out and about :: paris flea markets

I recently found myself in Paris with a day to spare (lovely situation to be in!), and decided to finally check out the famous flea markets, having read about them on design blogs for years and been completely seduced by images of the weird and wonderful. I wasn’t disappointed.

Being a bit of a chair fanatic, I was in my element with the amazing selection of battered chairs in need of a loving home. I’m sure whether the prices were intended as an opening bid for negotiation, but sadly, these were all a million miles out of my budget – there was that, and the fact I suspect these might have slightly exceeded my hand luggage allowance.

A recurring theme was large collections of the same thing, from bottles to dolls’ heads, and I always think arranging similar things together looks great, almost no matter what they are.

Although, I must confess the dolls’ heads were a bit creepy – but not as creepy as the massive collection of dolls’ eyes! And yet somehow, I quite liked the skull…

There were of course some slightly more conventional items for sale…

…including antiques and vintage furniture from every era you could hope for.

I loved this pile of fabrics, and this pile of suitcases… piles of goodness!

I loved these frames so much I thought they could make a feature in themselves – just stacked as they are here. The unexpected, and often unintentional, combinations at the flea market were sometimes as inspirational as the items themselves.

Even the signage was getting in on the retro vibe… loving all the yellow.

And the shopping trolleys were simply fabulous…

Hands up who had a good time…

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• out and about :: marni
• out and about :: soho design walk
• out and about :: blog tour nyc
• out and about :: ventura lambrate