I spent much of the afternoon today going through what was probably a mile of antique dealers at the local Bastille Brocante, or antique fair. In this selfie you can see the Basin de L'Arsenal behind me and the Bastille column in the distance. The Brocante goes up both sides of the Basin to the Bastille, you can see the tents along both sides behind me, and then there was a large pavilion at the Bastllle where the fancier dealers are located.
This is the indoor pavilion where the more upscale dealers were. If you wanted to buy an 18th Century ivory crucifix or an inlaid table or some family silver this was the place for you. The dealers get twitchy when you take photos, so consider yourselves spared a lengthy slideshow of every little bibelot that caught my eye. i did see an extremely lovely charcoal portrait sketch of the french academic variety that had me drooling.
I preferred the outdoor dealers who seemed abit more like a flea market, but were more fun to dig through and the prices weren't quite so high. I found a beautiful cast bronze of a child's hand (1902) that would have only set me back 280 EU. All this gorgeous old stuff made me wonder, in 100 years will people be wandering through antique shops coveting the things we make?
I also saw this little treasure which i'm sure would make someone a lovely christmas gift.....
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