Antiquing/Junk Finding/Lunching in the Marolles Quarter

In Brussels, there are many markets that are open throughout the week. Recently, we had some family come into town. After seeing them off safely at the train station (they were heading to Paris for a few days), DH and I decided to make an excursion to one such market not too far from the station.
The market we chose was in the Marolles Quarter, which is in a dodgy part of town. After exiting the Metro, we had to amble our way through subsidized housing and trash-strewn roads. At the end of our journey, we arrived at the mecca of all things junk and antique. The market is situated on a barren plaza that is roughly 1 square kilometer. In other words, it is HUGE. I don't think that registration is necessary in order to be a merchant at the market. It seems as though who ever arrives first just throws down their blanket or bench and starts to sell.

When entering the market square, we were presented with row upon row of different items for sale. There were tons of old books and interesting but useless curiosities (i.e. boxes of antique thermometers). We even found the original bell from the Titanic (or so the seller told us)! We found some really nice antique furniture as well. My favorite part, however was finding a woman who sold nothing but old silk scarves. I am a scarf person, but I can rarely afford the beautiful silk scarves sold in Europe (they can be in excess of 300 Euros). The scarves she sold were 10 Euros each. Granted, a lot of the prints were out of date, but there were a couple gems in the pile as well.

After we had had our fill of old/weird items, we decided to eat lunch. We strolled through the streets behind the market place and were pleasantly surprised by the mix of old and young people walking around the neighborhood. The narrow cobble-stoned streets accommodated only pedestrians and restaurant terraces. As the weather was quite nice, we were hard pressed but did manage to find a seat at one of the many terraces.

Fresh Oysters and Champagne for Sale

Luckily for us, as we were sitting down, we found that there was a jazz quartet who had just arrived from Paris and were setting up to play. We were treated to some great music as we ate our sandwiches and imbibed in a couple of Belgian beers. All in all, it turned out to be a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

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