Paris Shopping Tips by GUYON

Miniatures World: By Baby Doll Passages Review

This tiny shop is adjacent to Pain d'Epice (see my previous tip).
Outdoor there is a collection of mecanisms of music box, you can make working turning the handle.
Indoor, strolling in the narrow aisles, have a look at the amazing miniatures : furnitures for doll house, tiny tea sets and copper cake pans. Everything you have at home but which is missing in your daughter's doll house.

What to pay: The little things are more expensive than the large ones.

Address: Passage des Panoramas - 9e arrondissement

Directions: On Blvd Montmartre.
Metro : Richelieu-Drouot

Theme: Toys and Games

News agents: The best Paris map

What to buy: I have a large collection of Paris maps at home : books with the list of streets but the map is lost, torn leaflets (the street I am looking for is on the hole), brochures with missing pages.
The only one I found which is clear, practical and resistant is the brochure shown on the picture.
It can enter in a pocket and supplies :
- the maps of metro, RER (express metro) and bus,
- a page or two per arrondissement, with all the streets,
- a page for some suburban aeras like (La Défense, Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes),
- a comprehensive streets index.
And each map does not stop at the boundary of the arrondissement : you can cross the border without being lost.
When I wrote initially this tip, I said the booklet had a defect : the street names are witten in tiny characters. May be, the printer has read this tip because now there are 2 issues in larger characters, including one with the bus and metro routes on the maps (see the pictures)

What to pay: 5.50 euros by my news dealer (small)
7.50 euros for the larger one

Directions: Print the picture and show it to the news agent.

Theme: Books

Maille: Il n'y a que Maille qui m'aille

An other specialized shop : this one is focused on mustard, pickeled guerkins, vinegar.

What to buy: You cannot imagine the number of sorts of mustards it can exist.
A Frenchman finds it is a curious idea to bring a mustard pot as a gift and to ask the employee to wrap it.
My preferite pickles are small and crunchy. So, I do not like the American ones.

What to pay: Everything is very good : so everything is expensive.

Address: Place de la Madeleine

Directions: On the left when you look at the Madeleine

Theme: Food and Drink

Fauchon (one more time): Do you like snails ? Fauchon Review

Yes, believe what you see.
The stuff on the right is snails.
As a lot of French people, I do not like this dish and I never eat it.

What to buy: I prefer the "Oeufs en gelée aux truffes et aux morilles" (eggs in gelly with truffles and morel (mushroom)).

What to pay: 7 euros for one egg in gelly (1.40 euro in my supermarket !!!)

Theme: Food and Drink

Fauchon: The best grocery in Paris Fauchon Review

Several shops in a corner of Place de la Madeleine.
The food presented at the frontwindows make your mouth watering.

What to buy: Cakes, jam, cooked meals, pates, sausages.
Everything is good.
You can also have a "degustation-lunch" for 46?.

What to pay: The good food is expensive. You will verify that by Fauchon.

Address: Place de la Madeleine

Directions: Metro : Madeleine - Near place de la Concorde. Not far from the Department stores (Galeries Lafayette & Le Printemps)

Theme: Food and Drink

Salon des Vignerons Independants: Taste and buy WINE

Twice a year, there is a wine producer salon in Paris. The first one takes place in April, at Espace Champerret 17e arrondissement. The second one is at the fair ground of Porte de Versailles in November.

There is a paying entry but everybody has a free invitation for two persons. Each time, I receive several tickets and I can send you one at your hotel.

At the entrance, each visitor receives a free tulip shape glass (special to well taste the wine and also to smell it).

There are around 100 stands and you can taste freely at least 4 wines at each. I go there by car with my wife and I am the only one to taste and I limit myself to four stands. My wife drives when we go back home.

If you are lucky to understand French or to meet an English spoken winegrower, you can have a bonus with the wine story which is back in time in the Middle Age or the Roman epoch. You have a piece of history in your mouth.

