Rumor has it that when a Food and Wine editor took David Sedaris, author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, to La Foire Nationale à la Brocante et aux Jambon  he clasped his chest and gasped,  “Oxygen, I need oxygen!”  Given that I hyperventilate at the mention of this favorite flea market, I can see why one might be overwhelmed by their first visit to France’s oldest and largest antiques and gourmet food fair. 

The National Fair of the Flea Market and Ham takes place between September 26 – Oct 5, 2008.  Over 800 vendors from “toute de France” come to the Parisian suburb Chatou, bringing the best assortment of antiques I have ever seen in one locale. 

Held twice a year – the other is in March - this market, like almost all French events, is a Parisian tradition dating back centuries! While I’ve always thought the odd combo of selling pork and antiques was a marketing ploy to get reluctant husbands to go brocanting, the fairs origins date to the Moyen Age.  

During Holy Week, pork butchers came to Paris to sell their products. One enterprising butcher decided that he wanted to “bring home more bacon” so he started selling not only braised ham but the equipment for making it as well, offering his clients “the taste of Chatou all year round!” The other vendors caught on to the idea and started bringing more items, focusing on specialties from their region, namely furniture, pottery and antiques. Before they knew it, “a festival celebrating both the flea market and ham was born.”

I’m not certain how this pre-Easter celebration became a twice annual event, but I have an un-substantiated theory.   In August, tout de Paris departs for their month-long vacation. This is another tradition which began  in the Middle Ages when the stench from the annual cleaning of the Louvre’s moat forced citizens to flee until the gag reflex-inducing cleaning was over.  I believe that when the Parisians fled to the country, they enjoyed the country life so much they didn’t want to return.  Paris had to do something to repopulate itself, so they used the Foire aux Lards – as it was then called – as an olfactory pied piper to lure des citoyens salivating back to Paris!

The olfactory pied pipers works as well today as it did then.  Though I no longer live in Paris I still return twice a year to shop at the world’s best flea market.   A tour through my home finds souvenirs from Chatou in every room.   From the €3 hand painted Russian tray hanging in my stairwell to the €1200 18th century berger in my salon, Ham Fair purchases dictate my décor.  In the winter I wear my €45 1950’s fox fur stole and dinner parties have me pulling out the set of €200 turn-of-the-century majolica knife rests where I sit my  €75 early 20th century mother of pearl and sterling couteaux a poisson.  

Prices at Chatou are not low, and sadly they aren’t as low as they were before the Euro. 

But in Chatou vendors expect to bargain.  I always ask for a 30% discount and receive at least 20%.  But if you hate bargaining, there is a magic question to softball pitch, “Est-ce votre meilleur prix?”  Trust me, though the vendor might not “parlez anglais” they will understand the question, “Is this your best price?”  For those living in the Ile de France, the vendor will often include delivery in the purchase price.  But for those like me, who travel to Chatou from afar, the fair coordinators work with several shipping companies.    

Not only is visiting the fair on L’ile de Chatou a national custom, it is also a cultural excursion as well.   Impressionist paintings such as Pierre Auguste Renoir's Rameurs à Chatou immortalize the island in the Seine where the fair takes place.  But just outside of the fairs grounds, you can walk along the river banks to the restaurant Le Fournaise.  Take a table on the balcony and sip champagne in the warm glowing light among chic Parisians partaking in a similar fashion.  Crowds will flock past, moving towards the fair entrance, but if you sit still and play close attention, you’ll find one man who stands apart with a paint brush in hand.   If you catch his eye, he will wink as the scene takes on the familiar feel of Les Déjeuner des Canotiers.  And then, setting his palette aside, Renoir will disappear into the crowds entering La Foire Nationale à la Brocante et aux Jambons. 

August 2008

By The Antiques Diva, an expert in scouting for antiques in Holland, Belgium and France. For more information, visit: www.antiquesdiva.com   or  www.antiquesdiva.blogspot.com

Expatica and The Antiques Diva