To add this cracking neighbourhood sure is funky replete with little independent boulangerie, excellent antique stores and last but not least the quite excellent vintage clothing store Pou Paule that proffers incredible fifties brand new dead stock such as gabardine shirts, barnstormer leather coats and an abundance of mint condition ladies dresses and blouses from the 1920s to the fifties. I bought a pair of dead stock fat fifties moccasin topped lace ups for a ton that I have rarely taken off since. As for the hotel itself the staff made nonsense of that old adage that Parisians are rude as, so helpful and
cheerful, other hotel staff I have encountered pale into insignificance. To add, my room although somewhat bijou, was perfect and the breakfast simply astonishing. Was especially nice eating breakfast to the strains of gentle soul music rather than the trite EDM that so many hotels and shops proffer?
Vintage clothing store Pou Paule
After dropping off the bags and a swift café I made my way to le Puce (the flea`) located outside Metro Pte de Clignancourt in the suburb of St Oulen but not, specifically for the market, but to enjoy a typical Parisian lunch of snails and bœuf bourguignon (with the most amazing French bread) and a carafe or two at the Chez Louisette, a marvellous little café where you’ll catch one of their septuagenarian crooners delivering a touch of Aznavour, Chevalier or even a Gallic rendition of ‘My Way’. This kitsch throwback to an age well missed is a Paris institution that is nothing less than essential. Subsequently, I had a little look around the market where one might find everything from snide trainers and tourist tat to flick knives, authentic fifties’ Americana, superb Art Deco objet d’art and original pre war French couture. Undeniably, the big flea isn’t what it was in the eighties but, all you have to do is walk past the tack and go North West past Bd. Peripherique past all the cheap rubbish then, you will find the SWPL district and Marché aux Puces de Paris [PHOTO NUMBER 4]. Here you will find still find stall after stall full of the most incredible items. The only bad thing is that I wanted to buy everything as this market is perhaps the best in the world for class furniture and objet d’art – unsurpassable deco excruciating nouveau, fabulous fifties, sixties and primitive. Next time I move I will bring a truck and fill up with such and have the finest pad in London in a jiffy. To add, the vintage clothes stalls are on another level from our UK counterparts and not expensive, I bought a 1950s leather barnstormer coat I for 60 euros, a 1940’s leather satchel for 20, and a large carved garden hoe from Burkina Faso for Euro 80. One store Falabas is one of the finest vintage clothing stores I have ever seen that , specialising in ladies from the twenties to fifties, is shocking. Amazingly, they stock mint condition women’s forties Schiaparelli dresses that Joan Crawford would have been proud to own alongside fifties Dior hats, original Carmen Miranda style little platforms and all manner of accessories still in their packets. By all the heavens the French do vintage so well.
Left, Marché aux Puces de Paris.
Below, Unsurpassable deco excruciating nouveau and One store Falabas