L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue antiques fair with tables set out with all kinds of odd antique pieces in tree lined street
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue Antiques Fair

The best brocante and flea markets in France offer some real bargains (and a great day out as well). They’re very popular with the French so there’s hefty competition for those bargains. Visiting one of the most popular and well-known markets requires some canny forward planning. Savvy visitors book hotels in advance, arrive with an empty car and leave triumphantly overladen.

Stereoscopic viewer and slides
Stereoscopic viewer and slides I found at a fair © mechtraveller.com

Best Brocante and Flea Market Fairs in North France

North France is a particularly good hunting ground for brocante and flea market fairs which is good news if you’re in the UK and can get over the Channel easily. Many of the towns have two fairs a year – in Spring and Autumn. Here’s how to get to France by ferry.

Apr 20, 2025: La Grande Réderie d’Amiens, Picardy, Hauts-de-France. This is north France’s second largest fair with around 2,000 exhibitors and over 80,000 visitors coming to snatch up bargains. It started in 1909 and is always held on the second last Sunday in April and the first Sunday in October. It takes over 51 streets in the town and starts around 2am when the real bargain hunters turn up. 
If you’re driving there,  leave your car at the Parking du Coliseum in the centre of Parking du Port d’Aval around a 5-minute walk from the market.

Rederie in Amiens with stall with shelves holding variety of antiques from old lamp to orange ceramic wellington boot, bird sculpture
Rederie in Amiens

Jun 15, 2025: Brocante de Maroilles. Maroilles, Nord, Hauts-de-France is known more for its smelly cheese than its brocante and flea market, but do try to come to this one. Over 600 stalls attract nearly 80,000 visitors who come for good antiques and bric-a-brac. There’s also a Salon Artisanale for local crafts over the weekend, and a lot of street entertainment.

Maroilles in Nord showing river with old stone watermill behind with waterwheel and water flowing through wooden sluices
Maroilles © Havang(nl)/CC-BY-SA 1.0

July 14, 2025: Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France. Charming  Montreuil-sur-Mer adds to the celebrations on Bastille Day with its annual brocante fair. It’s a small affair compared to its big brothers, but there’s still plenty to buy here from the approximately 500 stall holders who fill the streets, and with fewer crowds it’s less manic. Then there’s plenty to see at around 10.30pm, as fireworks shoot off into the sky from the Citadel.

aerial view of Montreuil-sur-Mer citadelle showing Vauban fort in star pattern with stone walls and green outside and town beyond that on hill
Montreuil-sur-Mer Citadelle © Commune de Montreuil

Sep 6-7, 2025: La Grand Braderie de Lille, Lille, Nord, Hauts-de-France. This is north France’s largest fair with over 10,000 exhibitors displaying pretty well everything you could imagine and a whole lot more. It opens at 8am on Saturday and goes on all night then finishes at 6pm on Sunday. There’s a great tradition in Lille: during the fair people eat moules frites then pile up the shells outside the restaurant. It’s a local, unofficial competition to see which restaurant has the largest pile. 
If you’re staying at a hotel inside the central area, take note: you cannot move your car between 7pm on Friday and 6am on Monday.
Official parking arrangements

Lille Braderie in mainplace with green tarpaulins on ground and goods on them and cars behind
Lille Braderie © Romainberthe/CC-BY-SA 4.0

Best Brocante and Flea Market Fairs in the rest of France

Central France

Chatou, Yveline, Île-de-France
Mar 7-16, 2025: Foire de Chatou.  Originating from a centuries-old Ham Fair, it then became the Foire à la Brocante et aux Jambons (Flea Market and Hams Fair) in 1840. It still features food (and pork and ham) as well as oysters and wine but its main purpose is antiques, offered by over 700 dealers to 35,000 visitors. It’s one of the biggest, and most popular, antique fairs in France. It’s on the Ile des Impressionnistes, north east of Paris
Entrance €10 (free for under 15 years).

Foire de Chatou showing table of small objects like boy in yellow suit delivering, box, china
Foire de Chatou

Houilles, Yveline, Île-de-France
Oct 5, 2025: La Braderie de Houilles is a major event, hosting around 2000 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors over 6 miles of stalls. Brocante items and a lot of ordinary household items from old kitchen appliances to toys.
Free entry; 7am-6pm.

Antique Map of the Haute-Loire, France with man in left and views of Le Puy en Velay on right and more pics around maps split into departments
Antique Map of the Haute-Loire © mechtraveller.com

Durtal,  Maine-et-Loire, Anjou
Sep 28, 2025: Brocante de Durtal is held around the château, always on the third weekend of September. The large outdoor fair has around 450 sellers offering everything old and antique to 20,000 or so enthusiasts. 
Free entry; 7am-7pm.

