Where to find fabric at Marche St Pierre in Paris

If you’re wondering where to find fabric at Marché St Pierre in Paris, I have a few tips for you.

Yesterday I reacquainted myself with the wonderful fabric district at the foot of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Before I came out of the metro at Anvers, I spotted a very cute little RATP Information desk, so I popped over to have a look at the maps and information on offer.

This is the first one I’ve seen in the metro, and the two young people spoke English and were very helpful. If you see these info desks, do have a look and see if there’s any info which can help you while you’re in Paris.

As I came up out of the metro I was presented with a scene I hadn’t seen for a few years, the wonderful craziness of people, noise, traffic, and shops particular to this part of paris, with the prospect of seeing my old favourite fabric stores in the next few minutes. I crossed the street and walked up rue du Steinkerke where some of the touristy shops were open, and others would open later – if you want to find cute and/or kitschy Paris souvenirs, check out this street :-)

I met my friend Gaby (who shares my love of fabric) outside Marché St Pierre, and we decided to have a coffee first and then explore the stores, starting with Marché St Pierre.

I asked a couple of chaps who worked at Marché St Pierre if there were any little cafes close by (as I wanted to avoid the touristy ones which were filled with tourists), and at first they said the one we could see across the road was the only one. We thanked them and decided to go on a little search, but one of the chaps mentioned there was one “vrai café” just down the road (a true French cafe) so off we went.

We found the Cafe Orsel (we were on rue d’Orsel) and he was right – it was an authentic looking cafe and not a tourist to be seen :-)

I ordered the coffees at the bar and watched while they were made – totally impressed that it looked like the barista was using real milk to heat up, so I asked him and he confirmed it – fabulous!

Fabric at Marché St Pierre – the whole building

The Marché St Pierre is a building which houses every imagineable type of fabric you might need, all under the one roof.

Of course I wanted to see the silk first, so we walked up the stairs to level 2 (there is a lift in the back right-hand-corner of the store, for those with mobility problems). On the ground floor you can see what’s where – it’s printed on the steps of the staircase :-)

We ended up looking around on every floor and we wanted to buy LOTS of fabric, but we also knew there were many streets surrounding this building filled with other stores we needed to investigate first. What a wonderful thing to do for the whole day in Paris!