This post is the first in a series on adding a little French influence to your home. The series begins with three venues in Paris to shop for antique and vintage items.

Source: Where to Go Shopping for Antiques in Paris

Several well-placed items can add French flair to your home. This is a vintage French Champagne Gathering Basket.

There are many ways to add French influence to your home. You could buy a piece of furniture, a painting, or an objet d’art in Paris and send it home. You could distress your own furniture to make it look French Country. You could remodel your kitchen or bathroom (or parts thereof) with French accents. Or you could add natural visual elements, like wood, to give your decor for that certain French je ne sais quois (“I do not know what”). This series will cover all of these topics, just in time for spring cleaning and redecorating.

The sign says “Second-hand Antiques.”

I begin the series with information on purchasing items in Paris and sending them home. Each of the 20 arrondissements in Paris has its shops and markets to shop for antique and vintage items. Look for signs that say Antiquites (“Antiques”) or Brocante (“Second-hand market”) or a combination of the two. The markets featured here are open Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Check their websites for more information.

Carre Rive Gauche has a spectacular view of the Seine River.

Carre Rive Gauche (Left Bank Square)

Metro: Rue du Bac or Solferino

As a child of the 1970s, I associate “rive gauche” with “high class” due to Yves Saint Laurent’s fragrance of the same name, launched in 1971. Saint Laurent was a French couture designer who popularized pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) for the masses. His fragrance, Rive Gauche, was prominently displayed in a local store that, to me, was the epitome of class. I didn’t care how it smelled: I was intrigued by this product made by a French couture fashion designer who dressed one of my favorite actresses of the time, Catherine Deneuve. Talk about an effective ad campaign. I was 10 years old in 1971.

Ironically, “rive gauche” means “left bank,” an area in Paris known for its hipsters and bohemians — sort of the French version of a Greenwich Village — where Saint Laurent had his design house. Ironically or not, Carre Rive Gauche is a mostly high-end antique and objet d’art shopping area, comprising over 100 shops, on what used to be private gardens of French princess and Queen of Navarre, Marguerite de Navarre. Located in the 6th and 7th arrondissements, rue des Saints-Peres is about a 12-minute walk from Rue du Bac metro. (The shopping area: rue des St. Peres, rue de Beaune, rue du Bac, rue de L’Universite, rue de Verneuil, rue de Lille, quai Voltaire.) Carre Rive Gauche’s close proximity to several museums (Louvre, d’Orsay, Arts Decoratifs) has helped solidify a trusted relationship between its vendors and the museums.

Here are three links to galleries within Carre Rive Gauche that might have that certain French something for your home:

Galerie Altero – Glassware and furniture

Galerie F. Baulme Fine Arts – Paintings, drawings, sculptures

Galerie Francois Paul Belliard – Furniture, art objects, 18th and 19th seats (such as chaise lounges)

Le Village Suisse sign in the 15th arrondissement.

 Le Village Suisse (Website is still under construction)

Metro: La Motte Picquet Grenelle

Le Village Suisse got its name from the mini Swiss village erected in the same spot for the 1900 Universal Exposition, also known as the World’s Fair. After the Exposition, the location evolved into a place for antique shops, gallery owners and decorators to sell their wares. There are roughly 150 shops in Le Village Suisse currently.

The Village is in the 15th arrondissment, and is bordered by avenue de la Motte-Picquet and avenue Suffren. Entrances are located at 78 avenue de Suffren and 54 avenue de la Motte-Picquet.

At present, it looks like once the website is live, you will be able to search individual galleries, search for a particular object, as well as search by keywords.

Marche Malassis serves as an entrance to Marche aux Puces in Saint Ouen.

Marche aux Puces de Paris/Saint-Ouen (Flea Market)

Metro: Porte de Clignancourt or Garibaldi

I’ll venture a guess that you can probably imagine a flea market as large as a football field. What about one that is just over 13 and a half football fields? That is the size of the Marche aux Puces de Paris/Saint-Ouen, Paris’s best known flea market, often referred to as “the Paris flea market.” Fourteen markets comprise the Puces de Paris/Saint-Ouen, so if you’re looking for a particular type of item, it would be wise to check the marche website before you go — even if it’s to rule out certain markets. Not only is the marche large, but about 150,000 people visit the market every weekend.

The marche is located at Porte de Clignancourt, just north of the 18th arrondissement, and includes antique dealers, retailers, designers, craftsmen and artists. If you exit Porte de Clignancort and walk northwest toward the marche, keep walking past the vendors of inexpensive items (and who generally get in your personal space) to rue des Rosiers on the left, which is the main market street.

Three markets in the marche that could add French flair to your home:

Two chairs wait to be selected at Marche aux Puces in Saint Ouen.

Marche Cambo – 18th and 19th century furniture, earthenware, ceramics, Art Deco items

Le Passage – unusual furniture, chairs, paintings

Marche Malassis – Antiques, oriental stalls, tableware

Get the latest information on second-hand markets, every week in L’Officiel des Spectacles and the Pariscope App and on the websites Brocabrac (with calendar) and Vide Greniers.

Au revoir!

Reference: “Margauerite de Navarre,” by Wikipedia, CCBY 3.0.

Vintage French Champagne Gathering Basket by Wicker Paradise, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Second-hand Antique Shop by MetroCentric, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Carre Rive Gauche by Henri VK, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Le Village Suisse sign by Monceau, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Marche Malassis at Marche aux Puces in Saint Ouen by Brett Hammond, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Two chairs in Marche Vernaison at Saint Ouen by Edsel Little, Flickr, CCBY 2.0.