The Carreau du Temple is the traditional place for dealing furs and leather. But twice a year, in june and of december, a flea market is held. A fleamarket is called in France a brocante and these are the real places if you look for an original souvenir or a nice present for your loved ones at home.
BARGAINING! is the name of the game.
I left my wife with her sister( name for fiscal reasons withheld), a profesional brocanteur, to look for a W-Lan access in a nearby café, the CAFÉ LEONARD in rue Turbigo, which I had found on the web the night before.
I had a café (wich is in France always an espresso), checked my mail and stuff, and walked back to the brocante.

I am not much of a shopper. To be honest, shopping bores me to death (to the very annoyance of my wife). But a fleamarket is something else, it's like walking through past and emotions. I don't want to go into details, but french fleamrkets a really worth a visit. Besides a lot of rubish ( beauty lies in the eyes of the buyer), you can find very interesting things, which have their prices. ( what was the name of the game...? :)
I found a heavy tire-bouchon, (corkscrew) from the 50s, an Air France promotion gift for my constantly growing bottle opener collection. I thought it might be wise to have a bottle with me, so I can try it out directly. So I strolled down Rue Bretagne in search for a bottle to share it with my little family and friends, the brocanterurs.
On a stand two men were selling some very promissing looking vin de bourgone ( burgundy). I had a try, it was quite good, but far from exellent. On detecting that I am German they showed me their (special) pricelist: 35 euros ... for this bottle? "No bargain, a ripoff! ( and which french brocanteur will give a german a discount. Mabe I'm blond, but not an idiot . So I srolled further down the street, passing various bars and tratteurs who offer excellent food by weight to take out, but I wanted to try my new corkscrew, and I am on a wine diet anyway.
Finaly I found a normal wineshop (Nicola), and guess what, a 1.5 liter bottle of a 1996! MORGON (also burgundy) smiled at me just for 14,95 EURO. That's the kind of bargain I like.

Proud like a hunter I presented my prey to my frnech friends, who were impressed by price and quality. After we finished the bottel ( my corkscrew worked perfect) we got hungry ( wine diet or not, who drinks must eat). We let a guard with the stands, and entered a nearby bistrot the DU PETIT THOUARS a very simple place run by a multilingual dutch and an arabian.
The couscous a la maison was rich and good for two, the wine was cheap and.. mh. OK, and the reception was more than friendly, will say it became reeeeaaaal funny, specially between William ( the Dutch) and me ( the German).
Finaly we found out that we are from the same rare, by extinction threatened tribe of FRISIANS, repressed by the Germany and Netherland alike :-), and that the only drinkable beer in Holland is GROLSCH
To close the evening we switched to the also nearby AUX TEMPLIERS, where we run into Milika a writer from La Reunion, (french island in the Indian ocean). She's doing her rounds to get inspirations for her stories. Here I tell you babe!:
--> DJANGO RIDES METRO!