Foire du Chatou, one of the largest brocantes in France takes place for ten days on the outskirts of Paris twice a year, March and September. It happens to be opening weekend when you are there. It is sometimes referred to as the "ham and antiques fair" because it also has vendors of the best pork products in France. I absolutely adore the flea market at Porte de Vanves and buy vintage goodies there every trip to Paris, but would not pass up the opportunity to visit the Foire du Chatou. There are approximately 800 dealers from all over France. If you search "foire chatou" on YouTube, you can see a few clips of the atmosphere. Here is the official link with travel details:

http://www.foiredechatou.com/en/

The Clignancourt flea market in St. Ouen is larger than the brocante in Chatou, but most of the merchandise is extremely high end. The Marche Dauphin and Marche Vernaison are two markets within Clignancourt that have some lower priced merchandise. Clignancourt really deserves the better part of a day to see all of the markets.

Flaneur5, thank you, thank you, thank you! This Foire du Chatou sounds more than perfect, unique, and precisely the kind of thing that I love! What a bit of luck to be in Paris while it is going on! I can't thank you enough for sharing this info with me, I am beyond excited! :) Merci!

You should try Le Maison de Chou on Place Furstemburg. Nothing but creme puffs (which I will not eat in the Us). The naturelle is so good...not too sweet.

Candj83, you are very welcome. I am actually going to be in London during the Foire de Chatou (erroneously used "du" in previous post), so I will be taking the 5:40 am Eurostar from London to Paris on September 29th. My plan is to spend the day at the brocante shopping for vintage oil paintings and bringing some ham back on the Eurostar for a little train picnic. Enjoy! I know I will. :-)