DEPARTMENT STORES (LES GRANDS MAGASINS)
Place de la Madeleine to Place de l’Opéra
Map: Place de la Madeleine Shopping Walk
Sèvres-Babylone to St. Sulpice
Map: Sèvres-Babylone to St. Sulpice Walk
Map: Puces St. Ouen Flea Market
Traffic-Free Shopping and Café Streets
ARCADED SHOPPING STREETS (PASSAGES)
Shopping in chic Paris is altogether tempting—even reluctant shoppers can find good reasons to indulge. Wandering among elegant boutiques provides a break from the heavy halls of the Louvre, and, if you approach it right, a little cultural enlightenment.
If you need just souvenirs, visit a souvenir shop. A neighborhood supermarket is a good place to find that Parisian box of tea, jam, or cookies—perfect for tucking into your suitcase at the last minute. For more elaborate purchases, large department stores provide painless one-stop shopping in classy surroundings. Neighborhood boutiques offer the greatest reward at the highest risk. Clerks and prices can be intimidating, but the selection is more original and the experience is purely Parisian. Just be sure you don’t leave your shopping for Sunday, when most stores are buttoned up tight.
Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, budget some time for window shopping, or, as the French call it, faire du lèche-vitrines (“window licking”).
Before you enter a Parisian store, remember the following points:
• In small stores, always say, “Bonjour, Madame or Mademoiselle or Monsieur” when entering. And remember to say “Au revoir, Madame or Mademoiselle or Monsieur” when leaving.
• The customer is not always right. In fact, figure the clerk is doing you a favor by waiting on you.
• Except in department stores, it’s not normal for the customer to handle clothing. Ask first before you pick up an item: “Je peux?” (zhuh puh), meaning, “Can I?”
• By law the price of items in a window display must be visible, often written on a slip of paper set on the floor or framed on the wall. This gives you an idea of how expensive or affordable the shop is before venturing inside.
• For clothing size comparisons between the US and France, see here of the appendix.
• Forget returns (and don’t count on exchanges).
• Observe French shoppers. Then imitate.
• Saturday afternoons are très busy and not for the faint of heart.
• Stores are generally closed on Sunday. Exceptions include the Carrousel du Louvre (underground shopping mall at the Louvre with a Printemps department store), and some shops near Sèvres-Babylone, along the Champs-Elysées, and in the Marais.
• Some small stores don’t open until 14:00 on Mondays.
• Don’t feel obliged to buy. If a shopkeeper offers assistance, just say, “Je regarde, merci.”
• For information on VAT refunds and customs regulations, see here.
Avoid souvenir carts in front of famous monuments and, instead, look for souvenir shops. You can find cheaper gifts around the Pompidou Center, on the streets of Montmartre, and in some department stores (see next). The riverfront stalls near Notre-Dame sell a variety of used books, old posters and postcards, magazines, refrigerator magnets, and other tourist paraphernalia in the most romantic setting; see here in the Historic Paris Walk chapter. You’ll find better deals at the souvenir shops that line Rue d’Arcole between Notre-Dame and Hôtel de Ville and on Rue de Rivoli, across from the Louvre.
Like cafés, department stores were invented here (surprisingly, not in America). These popular stores are often crowded (every day here feels like Black Friday) and may seem overwhelming at first, but the ones listed here are accustomed to wide-eyed foreign shoppers and have English-speaking staff. These stores are not just beautiful monuments; they also offer insights into how Parisians live. It’s instructive to see what’s in style, check out Parisians’ current taste in clothes and furniture, and compare the selection with stores back home.
Parisian department stores begin with their showy perfume sections, almost always central on the ground floor, and worth a visit to see how much space is devoted to pricey, smelly water. Helpful information desks are usually located at the main entrances near the perfume section (with floor plans in English). Stores generally have affordable restaurants (some with view terraces) and a good selection of fairly priced souvenirs and toys. Opening hours are customarily Monday through Saturday from 10:00 to 19:00. Some are open later on Thursdays, and all are jammed on Saturdays and closed on Sundays (except in December). The Printemps (pran-tahn) store in the Carrousel du Louvre is an exception—it’s open daily, including Sundays.
