Saturday, August 14, 2010

Christmas Shopping in Paris

Champs Elysee Christmas

Christmas shopping in the City of Lights, how fantastic! Paris is a city of fashion—exclusive boutiques, elegant department stores, and shopping centres filled with well-known designers. Paris is also a city of fine wine, special delicatessens, antiques and the famous flea markets. An expat living in or near Paris is indeed fortunate to have an almost endless selection of shops to choose from and a fabulous shopping experience. Don’t forget to stop off at one of the many salon de thé or cafes.

Fashion:

Avenue Montaigne (Métro Champs Elysées Clémenceau): Best for the famous labels, including Chanel, Lacroix, Chloé, Dior.

Rue Etienne Marcel and the Place des Victoires (Métro Etienne Marcel): Cutting edge, trend setting fashion. All the young trendsetters in Paris’ fashion world like to be seen here.

Rue Charonne and the rue Keller (Métro Charonne or Bastille): Perfect for up and coming fashion labels.

Marais (Métro St-Paul): A mix of vintage and couture along its little windy streets and especially along the rue des Francs Bourgeois leading to the Place des Vosges. A lovely place to just wander as well as shop.

Lifestyle and Food:

Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré (Métro Tuileries or Palais Royale): Fabulous chocolate shops and the famous concept store Colette.

The Left Bank: Plenty of unusual avant-garde fashion and food, including wine, patisserie and chocolate shops along the Boulevard St. Germain.

A wonderful gourmet food shop on the Right Bank, near the Madeleine is Fauchon, “the” place to go in Paris for gourmet mustards, chocolates, flavored vinegars, unusual spices and a wide selection of prepared foods: a wonderful shopping experience.

Don’t forget to have a shopping break at Angelina’s at 226 Rue de Rivoli, the best hot chocolate in Paris!

Art and Antiques:

Saint Germain des Prés (Métro Saint Germain des Prés) more specifically the rue du Seine, rue Jacob or rue du Bac: Excellent art and antique shops.

Le Louvre des Antiquaires: Exceptional art and antique market opposite the Louvre Museum.

Saint-Ouen (Métro Porte de Clignancourt): The city’s antique dealers set up stalls at the flea market at the weekend.

The Left Bank: A great location for antiques.

Department Stores:

The wonderful Paris department stores, full of fashion, home wares, perfume and food halls, have almost everything under one roof. The most famous are the Printemps and Galleries Lafayette (Métro Chaussée d’Antin); these two are side-by-side rivals on the Boulevard Haussmann.

Museum Shops:

Many of Paris’ museums have excellent gift shops offering specialty items for the home, fashion, jewellery, and books. See the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay, the Fashion Museum, to start.

Christmas Market and Lights:

The best places view Christmas lights in the City of Light are along the Champs-Elysées, along the Rue Montorgueil and Rue Mouffetard, and in the Place Vendome.

The department stores always design wonderful, festive window displays worth seeing and of course if you enjoy Christmas lights and decorations you should be sure to see the Christmas Tree at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Paris’ more popular markets are near Saint-Sulpice church, the Place Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the Grand Arch in La Defense, and on the Champs-Elysées.

To finish off a busy shopping day, stroll along the Champs Elysee under Christmas lights, listening to carols, drinking Vin Chaud, while nibbling on roasted chestnuts from street vendors.

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