Marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen — Attraction in Saint-Denis

It's okay to look, but everything else about it sucks. Maybe because I am a tourist, but they were not willing to negotiate on prices. This wasn't like a "Oh it's €5,-? I'm only willing to pay €0,50". These were ridiculously expensive all around. Whenever you tried to negotiate, they would insist the price was right because "It's vintage, it's old." Yeah, I know what a flea market is for. But because it's old and secondhand, it's (supposed to be) cheap. Of course, I get that rare pieces can get pricier, but these weren't rare items.

As seen in the photos, simple teacups were €18,- a pop, not for a set or a deal. €45,- for a doorknob. The fourth picture, wanna guess? The ceramic water jug was €220,-. And again, if that jug was a rare find, I'd get. But EVERYTHING is priced like that. The table set (picture five) was €700,-. And this lady was selling vintage prints and postcards. One (1) postcard was €10,-.

I did meet one kind, old Scotish man who had reasonable prices. Also no negotiating, but I bought this lovely medium-sized print (including the frame) for €10,-. I went past like 80% of the stores and only found two that were reasonably (albeit still a bit expensive) priced. Might sound great till you remember that this is the largest flea market in Europe.

Do visit if you have €1000,- and up to...

5-star rating for the experience. You can find everything from junk on the sides of the streets to high-grade antiques in specialised shops. Don’t expect to find any bargains here. Everything is at the top level of the price range for the condition its in, or way overpriced (except perhaps for the junk mentioned above). I sincerely recommend it for the experience, for a few and surprisingly good cafés that are among the shops, and for bying interesting things if you can find them and if you can afford the asking price. Some price haggling can be had, but not much. Expect to spend quite a few hours walking around. (I never manage to spend less than 3-4 hours per visit and I could easily spend double that time, despite having been there for at least 4-5 times.) The things that one can see, are incredible. The place is alive only on weekends. I have gone there on weekdays and almost everything is closed. Saturday is probably the best day to visit. Highly recommended if you like that sort of...

An ENORMOUS collection of vendors selling artwork, clothing, furniture, kitchenware, and vintage and antiques of all types. You can easily spend a half day to full day here - there is that many vendors. Pricing overall was on the high end, but there is huge variance. You can find 400 EURO picture frames and also 10 EURO costume jewelry.

If you have space in your luggage and have some specific things in mind - it’s worth the trip.

Some cautions -

It’s not well organized so you have to walk through a lot of corridors either vendors selling a mishmash of different item categories.

It’s overall not cheap. Don’t come here if you’re bargain hunting. You’ll suffer from sticker shock.

It’s a hike from the center of Paris. So don’t come here if you only have an hour to spend and the metro ride is 45 minutes or...