this market won't.
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