Mary Anne
The best brocante and flea markets in France offer some real bargains (and a great day out as well). We all love a bargain! But visiting one of these requires forward planning. They’re very popular with the French and savvy visitors who book hotels in advance, arrive with an empty car and leave triumphantly overladen.
Best Brocante and Flea Market Fairs in North France
North France is a particularly good hunting ground for brocante and flea market fairs which is good news if you’re in the UK. Many have two a year – in Spring and Autumn. Here’s how to get to France by ferry.
Here are the top fairs.
May 9, 2024: Foire aux Puces de L’ascension, Crèvecoeur-le-Grand, Oise, Picardy. The third largest brocante and flea market fair after Lille and Amiens, over 2,200 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors descend on this pretty town on Ascension weekend. There’s a strict policy on what vendors can sell. So no clothes, food, old electronic equipment but antique silver, china, furniture, pictures and more. It’s part of the weekend’s festivities which includes fireworks and a vintage/classic car parade in this delightful town with its famous castle.
Open 9am-6pm.
Jun 16, 2024: Brocante de Maroilles. Maroilles, Nords, Hauts-de-France is known more for its smelly cheese than its brocante and flea market, but do try to come to this one. Over 600 stalls attract nearly 80,000 visitors who come for good antiques and bric-a-brac. There’s also a Salon Artisanale for local crafts over the weekend, and a lot of street entertainment.
July 14, 2024: Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Charming Montreuil-sur-Mer adds to the celebrations on Bastille Day with its annual brocante fair. It’s a small affair compared to its big brothers, but there’s still plenty to buy here from the approximately 500 stall holders who fill the streets, and with fewer crowds it’s less manic. Then there’s plenty to see at around 10.30pm, as fireworks shoot off into the sky from the Citadel.
Sep 2-3, 2023: La Grand Braderie de Lille, Lille, Nord, Hauts-de-France. This is north France’s largest fair with over 10,000 exhibitors displaying pretty well everything you could imagine and a whole lot more. It opens at 8am on Saturday and goes on all night then finishes at 6pm on Sunday. There’s a great tradition in Lille: during the fair people eat moules frites then pile up the shells outside the restaurant. It’s a local, unofficial competition to see which restaurant has the largest pile.
If you’re staying at a hotel inside the central area, remember that you cannot move your car between 7pm on Friday and 6am on Monday!
Official parking arrangements
Oct 1, 2023; 1 Apr 2024: La Grande Réderie d’Amiens, Picardy, Hauts-de-France. This is north France’s second largest fair with around 2,000 exhibitors and over 80,000 visitors coming to snatch up bargains. It started in 1909 and is always held on the second last Sunday in April and the first Sunday in October. It takes over 51 streets in the town and starts around 2am when the real bargain hunters turn up.
If you’re driving there, leave your car at the Parking du Coliseum in the centre of Parking du Port d’Aval around a 5-minute walk from the market.
Best Brocante and Flea Market Fairs in the rest of France
Central France
Chatou, Yveline, Île-de-France
Sep 22-Oct 1, 2023, Mar 8-17, 2024: Foire de Chatou. Originating from a centuries-old Ham Fair, it then became the Foire à la Brocante et aux Jambons (Flea Market and Hams Fair) in 1840. It still features food (and pork and ham) as well as oysters and wine but its main purpose is antiques, offered by over 700 dealers to 35,000 visitors.
Mail des Impressionnistes, Chatou.
Entrance €10 (free for under 15 years)
Houilles, Yveline, Île-de-France
Oct 1, 2023: La Braderie de Houilles is a major event, hosting around 2000 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors over 6 miles of stalls. Brocante items and a lot of ordinary household items from old kitchen appliances to toys.
Free entry; 7am-6pm
Durtal, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou
Sep 24, 2023: Brocante de Durtal is held around the château, always on the third weekend of September. The large outdoor fair has around 450 sellers offering everything old and antique to 20,000 or so enthusiasts.
Free entry; 7am-7pm.
West France
Nantes, Loire Atlantique, Pays de la Loire
Oct 13-15, 2023 & early May 2024: Antique shops linerue Jean-Jaurès and there’s a great brocante market every Saturday in Nantes, but the annual October market is something else. The Grande Brocante de la Place Viarme in Nantes attracts over 160 dealers selling everything, but being Nantes on the Atlantic coast, look out for nautical items and Quimper ceramics among the furniture, textiles, glasses and more.
Place Viarme; 9am-7pm
Bordeaux, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Nov 24-Dec 10, 2023 & Mar 2024: Foire à la Brocantes de Quinconces is the oldest flea market and antiques fair in the region. Over 200 exhibitors and 180,000 visitors flock to the centre of the gorgeous city of Bordeaux for the fair which offers everything from top to bottom, plus 8 places to eat.
Free entry; 10am-7pm. Tramway B and C to Quinconces stop.
South of France
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Vaucluse, PACA
29 Mar-4 Apr & 1-6 Nov, 2024: La Foire internationale Antiquités & Brocante is probably the best known (and the best organised) in France, welcoming bargain hunters from all over the world. 200 exhibitors exhibit in Gautier Park, on the quays of the Sorgue river. There are experts on hand to authenticate (or not) what you might be about to spend hundred, possibly thousands, or more likely 20 or 30 euros on. The stalls augment the 300 permanent antiques and second-hand shops set up in the town. Check out the Village des Antiquaires de la Gare, a former watermill now housing over 100 permanent dealers.
Pézenas, Herault, Occitanie
10 Oct, 2023 & 5 May, 2024: The fairs called the Grand Déballage (Great Unpacking) take place on the first Sunday of May and the second Sunday of October each year in the town with around 100 antique and brocante shops. The fairs attract over 200 dealers who arrive with everything from pictures to glassware, old linen to African art.
Free; 8am-6pm.
More about Bargain Buying in France
Other rather grander antique and brocante fairs take place all over France throughout the year. Many of them are in the main exhibition centres of the towns and cities. One of the best is in Rouen which takes place in January and October each year.
Called Puces Rouennaises it takes place in the Parc des Exposition in Rouen; entrance is €6.80 and it lasts 3 days.
Such markets around France usually have experts on hand to check authenticity. They aren’t quite as much fun as the open-air markets with their bustle and camaraderie, but they do attract genuine collectors as well as antique dealers with their own shops.
Flea Markets and Bargain Shopping in France
Discount, Outlet Shopping and Sales in France
Check out theTop Markets in Provence
Geography of France
The New Regions of France
The Departments of France
