Treasures and treats

Another day, another Paris flea market.  This time we traveled to the north edge of the city, the Puces de Saint Ouen.  It's the biggest and most famous antique market here.  It's crammed with small shops and stalls, over 2000 of them!  No, we didn't make it to every one.  It's a labryinth of treasures. There's something for everyone; silver cutlery, dishes, bakalite, posters, postcards, acres of furniture and paintings.  

Here are some things we specially enjoyed: 

The Steve McQueen store.  All vintage American sportswear (letterman jackets and sweaters) and military clothes from late fifties and early sixties.  It even had a Steve McQueen mannequin out front dressed exactly as he appeared in The Great Escape. Supercool. 

Cool Cameras- actually kinda junky cameras, but Ned is now obligated to pose in front of any wall of cameras.

One of the hundreds of snaking streets.

Finally, the treasure of the day, the porte clés stand.  Porte clés were overzealously manufactured French key rings used by just about every company that did business in France in the 60's.  They are surprisingly well designed and charming.  A terrific piece of 60's cool France to slip in your bag.  And this woman, Françoise Chappuy is the leading expert on porte clés.  She literally wrote the book, the collectors guide to them and has a stall of them at the market.

These are our treasures: [from the top left]- a sixties squirrel, Air France, 1962 RTF Television/Radio, Echo de La Mode (a french fashion magazine), [bottom row] Poclain- earth moving equipment and it actually simulates the movement, Total - a petrol company(movable), Berliet- a truck company (movable) and 1965 shipping company.  Awesome.

Exhausted and hungry, we stumbled into Bistro Paul Bert for a late 2 course lunch and a drink.  Ned had duck confit Melissa had sauteed shrimp. Yum.

 Back in St. Germain on the way back home, we saw this bizarre parade.  This naked guy in the grass cage is hugging a bottle of booze and his followers were in nonsensical costumes-- jellyfish hats, monks, sailors, knights, kings, prisoners.  They were marching up the street stopping at bars and taking shots from their sommelier wine sampling neckaces.  Even weirder, it was 3:00 on a Monday afternoon.

We finished off the evening with treats from Pierre Herme.  Melissa had read that he was a must try. The fancy store was a bit intimidating, but I pointed to a few avant-garde pastries, 6 euros each!  The vanilla tarte was fantastic - white chocolate, marzapan creme and madagascar vanilla, and the Plasirs Sucre- milk chocolate wafers hazelnut crisp and chocolate ganache.  They really were better then we thought they were going to taste (we thought they'd be good, but they were fantastique!)  A perfect way to finish off the day.