The Braderie de Lille is one of the biggest flea markets in the world. My wife is one of the biggest flea market fans in the world. It was a matter of time before these two things collided. 2025 looks like the year.

Lille is in Northern France, about two hours from Paris and about an hour from Bruges, Belgium by car. It’s been about 27 years since we last spent any time in Paris and we’ve not visited anywhere else in France or Belgium. I decided to build a trip around that flea market visit.

The 2025 flea market is in September, the weekend after Labor Day. I started by looking at hotels in Lille as they tend to fill up quickly once the flea market dates are announced. I managed to book the Hotel L’Hermitage Gantois, a Marriott Autograph Collection property, for two nights at 33,000 Marriott points per night. The hotel was already going for over €300 per night when I booked, so it was a pretty good deal by Bonvoy valuation standards. The hotel is smack in the middle of Lille. Parking may be an issue, but there are lots outside the city where we could leave a rental car and take public transit to the hotel.

As Lille is close to both Paris and Bruges, I decided to include stops in both. Given that we also have Labor Day weekend to work with on the front end of the trip, I thought we would have time to visit the Normandy beaches as well.

I booked the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris for three nights over Labor Day weekend for 45k Hyatt points per night. Yes, that’s a lot of points, but this is one of the most iconic Hyatt properties in the world, and I was also able to immediately confirm an upgrade to a suite using a Hyatt Suite Night Upgrade award.

From Paris, we will rent a car and head to the Normandy coast for three nights. For now, I’ve booked a cute B&B on the beach through the Capital One portal to use a travel credit (for about $100 per night), but I could change to a hotel in the town of Bayeux or somewhere else closer to the trip. Generally, Capital One doesn’t claw back these credits even if you cancel a booking later on. The plan is to visit some WWII landing beaches and Mont St. Michel.

For Bruges, I booked the Crowne Plaza using IHG points as it’s right in the center of town and was a pretty good value. We will only have one full day and two nights there, but that should be enough to get a flavor for the town and see some of the historical sights. From Bruges, we will drive to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport to drop off the rental car and catch an afternoon flight to Washington Dulles on Air France in business class, which I was able to grab for 50k Flying Blue points plus about $200 per person.

From Dulles, I booked a Delta First Class evening flight back to Atlanta for 17k SkyMiles per person (Main Cabin was 11k so I splurged as we’ll be tired). Hopefully, we’ll also be able to visit the Capital One Lounge at Dulles between flights.

I have not yet booked us a flight to Paris. Trying to find something the Friday before Labor Day is making it a bit tough. I’ve seen a couple of one-stop itineraries out of JFK or Newark but adding on the Atlanta positioning flight makes it three flights which isn’t ideal. I wouldn’t mind a nonstop Air France flight from JFK as we could also visit the new Delta One lounge there first, but so far, the prices are too high on award tickets (over 130k per person). I’m also monitoring cash prices as the Amex 35% points rebate through the business platinum card is also a possibility.

The trip is coming together nicely and hopefully there will be something for both of us on this trip. We’ll both have things we want to see in Paris and Bruges plus we’ll enjoy the food. I’ll get to see the Normandy WWII history, and my wife will love the flea market. We’ll probably have to bring an extra bag to check on the trip home for all of her bargains.

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