b l o g o r e l l i: Marché Aux Puces, or Swappy Swap!

July 2008

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Since The Prof and I began planning for the Soup Swap (which took place this weekend in Provi -- woo!) I began looking around the Inter-net for other variations that people had on the swap idea-r. Of course Swap Meets are one of my favorite weekend activities, so I was delighted to find that my obsessive past-time came with Parisian roots:

(from Wikipedia):
"The original flea market is likely to be the Marché aux puces of Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris. It is a large, long-established outdoor bazaar, one of four in Paris."

Then, the historical appeal began to take a downward turn a la Allston's bedbug epidemic:
"They earned their name from the flea-infested clothing and rags sold there."

Ahem.

For those interested in good, clean, swapping fun there's Swap-Bot, a site that allows people to organize and participate in a variety of fun-sounding swaps (some current swaps include "Altered Band-aid Tin Swap," "Flat Goodies", and "Handsome Men ATC Swap".)

One thing that I learned from the Soup Swap was the importance of "selling" one's bartering item. For example, a woman mentioned that her husband, a chef, prepared her gourmet chicken noodle soup and those containers disappeared in the first six rounds. Another noted that her recipe met South Beach Diet standards. Yet another guy bragged -- rightfully -- that his soup came from a family recipe and contained tiny tiny meatballs called "poo-po-chinis" (ok, not sure this is the exact wording since I did have a few glasses of wine that night.) All of the hyped soups went fast -- because who doesn't love to "Believe The Hype"?!?

Anyone interested in participating in my swap -- the "Curbside Salvage That I Love So Obsessively I Cannot Give/Sell?Throw Away"?

I thought not.