The Paul -Bert - Serpette market, a flea show<

For him, it is "unthinkable".Go to Paris without visiting the fleas, Hamish Bowles doesn't even think about it.The English fifties, very close collaborator of Anna Wintour within the American edition of Vogue, comes several times a year in France, especially for the various Fashion Weeks.This accustomed to Ritz always finds a moment to rush into a taxi towards 110, rue des Rosiers, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), at the Paul-Berte-Serpette market.

In what is the "largest antiquity market in the world", it goes from stand to stand, notes a stool or a rare book, eyeing a haute couture outfit that would enrich its collection, among the most beautiful fashion sets,and some outfits have been loaned for the Chanel exhibition at the Galliera Museum.

Usually, despite its tartan costumes and multicolored outfits, Hamish Bowles goes unnoticed among the flood of customers from around the world who flock every weekend in the spans.But, in this sullen Sunday at the end of September, passing through France, attached to the Cream Coffee, he is one of the only ones to speak English.

It is that Paris was emptied of its tourists by the health crisis.And therefore the chips, fifth tourist site in France, with 5 million visitors per year, of many of its buyers.In ordinary times, half of them are foreigners, including 60 % of Americans.Also, the period is very gloomy.Some Parisian onlookers are walking, some one chair in their arms, others pursuing their children by bike.As for my casserole dish, the restaurant designed by Philippe Starck, which attracted midday and evening crowds at the entrance to the market, it has been closed for almost a year.

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Because, in reality, the start of difficulties, and American desertion, dates back more than ten years.In the wake of the subprime crisis, then the 2015 attacks, North American tourists came less.The social movements of last winter, then the restriction measures linked to the epidemic finished weakening this ecosystem.

The arrival of Hamish Bowles delights certain merchants, who dream of seeing the Anglo-Saxons come back.Thus from the American decorator, Kelly Wearstler, a regular, who comes several times a year, ransals the aisles, takes everything for her Californian customers.And is sent containers filled with goods - 400,000 euros during his last trip ... The only lightened for the moment, at the end of the containment, an also American buyer has landed his jet at Le Bourget, in defiance of the precautions then in progress, and disembarked, amazing the locals.

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