You’ll find both Galeries Lafayette and Printemps stores in several neighborhoods. The most convenient and most elegant sit side by side behind the Opéra Garnier, complementing that monument’s similar, classy ambience (Mo: Chaussée d’Antin-La Fayette, Havre-Caumartin, or Opéra, see map on here). Both stores sprawl over multiple buildings and consume entire city blocks. The selection is huge, crowds can be huger (especially on summer Saturdays), and the prices are considered a tad high.
Galeries Lafayette is a must-see for its colorful ceiling, trad-chic ambience, and city views from the rooftop. To reach the store, circle around the right side of the Opéra Garnier to the main building (of three) located right at the Chaussée d’Antin Métro stop, at 40 Boulevard Haussmann. Enter and work your way to the heart of the store, where you can gaze up at the store’s main attraction: a sensational, stained-glass belle époque dome hovering 150 feet overhead. Ride the escalator up. The first three floors up have bars or cafés with great views of the dome above and the shopping action below. The fourth floor has the best close-ups of the dome’s stained glass, the fifth floor has unique children’s toys, and the sixth floor has Paris souvenirs and a good-value cafeteria with views. Finally, ascend to the seventh floor (la terrasse) for a grand, open-air rooftop view of tout Paris, starring the well-put-together backside of the Opéra Garnier. Fashion shows for the public take place from March through November at Galeries Lafayette on Fridays at 15:00 (call 01 42 82 30 25 or email fashionshow@galerieslafayette.com to confirm time and to reserve at least one month in advance—they speak English, in auditorium on seventh floor, www.galerieslafayette.com).
A block to the west past Galeries Lafayette Hommes (men’s) store, Printemps has an impressive facade that lures shoppers in search of lower prices and less glitz (think JCPenney). The store covers two buildings. The one closest to Galeries Lafayette offers a circular cafeteria under a massive glass dome on the sixth floor. The second building provides a view from its ninth-floor rooftop (ask: la terrasse?), which I find a bit better than that from Galeries Lafayette because it includes an unobstructed view of Montmartre. The rooftop comes with a breezy and reasonable bar/café with good interior and exterior seating.
Teens and twentysomethings will flip for the Citadium mall of shops on Rue Caumartin, under the walkway between Printemps’ two buildings.
Continue your shopping by walking from this area to Place Madeleine (see “Boutique Strolls,” next).
Give yourself a vacation from your sightseeing-focused vacation by sifting through window displays, pausing at corner cafés, and feeling the rhythm of neighborhood life. (Or have you been playing hooky and doing this already?) Though smaller shops are more intimate, sales clerks are more formal—so mind your manners. Three very different areas to lick some windows are: Place de la Madeleine to Place de l’Opéra, Sèvres-Babylone to St. Sulpice, and along Rue des Martyrs.
Most shops are closed on Sunday, which is a good day to head for the Marais, where many shops are open on Sunday (and closed on Saturday). For eclectic, avant-garde boutiques in this neighborhood, peruse the artsy shops between Place des Vosges and the Pompidou Center (see map on here).
(See “Place de la Madeleine Shopping Walk” map, here.)
The ritzy streets connecting several high-priced squares—Place de la Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendôme, and Place de l’Opéra—form a miracle mile of gourmet food shops, glittering jewelry stores, five-star hotels, exclusive clothing boutiques, and people who spend more on clothes in one day than I do in a year. This walk highlights the value Parisians place on outrageously priced products.
This walk takes about 1.5 hours (one hour if you skip the extension to Place Vendôme and Place de l’Opéra). Most stores are open Monday through Saturday from around 10:00 in the morning (or earlier) until 19:00 (or later) at night. Most places are closed on Sunday.