Durtal with stalls in place surrounded by white stone buildings including old house with stone tower
Durtal Fair

West France

Nantes, Loire Atlantique, Pays de la Loire
End of September/beginning of October, 2025: Antique shops line rue Jean-Jaurès and there’s a great brocante market every Saturday in Nantes, but the annual October market is something else. The Grande Brocante de la Place Viarme in Nantes attracts over 160 dealers selling everything, but being Nantes on the Atlantic coast, look out for nautical items and Quimper ceramics among the furniture, textiles, glasses and more.
Place Viarme; 9am-7pm
The date is not yet fixed for the annual big event.

Place Viarme, nantes, Brocante fair with old wicker chair and table outside a white pavilion with more antiques on tables
Place Viarme Brocante Fair © Nantes Tourist Office

Bordeaux, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Apr 24-May 10, 2025: Foire à la Brocantes de Quinconces  is the oldest flea market and antiques fair in the region. Over 200 exhibitors and 180,000 visitors flock to the centre of the gorgeous city of Bordeaux for the fair which offers everything from top to bottom, plus 8 places to eat. 
Free entry; 10am-7pm. Tramway B and C to Quinconces stop.

Old black and white postcard of Foire de Quincocnes in Bordeaux showing people in old costume (1900-1930) in market place
Foire des Quinconces between 1900-1930. It has changed a little.

South of France

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Vaucluse, PACA
Apr 18-21 2025: La Foire internationale Antiquités & Brocante is probably the best known (and the best organised) in France, welcoming bargain hunters from all over the world. The 3rd largest market in Europe has 200 exhibitors exhibiting in Gautier Park, on the quays of the Sorgue river. There are experts on hand to authenticate (or not) what you might be about to spend hundred, possibly thousands, or more likely 20 or 30 euros on. The stalls augment the 300 permanent antiques and second-hand shops set up in the town. Check out the Village des Antiquaires de la Gare, a former watermill now housing over 100 permanent dealers.

L'isle sur la Sorgues antiques market with photo taken from behind table piled high with small antiques looking out onto square with white pavilion tents with more stalls
L’isle sur la Sorgue market ©Thomas O’brien

Pézenas, Herault, Occitanie
May 4, 2025: The two fairs called the Grand Déballage (Great Unpacking) take place on the first Sunday of May and the second Sunday of October each year in the town with around 100 antique and brocante shops. The fairs attract over 200 dealers who arrive with everything from pictures to glassware, old linen to African art. 
Free; 8am-6pm.

Bust of Moliere in Pezenas with white alabaster bust on table with objects around on table, floor and wall
Bust of Moliere in Pézenas shop La Circulade de la Rue Mercière

Jul 20, 2025: Les Puces Ligneronnaises in Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron takes place each third Sunday in July. The largest flea market in the Vendée sees around 250 exhibitors selling all kinds of antiques and bric-a-brac. The event Arts & Saveurs takes over the second Sunday in August, combining crafts with food products.

Les Puces Lignerons poster with gold lettering on black background announcing fair in 2025
Les Puces Lignerons

Mid-Oct, 2025: Around 350 exhibitors set up stalls in the streets of Sillé-le-Guillaume. It’s a good fair in a very pretty town, with lots of bargains (??) to pick up, food to eat and entertainment. I cannot find the exact date, so check with the tourist office if this one is on your list.

More about Bargain Buying in France

Crowded interior of Puces Roannaises antique fiar
Puces Rouennaise Stall

Other rather grander antique and brocante fairs take place all over France throughout the year. Many of them are in the main exhibition centres of the towns and cities. One of the best is in Rouen which takes place in January and October each year. Jan 17-19, 2025.
Called Puces Rouennaises it takes place in the Parc des Exposition in Rouen; entrance is €6.80 and it lasts 3 days.

2 experts at the Rouen antiques fiar with one looking at an object, another behind him and other objects ready to inspect on red table behind
Experts at the Rouen Fair

Such markets around France usually have experts on hand to check authenticity. They aren’t quite as much fun as the open-air markets with their bustle and camaraderie, but they do attract genuine collectors as well as antique dealers with their own shops.

Shopping for Antiques…and Bargains

Flea Markets and Bargain Shopping in France
Discount, Outlet Shopping and Sales in France
Check out the Top Markets in Provence

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