Bastille Antiques Fair--and a Little Nip
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2005
1
89
90
Trip End
Nov 12, 2009
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Port
The Antiques and Brocantes (second-hand) Fair at the Bastille every fall is a pay-to enter event that covers over a mile of booths, running from the Place de la Bastille and down alongside the edge of the Seine at the Port de L'Arsenel. It is an area where many people park and live on their houseboats, where paths run along the water's edge, along with a few restaurants, a garden, and a children's playground. It's a marvelous spot to take a walk, especially on a sunny, warm day (of which lately there have been few), and provides a nice view from the antique stalls set up along both sides of the quai.The antiques under the large covered tent at the entrance of the show are of high quality, but there are few of the top-end antiques that one might see at the permanent shops at the Clignancourt Markets or at the Antiques Row across from the Louvre. Still, there was a nice cross-section of French antiques.
A lovely booth of library furnishings
which I always find interesting--I like seeing what other cultures treasure--even though my taste is very far from French Rococo, Napoleonic, Baroque or Belle-Epoque. I am a rabid fan of Art Deco and Art Nouveau though, and this antiques show did not disappoint.
Guignol
Outside, on the quais along the river, the booths were much more casual, and more in line with a 'brocantes' rather than an antiques-dealer--less furniture and art, more lace and linens, children's games, dishes, silver, and seltzer bottles (if you still have any, save them--some were going for 350 euros!).I even saw some old seltzer bottles from restaurants and suppliers around France that were engraved with a Star of David. Hard to believe they survived WWII purges intact.Along the quay is where I found the brocantes selling enamelware who sold me the salt box I've long sought for my collection. I'd looked for that particular box for years and had tried to buy it at an antiques store here once before, but it was too expensive. Salt Boxes have more value if they are signed, if they are patterned, and even more if they have flowers.This one has all of that. And it was one of the only designs I still didn't have (Guirlande des Roses). To be honest, I ended up buying two boxes which helped in the negotiations, but also helped seal the fate of my collection--I really have run out of wall space. If dollars had been equal to the Euro, this would have been a much better deal, but in Euros, it was still an excellent buy.
Enamelware dealer.
Here's my LAST salt pot
One must have wines to try.
I had walked down to Bastille around 1pm--so I was at the fair during the lunch hour (1-3pm). Lunch is a period of the day that the French cherish, and I found it terribly amusing to see how at almost every stall, the proprietors took out time to set up a small table, pull out a bottle of wine, and sit down for lunch inside their booths. Never mind the throng of customers, if there were three people manning a stall, they all sat down together for their repast. So, aside from the antiques and brocantes dealers, there had to be several wine vendors. One was selling hot wine--the warmth and smell of which was scintillating.--who could resist? Lunches ranged from full meals brought in on dinner plates from one of the food booths or a nearby restaurant, or sandwiches from the bakery, to couscous take-out, often finished with a plate of bread and cheeses....but all downed with a glass of wine.