• Start at Place de la Madeleine, at the Métro stop Madeleine, in the northeast corner of the square. From here, work counterclockwise around the square.
Place de la Madeleine: The Madeleine Church—looking like a Roman temple with fifty-two 65-foot Corinthian columns—dominates the center of the square. Yes, this is a shopping stroll and there’s nothing on sale inside this church, but it’s free and worth a quick look. Originally designed as a secular temple to honor Napoleon’s great army, it was turned into a church in 1842 and today is still used as both a church and concert venue.
Step through the massive bronze doors and approach the altar featuring a striking marble Mary Magdalene with three angels. The ceiling fresco celebrates great French Christians—from Saint Louis (King Louis IX) to Jean d’Arc—in the company of Mary Magdalene and Christ in heaven above. During Chopin’s funeral, in 1849, 3,000 mourners packed this church as musicians played the famous dirge of Chopin’s Funeral March (free, daily 9:30-19:00).
The neighborhood surrounding the square was originally a suburb of medieval Paris, but by the time the church was completed in the mid-1800s, it had become Paris’ most fashionable neighborhood. The glitzy belle époque of turn-of-the-century Paris revolved around this square and its surrounding streets. Today, the square is a gourmet’s fantasy, lined with Paris’ most historic and tasty food shops.
• OK, let’s shop. Our first shop is perhaps the most famous of all. In the northeast corner at #24 is the black-and-white awning of...
Fauchon: Founded on this location in 1886, this bastion of over-the-top edibles became famous around the world, catering to the refined tastes of the rich and famous. Its tea, caviar, foie gras, and pastries set the standard for nearly a century. In the late 20th century, it faded from its glory days, closing many franchises—but recently it’s on the rebound.
There are two Fauchon storefronts here. The Traiteur-Pâtisserie at #24 is like a delicatessen, with meats, meals, breads, and pastries (pâtisseries). These takeout items can cost more than many sit-down restaurant meals. Check out the various places you can buy something to eat-in: There’s the tasting bar for caviar and champagne, sidewalk seating, plus more tables (and a WC) upstairs. Or grab a stool at the boulangerie and enjoy a sponge-cake cookie: a madeleine on Place de la Madeleine (though the names are only coincidental).
Just across the street at #30 is Fauchon’s more impressive shop, the Cave, Chocolat, Epicerie. This razzle-dazzle store is all about style, branding, and packaging. Tourists gobble up anything wrapped in pink and black with Fauchon’s name emblazoned on it. Stroll downstairs to find the wine cellar, with €5,000 bottles of century-old Cognac—who buys this stuff? Up on the first floor is a fashionable café with view tables of La Madeleine.
• Continue your counterclockwise tour around Place de la Madeleine.
More Gourmet Shops: Founded in 1854, Hédiard (#21, northwest corner of the square) is older than Fauchon, and it’s weathered the tourist mobs a bit better. Wafting the aroma of tea and coffee, it showcases handsomely displayed produce and wines. Hédiard’s small red containers—of mustards, jams, coffee, candies, and tea—make great souvenirs. Anyone can enter the glass doors of the wine cellar, marked Le Chais (with €2,500 bottles of Petrus), but you need special permission to access Les Vénérables wines. Upstairs (take the glass elevator) is a smart café for coffee or a pricey lunch.
Return to the square, pass by Crab Royale, then step inside tiny La Maison des Truffe (#19) to get a whiff of the product—truffles, those prized, dank, and dirty cousins of mushrooms. Check out the tiny jars in the display case. Ponder how something so ugly, smelly, and deformed can cost so much. Choose from a selection that varies from run-of-the-mill black truffles (a bargain at €50 a pound) to rare white truffles from Italy—up to €3,000 a pound. At the counter they sell every possible food that can be made with truffles, including Armagnac brandy. The shop also houses a sharp little restaurant serving truffle dishes (e.g., truffle omelet for €40, or chocolate cake with truffle ice cream for €15).
