Charity shops in France????

happy_winner

Hello,

My home theme is French and I am trying to find pieces for kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. I am planning a trip to France and wondering if they have charity shops or affordable stores to buy Kitchen accesories. It doesn't have to be Paris, any suggestions would help me with my hunt on the tight budget.

Many thanks

euterpe13

Yes, they do have charity shops, but not nearly as many as here in the UK. However, you can find low-cost products in shops like Tati ( list of shops at http://www.tati.fr/nos_magasins.php) or Monoprix ( similar to Woolworths)

roshydoshy

even the supermarkets such as Shopi or Super U might do some cheaper items, but the hypermarkets usually have good offers on (carrefour and champion etc)

if your going to a place quite touristy they may have offers on at these stores as the tourists often deck out the holiday homes/caravans

hth

daska

The biggest flea-market in Paris is the St-Ouen - if you can't get what you want there then it might not exist...

debbsi

try looking in a Brochante (antiques) they are often much cheaper than the ones in the UK. We go to Brittany and cant say I have ever seen a charity shop

Deb

halkerstone

I don't know if you are going to be travelling around the countryside but if you are, you may come across signs for vide-greniers which are the equivalent of our Boot Sales and you can generally find all sorts of interesting stuff.

PeteMc

In the area I used to live in there was a weekly event held by the French equivalent of the Catholic Rescue Society. This was the sale of all donated furniture in the Paris area. You had to get there early due to the traders who descended on the sale.

Have a look at this website for brocante, vide-greniers sales etc :

http://www.brocantesfrance.com/brocantesmain.htm

or try :

www.ebay.fr

Georges_Mum

Try looking for Red-Cross shops, Emmaus (not sure of spelling) and there are some others that are like a credit union that you can join. Also check out the beb site for La Bonne Coin (have to google, I'm afraid) which has loads of things for sale in french. Good Luck

song_of_calliope

Hiya, I used to live in France and I do think it's harder to find second-hand bargains there just because they have less of a disposable culture over there than we do - they tend to hold on to their things for longer.

That said, yes, vide greniers will be good as these are like car boot sales, and brocantes might be ok but the prices will generally be more expensive as these are usually full of professional antique sellers. Look in the local paper for the ads.

Tati is kind of ok but mostly cheap tat (the name fits!) but it could be worth a look. Most of their stuff is molded plastic type things and even though you bought it in France it won't necessarily look French! Monoprix is much nicer but also much more expensive nowadays.

Local markets will probably all have someone selling that stuff from Provence - you know the yellow and blue kitchenware with olives and things painted on that's quite nice. And if you are in Paris you can buy some nice decorations from the book stalls along the Seine. They sell paintings of Paris and reproductions of classic ads in French like "Le Chat Noir" that you can bring home and frame. These will be very cheap and can look absolutely great.

Emmaus (a charity shop) is also very good if you can find a shop near you.

euterpe13

OP , you don't say whether you speak French - if not, brocantes & vide-greniers might be a bit difficult ; how can you haggle? Of course, if you do speak French, then no problem.
Emmaus does have shops around France, but it is mostly refurbished furniture and white goods ( people donate and their workshops refurbish and re-sell).
You could also visit a Trocante shop ( https://www.trocante.fr) or else a Troc de l'Ile
( https://www.troc.com) who are a bit like Cash-Convertors, but with a much wider range of articles. I bought a lot of my stuff from there when I lived in France.