{paris flea market find}

Leaving the famous Marche Aux Puces french flea market empty-handed last month didn't discourage me from staying on the hunt for a fabulous flea market find to bring home with us.  A couple weekends ago, my girlfriend invited me to go check out the smaller street flea market in the south of Paris called Puces de Vanves.  This little outdoor flea is much smaller with temporary stalls set up early in the morning.  Most of the stalls here sell small house wares or artwork and the prices were much more in line with what I am used to from trips to the Rose Bowl or Long Beach flea markets back in California.  

I spotted the lighter of these two floral oil paintings sitting in the back of a stall and when I asked the owner if I could get a closer look he pulled out both the light and the more vibrant painting for me as they were to be sold as a pair.  I hesitantly asked for the price and was pleasantly surprised when he told me 42Euro for both!!  Some quick and friendly haggling had me walking away with both of these floral oil paintings for 30Euro total!  A total steal if you ask me since I would probably be willing to spend that much for just the gorgeous gold frames alone.  Each oil painting is about 16" by 20" contained in a thick wood frame and appears to be in great condition.  I cannot wait to get these home to find the perfect place for them to live in our home. 

   

{a day at the paris flea market}

One of the things at the top of my list for our time here in Paris was a trip (or two or three) to the world famous flea market.  Two weekends ago we hopped on the metro with some fellow friends from Chris' MBA program and spent the better half of a day wandering around the expansive markets.  I did a little research on what markets are best to start off with since the area is so expansive that there is no way to see everything in one day.  After reading Jordan's write up (seriously my biggest source while we have been here) and the overview on A Girls Guide, I decided on visiting Marche Dauphine, Marche Paul Bert & Marche Serpette.

There are two main things on my list that I would love to bring home as a reminder of our time living in Paris, one is an absinthe fountain (because I love absinthe and it would be beautiful to display on our bar!) and the other is a cool piece of art (preferably something on the smaller side since I would probably have to ship it home).  Unfortunately, I found neither of these things on our trip and came home empty handed because what I didn't realize about the Paris flea market is that it is craaaaazy expensive.  We are talking about walking across some random art laying on the ground outside of a merchant's stand and you ask for the price and the answer is "oh that is $3,500."  Um, what?  Perhaps the markets I chose are the more expensive ones as they are the ones that lean towards home decor/furnishings, but I had no idea it would be that expensive.

Don't get me wrong- we had soooo much fun wandering around for hours and hours looking at all the amazing antiques.  Every single stall was filled to the brim with things I would have gladly brought home- not to mention how inspiring it was just to see everything.   This was definitely not my last trip to the flea market as I intend to go back in a few weeks when the weather is nicer to continue my hunt for my wishlist items and to find the elusive markets that are more reasonably priced.  We are also planning on taking a little trek out to the twice yearly flea market in March.

If you do plan on taking a trip to the flea market during a vacation in Paris, I would recommend you read this post on exactly how to get there. 

 {I really wanted this leopard, but he was a cool 5K so Chris kindly steered me away.}

 {you guys. this dress. unfortunately it was a bit too small otherwise it would be hanging in
my mini closet in our paris apartment. I mean....look at it!}

{We stopped into Ma Cocotte for a cup of coffee- the entire place is designed by Phillip Starck so it's a fun modern place to relax for a minute.  We also ate lunch at this place and it was spectacular!}

So have you been to the Paris flea market? Whats the best market to find awesome deals at?!?

{new flea market finds}

{slat bench found at The Vintage Bazaar}

In our first couple weeks here in Chicago, we have been having a lot of fun checking out all the little flea markets and vintage stores around the city.  I have no idea why, but the selection at the flea markets here is really amazing and extremely reasonable.  The very first flea market we checked out, we found this amazing slat bench (above) for the end of our bed.  We scored this great bench for only $120 and I am sure it will be the type of piece that always finds a great home in any place we live.   Here are some of the other fun finds we picked up recently:

 {I have been looking for a black trophy vase like this forever. I can't wait to see it filled 

with deep fuchsia peonies next spring!}

{selection of vintage drink stirrers for dressing up cocktails.  I especially  love the pink

 flower ones for a girls night}

{a pair of vintage frames which I spray painted gold for our black/gold bathroom.  Chris and I spent a solid 30 or 40 minutes searching around on google images trying to find the right set of photos for these. I love the muted/faded look of these two images contrasted with the rich gold.}

{alright so this isn't vintage, but it is from a cute little store in the downtown area next to our place and I love it so I'm sharing it here.  I'm not sure how much more summer weather we have left here so I plan to take full advantage of wearing this as much as possible before it gets too cold!}

{flea market finds}

On Sunday we headed over to the monthly Rose Bowl flea market in search of a few different things including book ends, serving trays, and glazed planters. Although we didn't find anything on our wish list, we didn't go home empty handed. I purchased two bright vintage dresses for $12 each which I can't wait to wear once the weather warms up. We also found a small vintage filing cabinet that we figured would be perfect to house our spices. We used to store our spices using velcro on the inside of our cabinet doors, but the cabinets in our new place are too shallow so we have been in search of a new solution. The spice containers are from Specialty Bottle and the labels are from Cost Plus (similar ones here).