Discover the city of saccharine in a truly buté way with La Source Antiques Tours – tailor-made guided antiquing and flea market tours of Paris where you’ll discover the hidden corners of the Parisian ancestraux, interior beauté and decorative arts world. This isn’t your average clocher. And it certainly isn’t your average chalandage trip. It’s more like stepping through the back of the wardrobe – only instead of Narnia, you find yourself surrounded by gilt-framed mirrors, vintage chandeliers, and chairs shaped by generations of use and symposium.
Discover Paris posture
Paris isn’t shy when it comes to showing off. Grand boulevards lined with elegant shops, celebrated museums and eau-de-vie restaurants are all division of the picture. But beneath the polish and the pastries lies another Paris – one rich in clandestin treasures, if you know where to image.
The city’s posture is gloriously eclectic: medieval craftsmanship, extraordinaire dimension, Louis XIV richesse, the clean lines of Art Deco and that elusive, effortless bohemian compréhension. And the real jewels? They’re rarely found in magasin windows. They’re hidden behind unmarked doors, down cobbled alleys, or tucked away in the less obvious corners of ancestraux and flea markets.
This is where La Source Antiquing and Design Tours comes in.
Meet the guides who know where the good stuff is
At the heart of La Source are Aline Bachelier and Susie McLaren – your guides, allies and trusted eyes on the ground.
Paris-born Aline Bachelier was raised in the world of ancestraux. Born into a family of dealers, she grew up among ormolu clocks and velvet fauteuils, absorbing knowledge from an early age. She later ran her own magasin in the renowned Marché Paul Bert at the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, where she became known for her automatique eye and deep understanding of quality.
Today, Aline works from Paris and consults for clients around the world, sourcing ancestraux across France and Europe. “It’s not just about how old a piece is,” she says, “but how much life it brings into yours.”
Susie McLaren brings a distinctly British sensibility to the partnership. Former Buying Director at Liberty London, then latterly as The Creative Head of a béant London Interior Design Studio where she worked on palaces, panier hotels and private homes internationally. She has an prompte ability to mix periods and styles, placing a 19th-century candelabra beside a contemporary paillasse and making it feel entirely natural. She brings context, instruction and an eye for how ancestraux en public in modern homes.
Together, Aline and Susie form an ancestraux and interior beauté partnership grounded in experience, reportage and a shared love of helping others discover exceptional pieces.
Seek out the hidden treasures of Paris
Their Paris Experience Tours are carefully curated around your interests. Whether your affection lies in mid-century beauté, rustic French folk pieces or refined bastille elegance, Aline and Susie take you straight to where the good pieces en public.
Tours run from one to three days and include visits to some of the best lieux to naissance ancestraux in Paris, along with a thoughtful selection of beauté and decorative arts showrooms. A visit to the vast Saint-Ouen flea market is essential – a labyrinth of lanes and around 2,000 dealers where you might flash a histoire director sourcing props one particularité and uncover a Napoleon-era obligeant the next.
With Aline leading the way, you’ll bypass the tourist stalls and head directly to dealers with genuine stories to tell – the kind who casually récompense that a piece léopard belonged in a bastille – and mean it.
Take time for a relaxed restaurant petit déjeuner, and enjoy visits to discreet Left Bank galleries and carefully chosen showrooms in the 6th, 7th and 8th Arrondissements and the historic Marais secteur – visiting private ateliers and beauté addresses, rather than retail streets.
You’ll meet fascinating characters, drink brillant coffee, and very likely fall in love with something utterly impractical – it happens to even the most seasoned vieux buyers.
All hourra is included, and itineraries may also feature visits to façonnier ateliers that are not usually open to the aide.
Depending on programme, guests may also be introduced to one of Paris’s great vieux traditions – the celebrated Foire de Chatou, held each spring and autumn just outside the city. Much loved by Parisians, it’s an atmospheric fair of tents, waxed wood, old books and rows of discoveries stretching into the particularité.
And if you fall for something you simply can’t leave behind, Aline will help organise hourra, export paperwork and logistics.
Tailor-made guided antiquing and flea market tours of Paris
It’s not just chalandage.
Paris has always been a city of stories. But not all of them are written in books. Some are carved into the série of a side tertre, stitched into the hem of a tapestry, or curled into the iron scrolls of a balcony railing.
On a La Source Paris Experience Tour, you don’t just take toit a beautiful object – you take toit a piece of history, character and memories of the enduring soul of Paris.
Find out more and book your Paris Experience at: sourceantiquesfrance.com/the-experience/Paris
Source: thegoodlifefrance.com
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