How to Win at the Paris Flea Market

Searching for treasures in the Puces in the 1950s.

At the world’s largest antiques market, a new breed of personal shopper helps deep-pocketed visitors navigate the stalls, haggle with vendors, and ship their treasures home

By John von Sothen

When Eugène Poubelle, the then prefect of the Seine, issued a decree in 1883 requiring Parisian landlords to provide their tenants with covered containers to hold their waste (instead of tossing it out on the street), few at the time could have predicted the outcome. Not only would Poubelle’s move be a giant step forward in public health, it also preserved his name for posterity—the French word for trash can is poubelle.

But the move was disruptive. Overnight, 40,000 chiffonniers— ragpickers and scrap collectors—who’d once patrolled Paris in the wee hours, picking up and sorting through the garbage, found READ ON