Carpets at Les Puces in Paris

This afternoon we joined our friend Thierry for an extensive outing to Les Puces (literally: flea markets), the large conglomeration of open-air and covered markets on the northern outskirts of Paris (at the Porte de Clignancourt).

The complex is open 3½ days per week, and it includes hundreds of vendors, most relatively small, selling a simply incredible range of goods. The most interesting are the great variety of antiques, from huge statues, through furniture, carpets down to every imaginable sort of jewelry.

Here you see a dealer specializing in carpets (he is sitting on the right)--a relatively arbitrary selection from the wide range of images I came away with. (A dilemma analogous to the one I encountered at the Salon d'Agriculture at the end of February.)

This image is definitely reminiscent of one from just over a year ago in Marrakech, Morocco.