This morning - very late in the morning, actually, after I'd gone for a run and done some writing (with, apparently, a bit of foresight to realize how disrupted the evening would be) I set off for the Marche aux Puces - the flea market.  This is located at the far northern end of the subway line.

Between the subway and the flea market is a sort of auxiliary flea market, in which vendors in booths sell every type of crap - clothes, souvenirs, food.  Each booth has a very specific focus: sunglasses, or t-shirts that say security or purses of a particular style.  The men (always men) in charge of the booths keep up a constant patter in the general direction of any passers by.

The flea market itself consisted of several smaller markets, as well as many free-standing stores.  About 60% of them were closed, which was surprising because, although it is Monday, the market is supposed to be open only three days a week, Saturday thru Monday.  The stalls that were open were quite interesting to look at; most of the items for sale were antiques, and quite expensive; the rest were new pieces obviously being sold by the artist's dealer.  There was a good deal of furniture as well as jewelry and china.  The most amusing thing was watching the vendors, who were generally sitting around on their antiques, smoking and eating their lunch.

After this and a brief, ill-fated attempt to go to a nice boulangerie (the less-nice ones I frequent were closed for the holiday known as Monday) I took a long walk on the islands and the left bank.  I had some chocolate ice cream which was very, very chocolatey, not very sweet, and had little pieces of cocoa bean in it.  I saw a sculpture garden.  I stopped at a store on the way home, and accidentally deleted all my pictures from the last three days.  Then I spent two hours trying to run around Paris to re-take them all.  Now, I am very glad I still have some frozen food... hopefully tomorrow I will be able to buy cheese and bread (these places can't stay closed forever... right?) but at least I have something to eat tonight.