The Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine flea market attracts five million visitors every year. They are one of the biggest antiques markets in the world.
Just north of Paris, the seven-hectare site offers a unique venue for 1,700 dealers, who have formed an association to help organise the events! All time you can discover the Saint-Ouen Flea Market.
Every weekend of the year, the Saint-Ouen flea market opens its vast attic to the public, where you can find everything from furniture and crockery to rare objects! Hundreds of merchants set up stalls and shops, as well as guinguettes, bars and brasseries.
Whether you’re looking to furnish yourself at a lower cost or to perfect your knowledge of the arts, the flea markets are teeming with finds and objects of great diversity and at all prices. The association that runs the flea market is doing everything it can to ensure that it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The origins of the Puces de Saint-Ouen
After the 1870 war, regulations governing the dumping of household waste prohibited the placing of rubbish at the foot of buildings. This ban was the birth of the Puces. The ragpickers set up their shacks on the Malassis plain at the foot of the fortifications.
The finds collected during the night were unpacked every Sunday. The Flea Market adopted its name in 1904, at which time fairground vendors, refreshment stands and scrap merchants set up shop.
Following the First World War, the Puces began to urbanise. In 1920, 150 prefabricated wooden huts were erected. Then 220 shops were built for the second-hand dealers of Saint-Denis. In 1938, there were 120 dealers in the concrete hall on rue Jules Vallès.
Further expansions took place in 1946 and again in 1977, when the market merged and expanded. In the 1980s, a number of craft premises were taken over, creating the Puces network as we know it today!
A place with twenty centuries of history
This flea market is an open-air museum, where every style can be found side by side! The curious, the specialists, everyone can be satisfied. Stalls are filled with objects from a wide variety of eras, and collectors and researchers alike can make extraordinary discoveries. Famous people have lived here, and it was at the Puces de Saint-Ouen that gypsy jazz was born!
From the rediscovered past to futuristic and innovative recycling!
This flea market is a place of inspiration for creativity, for artists and craftspeople who want to recycle and create works of art by reusing materials or objects.
You can find scrap metal, old metal and objects that need to be restored. From the outset, the Puces de Saint-Ouen has been a place for recycling industrial fabric. The Puces de Saint-Ouen is emblematic for having been one of the forerunners in the world of second-hand goods!
The market is also modern, with a digital version and many stalls have their own e-shop. The Puces de Saint-Ouen is a dynamic market that works with the Maison & Objet trade fair, and organises an annual family festival that attracts tens of thousands of guests!
Design and the search for style
Finally, it’s a unique place for inventing and imagining new styles. Strolling through the alleys and lanes, you can completely rethink your interior and find pearls for furnishing your home.
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