Paris 2016 - St Ouen Antiques Market

Located just north of the 17th arrondissement, the Parisian suburb of St.Ouen is home to what has been touted as the "Largest Antiques Market in the world" with an extension collection of antique shops primarily selling furniture but also jewelry, clothing, art and trinkets.  The general vibe of the St.Ouen area is a bit more gritty and urban than the historic sections of central Paris.  Graffiti and street art could be found everywhere as we walked from the metro station to reach the antique markets.

After learning that we wanted to visit "Le Marché aux Puces de Saint Ouen", our home swap hosts advised us to get off at the Garbaldi metro station as opposed to the Port Clignancourt station.  This would let us arrive at Rue des Rosiers where the majority of the antique stores were situated, without having to make our way through the massive flea market with vendors aggressively trying to hawk their wares.  As we walked south-west along Rue des Rosiers, we came upon a few smaller antique shops before we found a huge complex of shops under the banner "Marché Paul Bert Serpette".  There were over 350 different stalls within this antiques market, which was indeed larger than any grouping of antique shops that we had ever visited before.  We therefore thought that we had reached our destination and happily sent several hours wandering around.

It was not until we returned home and I started researching more in depth for this blog that I discovered that we had only visited two out of fourteen separate markets that formed Le Marché aux Puces de Saint Ouen.  Had we continued down the street, or wandered onto the parallel street Jules Vallès, we would have found many more antique markets, although many of the others were not as large as the one we did explore.  We also missed a few shops dedicated to Art Deco furnishings and art, which is a particular passion of ours.  Needless to say, on our next visit to Paris, we will have to return to this area and check out the rest of the markets.  In the meantime, we were thoroughly impressed with the ones that we did get to see.

The first market that we passed by was the Marché de l'Entrepôt (80 Rue des Rosiers) which specializes in large-scaled items including building materials, iron gates and railings, window panes, fountains, large stone sculptures, lamp posts, chandeliers and even a beautiful spiral staircase.  This would be a great place for someone who wanted to find materials to build his own manor.  A big wide driveway in front of the shops allow you to pull up a truck to haul away your purchases.

Next we came across the shop of Vincent Fortin (59 Rue des Rosiers) where we found an eclectic mix of relatively modern looking furniture that at a guess seemed to be from the 1950s-70s.  I was interested in the chair that reminded me of a baseball glove, the beautiful wood and unusual legs on an Eastern European buffet, and the coffee table with a built-in light feature.

As we stepped out of the Fortin store, we spotted an entrance for the Marché Paul Bert Serpette (110 Rue des Rosiers).  A site map identifies hundreds of stalls, laid out in numbered rows called "Allées" located both outside and inside a large warehouse.  It was raining on and off on the day we visited, so we were happy to be able to duck inside during the rain and explore the outside stalls once the weather cleared.

The 14 antique markets of Le Marché aux Puces de Saint Ouen vary in the types of items they stock for sale.  One market only deals in sportswear and trendy clothing, another offers furniture from the 17th to 19th centuries and another market's inventory includes old books, weapons, military uniforms and medals.  Although it does include some art, jewelry, clothing and other objects dating from antiquities through the 1990s, the main focus of the Marché Paul Bert Serpette seems to be furniture.  We were not particularly interested in the earlier 18th-19th century furnishings that looked like they came out of a museum, but quite enjoyed inspecting the large collection of furniture from the 20th Century.  We saw many stylish chairs, sofas, tables, cabinets, lamps and chandeliers from unknown designers and were impressed with the quality of the items on display.

We actually fell in love with a beautiful vintage 1950s Scandinavian loveseat made of soft red leather that felt so comfortable when we sat on it.  If the price hadn't been in Euros and if we did not have to pay exorbitant shipping costs on top of it, this piece might be sitting in our home today.   Rich was also enamoured with the look of a set of tan leather arm chairs with wooden arms decorated with black trim, and the matching wooden table.  I also admired the interesting shape of a bright red laquer coffee table.

We saw some weird and wacky furnishings that made us wonder where you would find a market for some of this stuff.  This included a dining room set where the chairs are painted with bright primary colours and the ceramic back of each chair is decorated with the face of some strange creature with two eyes and an upturned nose.  The base of the table is also supported by another creature, but I did not get close enough to get a good look at it.  An antique chaise lounge with gilded trim was unusually covered with the hide of a horse or some other similar animal.  One of the most unique things that we saw was not any of the furniture.  Instead, it was the electric floor panels that glowed with psychedelic lights.  This was maybe left over from the Disco age?

In terms of inventory that was not furniture, I liked a bright orange, all-leather dress (or was it a coat?) and some Art Deco jewelry.  Rich was interested in the old steamer trunks that were used for travel in the 18th to early 20th centuries and we commented on how they would definitely not meet the weight requirements of today's airlines.  Of all the art that we saw at this market, the most curious was the porcelain sculpture of a woman with her legs over her head. The figures resting on her hamstrings recreate the iconic photograph of troops raising the flag of Iowa Jima.

We did not really see much Art Deco furniture at the Paul Bert Serpette antiques market and we missed going to the Giraud Art Deco store (91 Rue des Rosiers) that presumably specializes in this style.  Looking at the Giraud website, I found out that we could have viewed some fabulous Deco cocktail cabinets.  On the day that we walked the Coulée Verte trail, we did visit the store Hifigeny, which creates custom-made  furniture and art in the Art Deco Style (as well as Baroque and contemporary styles).  I found the Deco-inspired furniture to be absolutely gorgeous but unfortunately still out of our price range despite not being original antiques.  I did have my eye on some 3-foot tall cast iron Art Deco-styled sculptures on marble bases.  Who know, one of these might actually end up in our home some day.  In the meantime, it was so much fun window-shopping at the Antiques market and various antique stores in Paris.