On 12-13 September 2026, Normandy's flea markets and antique fairs gather around the centuries-old Lessay fair, over 1,000 stallholders, and the round-the-clock antiques sale at Chandai, in the Orne.
Friday, on the fairground at Lessay.
The Sainte-Croix fair opens its aisles there until Sunday 13 September, deep in the Cotentin. On 12-13 September 2026, Normandy's flea markets and antique fairs gather around this centuries-old fair and the round-the-clock antiques sale at Chandai, in the Orne. Nothing improvised about it, this year again.
Over 1,000 stallholders at Lessay
The Sainte-Croix fair of Lessay has occupied the town's fairground since Friday 11 September, for three full days. It ranks as the biggest antiques and flea market event in the Manche, and one of the largest fairs in France: more than a thousand stallholders set up across the site, dealers and antique traders included, deep in the Norman Cotentin.
The event goes back centuries, rooted in an agricultural fair, a livestock fair and a major trading gathering for the Lessay area. Over time it grew into one of the most awaited seasonal landmarks of western Normandy, reaching well beyond antiques collectors alone. Sellers travel in from the Cotentin and from neighbouring departments alike.
The weekend of 12-13 September (12/09-13/09) covers the fair's last two days, before it closes its aisles on Sunday evening. Saturday and Sunday remain the busiest days, as the aisles fill with bargain hunters travelling in from across the region, sometimes well beyond the Manche.
Nothing else in the region matches this many stallholders on a single site this weekend.
The rest of the weekend across Normandy
In the Orne, the Chandai flea market runs non-stop from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening, twenty-eight hours straight for around 380 stallholders, at the stadium on Route de Bourth, among furniture, collectables, toys, decor, garden items, tableware, tools, clothing, records and books, a major fixture on the Orne's flea market calendar. In Houlgate, the monthly antiques market brings together dealers and antique traders at the Jardin des Roses car park, on Sunday, from 7am to 6pm, free entry. Stallholders sell period furniture, decorative pieces, old books and collectables, and the market runs every month from March through December. In Caen, the Guérinière en Fleurs car boot sale sets up 100 to 200 stalls on Place du Docteur Buot, Boulevard Leroy, the same day, free entry for visitors, with sellers paying 2.50 euros per linear metre.
In the Eure, the summer flea markets of Les Andelys hold their last date of the season on the Quai de Seine, facing Château Gaillard, on Sunday, closing out a monthly run that spans April to September. The Charleval foire à tout gathers around 230 stallholders through the town centre streets, the same day, one of the busiest dates in the Andelle valley, drawing buyers from across Haute-Normandie. The monthly Beuzeville flea market takes over the Place de la Mairie that Sunday, mixing private sellers and professionals. It returns every second Sunday of the month through December.
In Rouen, the Place Saint-Marc flea market runs as it does every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, among vintage furniture, retro clothing, vinyl, old jewellery and trinkets of every kind. Also in Rouen, the Saint-Lô district foire à tout, run each year by the association 3CR, turns the timber-framed streets of Saint-Nicolas and Les Carmes into one long trading lane, on Sunday. In the Manche, at Orval-sur-Sienne, the Montchaton car boot sale, an annual fixture in the area, gathers 80 to 100 stallholders by the Sienne river, also that Sunday, in a green riverside setting.
