Just got back from Paris last night.

I found a ridiculously cheap ticket** and had a free place to crash so it seemed like a no-brainer. Just two days after finding the fare and booking my flight, I was on a plane, stopping over in DC. I arrived in Paris just in time for Bastille Day and spent the rest of my time with Ami and Joel and Josh Fontaine, an old friend from NY.

Here are some photos of the Marché Aux Puces, one of the many weekend flea markets in Paris. It was huge and crammed with a million things to look at. The prices really varied, but there were some really unique finds and lots more paintings and unique antiques with history than any other flea market I’ve been to. One of the coolest places to visit in Paris. Period.

I ended up with a random assortment of gifts and items for the home: a vintage rubber band ball, a 1950’s geometric paper puzzle, a wooden duck on a stick, a series of fabric swatches from an 1930’s textile company, a painting that was later used as the basis of wallpaper, a modernist poster, and a strange shell sculpture that the airport assumed was a bomb in my carry on.

**Seriously. I am genius when it comes to internet sleuthing. I found a roundtrip ticket from New york to Paris for 345 (ok ok minus tax) two days before the flight and during the most expensive time of the year. I used jetcombo.com which was even cheaper than “ita trip matrix.” I found that looking on different Europe specific search engines for flexible dates yielded better results than using standbys like Kayak or Travelocity. Momondo, Skyscanner, Mobissimo, and Vayama were some of my starting points. But like I said, best of all was Jetcombo!