PARIS FLEA MARKET

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 18 September 1959, Page 19

PARIS FLEA MARKET

Wide Variety Goods (From a Reuter Correspondent) PARIS. When tourists venture into Paris's shabby northern suburbs it is almost certain that they are on their way to the marche aux puces, or flea market. The market, the Paris equivalent of London’s pre-war Caledonian market, was established more than 60 years ago by a handful of pedlars on the plain of Saint Guen, north of the city. It has been expanding ever since and is now featured in every guide book and is an important source of foreign currency. The pioneers who set up their stalls at Saint Ouen were soon joined by other wandering merchants whose main goods for sale were inexpensive mattresses. Perhaps, unfairly, it was said that these mattresses harboured fleas, even before purchase, and so the market got its name. It has stuck ever since. In the years that followed, refugees from all over Europe and immigrants from as far away as the Middle East, drifted into the market. Some stayed only a short time. Many settled down. In certain parts of the market today, the visitors hear more Yiddish, Polish and Arabic spoken than French. And in the evenings behind their caravans, youngsters with the swarthy skins and dark eyes of Algeria play football with blue-eyed Slavs while their parents eat couscous and goulash and talk of home In the early days, some lucky art dealers reported picking up for a few francs pictures which had been sold for a sandwich or a glass of wine by such painters as Ut-rillo in previous days and which had somehow found their way into the market. Such finds are rare indeed nowadays, though antique merchants in the market have been known to leave a film of dust on some piece of bric-a-bac to render it more attractive to the bargain hunter. Many of the stalls offer nothing more exciting than sweets, or artificial silk scarves printed with views of Paris. Others lay out such an assortment of broken and chipped ornaments, mildewed books and rusty ironmongery that the puzzle is how the owner ever makes a sale Entertainment Entertainment has its place with commerce and between purchases the visitors can watch “Miss Suzy,’’ a striptease queen who, according to the bill at the door of her booth, has just returned from a triumphal tour of the United States. If his tastes are more robust he can watch a man wrestle with a crocodile or take on an ageing negro boxer, whose eyes are puckered were the sear tissue of a thousand fights,' and win 10.000 francs if he is still on his feet after four rounds. Only those with a particularly delicate sense of smell could fail to find some interest in the massive array of nourishment, entertainment, culture and junk which the 1500 stalls present. 4