A CASE FOR FLEA MARKETS
The first page of the questionnaire began normally asking name and address, age and education, all the statistical information necessary for placing me in the appropriate pigeonhole within their demographic pie chart. On the second page the inquiries moved from statistical to aspirational. What are your goals? What is one word to define your personality? What is your most positive trait? What is your most negative trait? What makes you happy? I suppose I should have written something obligatory like "my family" but I didn't. I wrote down the single word "travel". Maybe because we are in the midst of a pandemic I have been feeling the claustrophobia of containment. Traveling has always been in my blood. Wanderlust, oh wanderlust! Then I thought about it again. This is why I use a pencil on crossword puzzles and questionnaires. I erased "travel"; it wasn't sufficient. I rewrote: "traveling without guilt". There, I said it. First of all, I'm no naturalist. I don't go on vacation to commune with Mother Nature. If going on vacation means having to pack hiking boots and a pup tent; count me out. I need the amenities of a pool not a body of water with unknown creatures floating below. I want room service not a hibachi with roasting vegan wieners. That leaves me with urban travel as my ultimate preference but I have my rules. There's no emphasis on tourist magnets, no ten best things to do in Copenhagen, and no list of every cathedral or museum. My to do list looks very different.
Obviously if I go to Paris I'm going to include the Musee d'Orsay on my itinerary.
The same goes for Bilbao. The Guggenheim is going to be on my list but I have my own selfish guilt free adventures for getting my history lessons.
I choose to get my regional history lessons from a more accessible source. You can find me at little flea markets or walking through local antique districts whether here or abroad.
I'll spend pre-travel time researching where and when the local flea markets are scheduled to happen. I'll change flights and hotel reservations to coincide with a good market. Our last trip to Italy had to be rearranged so we could go to Arezzo's flea market that happens on the first weekend of each month year round.
We've been known to search out flea markets in the south of France and have even arranged special trips to purchase items from the flea market in Isle Sur La Sorgue.
I'll search maps and look up local sites to see if a city has a vintage or antique area to explore. That's how we found the Porta Portese in Rome known for its vintage finds.Our daughter has caught the bug. There was absolutely no way she couldn't have since we dragged her around San Antonio to antique stores when she was only ten days old.
There's so much history of a region you can get from a local flea market or a vintage shop with the added bonus of there being no stanchions to hold you back or a uniform guard to shush you.
You have vendors who can detail the provenance of a painting or an antique piece of china and you don't have to sign up for a guided tour or hire a docent to shuttle you around.
I can lose myself at the Marche aux Puce in Paris or the bi-annual Divine Treasures sale in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.
I can touch a piece of art glass or look through a pile of vintage photos without being scolded and best of all I can buy it and take it home with me. Try that at your next trip to the Rijksmuseum.
This is how I learned how to detect a new piece of Fiestaware from an original.
It's where we discovered the beauty of Murano glass and English silver and bone fish sets.
There's certainly a lot to be said for the perusing of the masters but give me a booth at a flea market filled with vintage letter sweaters, a kid's drum and an LP filled with Hula music and I'm a happy, guilt free traveling anthropologist doing my best at uncovering all the history I need.
THE GALLERY
Un Regard Oblique, 1948
Robert Doisneau, photographer
Represented by the Weston Gallery
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