Going French for some real market forces

Oct 3 2008 By Sally Hoban

Sally Hoban takes Eurostar to Lille in northern France for its annual antiques fair, La Braderie, and is thankful for the restriction on baggage.

What could be a more fabulous for an antiques lover and self-confessed bargain shopper than a chance to visit Lille for Europe’s biggest annual flea market?

Not only would I be able to wander the streets and sit down at a cafe for the odd glass of French beer, but I’d be able to hunt through the thousands of stalls of the flea market in the hope of finding some vintage treasures.

Our journey started at 6.15am from Moor Street Station in Birmingham as we travelled to Marylebone, London, with Chiltern Trains.

Once there, it was a quick Tube journey to St Pancras, which is just beautiful after its refurbishment. It is light, airy, full of gorgeous architectural features, has comfortable seating and a touch of romance. If only New Street Station looked this good.

Check-in was completely hassle free. The additional security checks at airports is just one reason why I don’t like flying any more (the main reason being I’m trying to reduce my carbon footprint) but it took just a couple of minutes to be scanned and have our passports checked at St Pancras.

What a change from trying to get on a plane. I was enjoying the Eurostar experience already and I hadn’t even boarded the train.

The company also has impressive green credentials. Independent research has shown that a Eurostar journey between London and Paris generates one-tenth of the carbon dioxide produced by an equivalent flight. Under its Tread Lightly initiative.

Eurostar has set a target of further reducing its CO2 emissions by 25 per cent per traveller journey by 2012. It is also the world’s first train operator to make all journeys carbon neutral.

We travelled Leisure Select, which gives you plenty of legroom, comfortable seats, free newspapers, magazines, meals and drinks delivered to your table.

I have sometimes been known to enjoy a glass of Chablis with my breakfast, so when we were offered a glass of Champagne almost as soon as we left St Pancras I was more than happy to accept it even if it did feel a tad decadent.

As our train left at about 10am, we were offered brunch rather than breakfast. There was a choice of two dishes. I chose a mushroom frittata, which came with a chicken sausage. I must admit to leaving the sausage, but the frittata was tasty enough.

By the time we’d had our second glass of Champagne we’d reached the coast and were into the Channel Tunnel.

Almost as soon as we came out the other side in France the sun started shining.

This was the first sun we’d seen in days and the weather held for us all day. It took us just an hour and 20 minutes to get from London to Lille and after leaving the train it was only a five minute walk until I spied the first La Braderie stall.

This special market event, which dates back to medieval times, takes place over the first weekend of September every year. I was expecting it to be bigger than any flea market I’ve ever been to in England, but it was actually much larger than I’d imagined it could be.

Every street in the centre of the town was thronged with stalls, with everything from vintage clothes to the contents of someone’s bathroom cabinet up for sale.

Good quality antiques nestled next to old towels and plant pots. Apparently, the stalls cover more than 200km of pavement, but as we were only visiting for the day we saw just a fraction of what was on offer.

Some stallholders are professional traders (there were even a few antique dealers from England who had travelled over to stand out at the event), but most of the stalls are set up by local people pitching up shop outside their houses to get rid of their unwanted junk.

The downside to the bargain hunting is that you really do have to sift through a lot of rubbish to find a genuine bargain. For every 19th century antique glass vase peeking out of a box there will be a pile of old forks and broken down electrical goods in the way.

If you’re expecting the same sort of quality antiques that you get at the Paris flea markets it’s doubtful that you’ll find them here, but I discovered the best 1930s vintage leather handbag I’ve ever seen hidden away in a cardboard box and managed to buy it for a very reasonable price.

I also bought a beautiful 1920s pincushion doll and some Art Nouveau postcards. One lady had a great stall full of antique dolls and children’s books and there was a good selection of 20th century and modern design stalls selling funky and colourful items from the 1960s and 1970s.

We only took one break all day when we spent an hour sitting outside a delightful French bar.

It even had a striped awning outside and an accordion player waltzing around the tables. Everyone was eating moules-frites (Lille’s local speciality dish) and accompanying it with a beer.

Traditionally, the city’s restaurants stack up all the empty mussel shells and compete to see which one amasses the highest pile by the end of the Braderie weekend.

Lille is a pretty town with a good mixture of old and new shops.

There is a branch of Printemps, the French department store, so you can stock up on French designer brands, as well as a cluster of smaller streets just outside the very centre of the city that house individual boutiques, art galleries, bistros, design shops and second hand bookshops.

It reminded me of the Nine Streets in Amsterdam. There was even a shop selling spray paint and stencils for graffiti artists.

There are some lovely buildings, especially the Town Hall Belfry. This was listed by UNESCO in 2005 and stands an impressive 104 metres high. It gives a great vantage point for admiring the city and the surrounding area.

You can take two items of baggage per person plus one small item of hand luggage on Eurostar.

This meant that I couldn’t buy the wonderful walnut Art Deco wardrobe/dressing table I saw that was just 300 euros, but we did have plenty of space to carry back my smaller antique purchases, some Belgian cheese and a few clothes from Printemps because they are simply much more stylish than anything I can buy back at home.

Our return journey on Eurostar in the evening was as smooth as our outward trip.

We enjoyed a three-course dinner, some more complimentary Champagne and friendly staff. Everything ran like clockwork and we arrived back in London on time.

The only downside was that we had another two and a half hours on a train to get back to Birmingham.

If I go to the Braderie again next year I will definitely stay overnight in London before and after I travel to Lille.

It whetted my appetite for the French antiques market, but perhaps a trip to Paris for a weekend of antiques hunting is on the cards.

*FACTBOX
Eurostar operates up to 10 daily services from London St Pancras International to Lille with return fares from £55. Tickets are available from eurostar.com or by calling 08705 186 186.

The fastest London-Lille journey time is 1 hour 20 minutes. For further information about Lille, visit destination-lille-metropole.eu.