The wine is different of the other beverages because it has several layers of flavour you taste with different parts of your mouth and tongue. A real wine drinker begins to look at the wine to appreciate its colour (its ?dress? say the experts). Then, he smell the wine to assess its perfume. Finally, he drinks it slowly, putting the liquid in each part of the mouth to assess all the flavours contained in the wine.

Open daily during 4 days ? 10AM ? 8PM except last day 6PM (but some stands are closed because they have sold hall the ware they brought.

What to buy: You can buy 1 or several bottles or a box of 6. The winegrower gives you your bottles immediately. No shipping.

What to pay: The price depends on the quality of the wine, its age and its scarecity.
There is no significant difference of price with the same wine in a shop but it is very difficult to value. My opinion is the wine bought there is inexpensive if I consider the quality.

Address: Espace Champerret - Paris 17e

Directions: Metro : Porte de Champerret

Theme: Food and Drink

The sales cheaper than the sales: The sales before the sales

What to buy: Twice a year, during 2 weeks, just before the Winter and the Summer sales, the stores of Le Sentier area (Rue d'Aboukir - 2e arrondissement - Metro : Sentier) are open to the public. These stores are normaly devoted to the professionals.
So you can find classy clothes and shoes for a third of their normal price.
The one of Winter 2005-2006 begins on December 26 and finishs on January 10. The regular sales will begin the day after.

Theme: Women's Clothes

Rue Montgallet: Cheapest place to buy a computer

The Chineses, settled rue Montgallet, offer the best prices for computers.
A Parisian says "I go to the Chineses" and everybody understands he is not going to a restaurant.
The street is rather short and narrow but there are plenty of computer shops there with a lot of vendors in them (at least on Sunday).
You must know what you precisely need because the vendors are always in a hurry. They sell parts which are assembled in the adjacent workshop.
If you search a portable computer you will not find it there but just nearby at Surcouf, which is located in the Viaduc des Arts.

What to buy: The customers are on the sidewalk with a little sheet of paper on which they have written the parts they are looking for. They look at the little stationneries on the frontwindows to tsearch the best prices. They enter the shops to check and if the answer is negative, they go the next one.

What to pay: It is really the cheapest place in Paris to buy a computer

Address: Rue Montgallet - Paris 12e arrondissement

Directions: Metro : Montgallet

Theme: Computers and Electronics

Val d'Europe: The largest European mall

It is the largest mall of Europe. Larger than the 4 Temps in La Defense.
And it is built on the US patern.
2 floors, each with a large path. The shops right and left the path. The anchor is a supermarket Auchan.
There is also La Vallee, a part of the mall made with small houses, completly devoted to outlet stores (33 to 70pct of reduction because the items are issued the next year).

Comparison with the large US malls I visited (Sawgrass Mills, Potomac Mills, Franklin Mills) : Val d'Europe is smaller, there are no merchant in the paths, the outlet stores are regular shops not so large.

Open Mon-Sat 10 AM - 9PM
Sun : the outlet stores are open.

What to buy: Especially for apparel, clothes (men and women), household.

There is also an Aquarium (11 euros).

What to pay: The shops and the supermarket are not cheaper than an other place. But the outlet stores are very cheap.

Address: Val d'Europe

Directions: Motorway A4 : exit 12.1 Val d'Europe (the parking is free)
RER line A . Station Val d'Europe
30min from Chatelet.

Phone: 01.60.42.39.39

Theme: Women's Clothes

Website: http://www.valdeurope.fr

Rue Mouffetard: Where to buy wine ? Rue Mouffetard Review

If you want to find wine at a fair price, go to rue Mouffetard. There are at least 5 specialized stores in the area.
Each of the shopkeepers has his own network of wine growers to obtain,at a fair price , some good and inexpensive wines.
Look at the Repaire de Bacchus (Bacchus' Den) : there are some bargains to make. At its competitor which is just in front too...

What to buy: Wines, liquors.

What to pay: From 4 to Wow euros

Address: 112 rue Mouffetard - 75005 - PARIS

Directions: Metro : Censier-Daubenton

Phone: 331 47 07 39 40

Theme: Food and Drink