the Brocante, an Antique Flea Market on My Doorstep

LIZ SAYS: If it's one thing that the French are good at, its outdoor markets. The food markets are legendary, but another favorite, for me, is the brocante. A brocante is a flea market/ antique fair that comes to every neighborhood on a rotating basis.
This weekend it was our turn. Overnight, the street fills with white vans and the sidewalks are covered by a row of white tents and square sunbrellas with tarps hung from the sides. The resulting little rooms are decorated like little shops selling everything from costume jewelry and silver to old Russian soldiers uniforms, which smell like soldiers old uniforms and creepy Chinese paintings.
Yeah, creepy paintings. There is one vendor who sells stacks and stacks of these large Chinese paintings of people with grotesquely exaggerated smiles and topless girls with giant sometimes crossed eyes. The Russian military surplus vendors have all kinds of Russian sailor suits, army jackets and uniforms, even a honest to goodness cosmonaut's uniform, which is weirdly small.
Living here, I have become familiar with the various vendors offerings. If I had infinite space, like say, a house in the US, I'd definitely be more than just window shopping. But, the size of Paris apartments keep consumerism in check.
This time, I did notice something new, taxidermy. At least 3 vendors had stuffed dead things and one had skeletons of tiny creatures and a skull. Since we are not Victorians, who supposedly liked this stuff for its 'scientific interest', I think I can just say ,"Yuck! dusty dead stuff!".
One guy who reworks that old olive or beige metal office furniture turns it into must have 'loft' furniture. The stuff looks great but costs a fortune and weighs the same as it did before the fab re-surfacing.
Brocantes are fun to walk through, but they do impede regular neighborhood traffic. Two women got in a spat because one was blocking the other for too long, "Vous es incroyable, Madam!". "MOI! Vous es Incroyable, Madam!" Tee hee hee.
Anyway, here are some pictures of a few of the stands.