Sunday in Paris

Weekends in France, at least for me, mean it's time to visit the flea markets.  Paris has several, the most famous of which is the Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen, with over 3,000 vendors and a reputation for being rather high end, focusing more on antique decorator items.  On our recent visit to the City of Light, we decided instead to spend our Sunday morning at the Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves, described by Time Out magazine as being "smaller and arguably more friendly than Saint-Ouen".

First we took the #91 bus to Montparnasse subway station (a great way to see the sights above ground) and then it was just a few stops on the subway to Porte de Vanves.

It was a great flea market, lots of fascinating bits and pieces.

We had paninis for lunch here:

(they were delicious) and then bravely tried out the public washroom on the street.

The most exciting thing was discovering that when the vendors packed up at 2 p.m., they left lots of goodies behind.  We found bits of lace, old books and most exciting of all, imagine our excitement when Lisa found this old suitcase.

Later in the afternoon, we had a bit of a walkabout near the Louvre and admired the exterior of this former palace.

Dinner that evening involved meeting up with Erin, a friend from my hometown who is currently living in London, England, after discovering she was also in Paris via Facebook - gotta love social media for making connections like that!  We ate a restaurant across the street from Gare de Lyon, one of the train stations.  Lisa drew the clock tower in between courses, which impressed the waiter enough to bring a free pear liqueur with our dessert!

After which, I went back to my accommodations and had a peek through the goodies I'd picked up at the flea market that day.