Best Markets in Paris / Food shops

A spiky aluminium-and-marble concoction is the unlikely location for France's second largest art market – though it is now rivalled by Sotheby's and Christie's. Inside, escalators take you up to a number of small salerooms, where everything from medieval manuscripts and antique furniture to oriental arts, modern paintings, posters, jewellery and fine wines might be up for sale. Details of forthcoming auctions are published in the weekly Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, sold at various newsstands around the city.

Address: 9 rue Drouot 9e Paris
Opening hours: 11am-6pm Mon-Sat. Auctions 2pm Mon-Sat

Every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, free your inner geek at the Marché aux Timbres (stamp market) on the Champs Elysées (corner of avenues Gabriel and Marigny). Aside from millions of stamps from across the world, you’ll find old postcards, some with hand written messages, others simply yellowed by the passing of time.  Stamp collecting is serious business in France, so expect lots of professionals scouring the stalls, as well as parents with children looking for something special to treasure. The market also opens on most bank holidays.

Address: Avenue Marigny 8e Paris
Opening hours: Thu, Sat-Sun 8am-7.30pm
Access: Metro Saint-Philippe-du-Roule

With its idyllic shopping ambiance on the Montmartre hill, this second-hand market is a favourite haunt of Sunday brunchers making their lazy way around the neighbourhood. You’re more likely to run into artists and locals rather than tourists at this tiny but charming market, rummaging among old paintings and knick-knacks, lamps and art deco accessories, vintage postcards and jewellery by young designers. Perfect for taking a break, coffee or hot chocolate in hand, and having a wander.

Address: Place des Abbesses 18e Paris
Access: Metro Abbesses

Covering seven hectares, 3,000 traders and up to 180,000 visitors each weekend, the Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen is generally thought to be the biggest flea market in the world. If this conjures up images of a sprawling field filled with broken bed frames, faded curtains and sofas with the stuffing coming out, you're in for a surprise (and are better off going to the Montreuil version). The fleas left long ago, and since 1885 what started as a rag-and-bone shantytown outside the city limits has been organised into a series of enclosed villages, some entirely covered and others with open-air streets and covered boutiques for the antiques dealers. 

Address: Avenue de la Porte de Clignancourt 18e Paris
Phone: 01.40.12.32.58
Opening hours: 11am-5pm Mon; 9am-6pm Sat & Sun
Access: Metro Porte de Clignancourt

Less famous (and charming) than its older brother up north in St-Ouen, Montreuil’s flea market is where real folk rifle for antiques nowadays; mostly because it’s off the beaten tourist track so you can still get a bargain and find the occasional treasure. You’ll find pretty much everything, from vintage clothes and toys to old cutlery, 1940s light-fittings, furniture and antique glassware. Just be patient: you have to walk past stands selling arrays of junk before you get to the little square where the best dealers are (at the end of the alley alongside the periphérique). Haggling is par for the course bien-sur, so put on your best French accent and don’t give up until the price is right!

Address: Avenue du Professeur André Lemierre 20e Paris
Opening hours: Sat-Mon 7am-7pm

One of the biggest markets in Paris, the Marché Bastille's food stalls sprawl up the Boulevard Richard Lenoir twice a week, with more produce than most hypermarkets – it's a particularly great source of local cheeses, free range chicken and excellent fish. The atmospheric and beautiful piles of fruit, veg, saucisses, olives and so on are interspersed with stalls offering African batiks, cheap jewellery and bags, but that doesn't detract from the overall sense of bountiful goodness. Keep an eye on the prices, as not everything is a bargain – some of this is seriously classy stuff, making the market a favourtie with bourgeois foodies.

Address: Boulevard Richard Lenoir 11e Paris
Opening hours: Thu 7am-2.30pm; Sat 9am-6pm (arts & crafts); Sun 7am-3pm

This 'wonderful, narrow crowded market street', as Hemingway described it in 'A Moveable Feast', still sports bright and bustling stalls of fruit and veg in its cobbled lower stretches (its upper extremities largely harbour student bars and touristy shops), its atmospheric buildings making it one of the city’s loveliest street markets. Many grocers – also hawking charcuterie, patés, seafood, cheeses and sticky patisseries – only select organic and fair-trade goods. On Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings, Mouffetard’s stalls run into the Marché Monge, renowned for yet more excellent food, especially fresh bread

Address: Rue Mouffetard 5e Paris
Opening hours: Each morning from Tuesday to Sunday
Access: Metro Place Monge ou Censier - Daubenton

The leafy square and quiet fountain of Place Monge provide the setting for this charming if pricey food market, a calm alternative to the touristic bustle of the nearby Rue Mouffetard. The stallholders take pride in their products: the beekeeper will turn up in person to sell his honey, while the fishmonger will tell you about how he gets his fish straight from the Normandy coast. Bear in mind that prices can run high in this rather affluent corner of the Quartier Latin; still, in this picturesque little square, you get what you pay for.

Address: Place Monge 5e Paris
Opening hours: 7am-2.30pm Wed, Fri; 7am-3pm Sun

The oldest market in Paris, the most bobo also at the heart of the third arrondissement. Inside, there is shopping but just as cosmopolitan nibble foods and take the pulse of the area between two aisles. The atmosphere is colorful, cheerful and friendly. A mixture of street food from tavern and souk most pleasing.

Address: 39 Rue de Bretagne, 75003 Paris, France
Phone: +33 1 42 72 28 12
Access: Metro Filles du Calvaire ou Saint-Sébastien Froissart