Besides being the historic cradle of gypsy jazz, this mythical market hosts over five million visitors every year. We decided to do a day-long tour of this Parisian flea market, which is said to be the largest in Europe. What seemed to emanate, no matter the style or background of the dealer, was their love for the objects on display. Each item having once been conceived of, drawn, created, bought, offered, used, loved, detested, exposed, hidden, broken in an outburst of anger, fixed, abandoned, and maybe found by a grandson in the garage of a holiday home years later.
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The market is actually a grouping of 17 smaller markets β made up of endless stands, stalls and junk stores β spread over seven hectares of land.
What struck us most when we arrived was the sheer diversity: the range of items we found and people we met was dizzying. In fact, the first metres out of the Metro station was a wild competition of boys trying to sell fake perfumes and all kinds of second-hand goods we nearly got in serious trouble for trying to photograph them!
Soon we found dozens of stands lined up one after another selling just about anything from traditional African masks to the most random objects, such as hybrid taxidermy, Japanese woodcuts or keys that have no locks, all for appealing prices. The items were sometimes beautifully displayed by their owners, at other times were stacked in shapeless piles β still worth digging into. The merchants were friendly and took pleasure in telling us stories about the objects they had on display.