The venerable Mariage Frères (#17) shop demonstrates how good tea can smell and how beautifully it can be displayed.
• A few steps along, you’ll find...
Caviar Kaspia (#16): Here you can add Iranian caviar, eel, and vodka to your truffle collection. Find the price list for these cured fish eggs. The sharper-tasting caviars run €100 for a small tin. The “finer” ones, from beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, sell for up to €12,000 a kilo. The restaurant upstairs serves what you see downstairs—at equally exorbitant prices. Demand for fish eggs must be strong, because a competitor (Caviar Prunier) has opened next door.
• Continue along, past Marquise de Sévígné chocolates (#11) to the intersection with...
Boulevard Malesherbes: Look to the right, down the boulevard. This kind of vista—of a grand boulevard anchored by a domed church (dedicated to St. Augustine)—is vintage Haussmann. (For more on the man who shaped modern-day Paris, see the sidebar on here.) When the street officially opened in 1863, it ushered in the golden age of this neighborhood.
• Cross the three crosswalks traversing Boulevard Malesherbes. Straight ahead is...
Patrick Roger Chocolates (#3): This place is famous for its chocolates, and even more so for M. Roger’s huge, whimsical, 150-pound chocolate sculptures of animals and fanciful creatures.
• Continue on, turning right down...
Rue Royale: Along this broad boulevard, we trade expensive food for expensive...stuff. There’s Dior, Chanel, and Gucci. A half block down Rue Royale, dip into the classy Village Royale shopping courtyard with its restful Le Village Café.
If you went a few hundred yards farther down Rue Royale—which we won’t on this walk—you’d reach the once-famous restaurant Maxim’s (at #3), and then spill into Place de la Concorde, with the still-famous Hôtel Crillon (see here). The US Embassy is located nearby, and this area has long been the haunt of America’s wealthy, cosmopolitan jet set.
• At Rue St. Honoré, turn left and cross Rue Royale, pausing in the middle for a great view both ways. Check out Ladurée (#16) for an out-of-this-world pastry break in the busy 19th-century tea salon, or to just pick up some world-famous macarons.
If you’ve had enough, you’re a few blocks from the Place de la Concorde Métro stop, the Tuileries Garden, and the Orangerie Museum. If you have more shopping in you, continue east down...
Rue St. Honoré: The street is a three-block parade of chic boutiques—L’Oréal cosmetics, Jimmy Choo shoes, Valentino, and so on. Looking for a €1,000 handbag? This is your spot. (Or, it’s a good place to ponder the fact that about half of the seven billion people living on this planet are doing it on $2 a day.) The place has long been tied to fashion. Industry titans like Hermès, Givenchy, and Lancôme were launched a few blocks west of this stretch. You’ll pass the domed Church of the Assumption, a former convent that now caters to Paris’ Polish community.
• Turn left on Rue de Castiglione to reach...
Place Vendôme: This octagonal square is très elegant—enclosed by symmetrical Mansart buildings around a 150-foot column. On the left side is the original Hôtel Ritz, opened in 1898. Since then, it’s been one of the world’s most fashionable hotels. It gives us our word “ritzy.” Hemingway liberated its bar in World War II.
The square was created by Louis XIV during the 17th century as a setting for a statue of himself (then called Place Louis le Grand). One hundred and fifty years later, Louis XIV was replaced by a towering monument to Napoleon capped by a statue of the emperor himself. That column, designed in the style of Trajan’s Column in Rome, was raised by Napoleon to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. The encircling bronze reliefs were made from cannons won in this and other battles. Look for images of the emperor directing battle with his distinctive hat as you scroll up the column. Elsewhere on the square, Chopin died at #12.
The square is also known for its upper-crust jewelry and designer stores—Van Cleef & Arpels, Dior, Chanel, Cartier, and others (if you have to ask how much...).
• Leave Place Vendôme by continuing straight, up Rue de la Paix—strolling by still more jewelry, high-priced watches, and crystal—and enter...
Place de l’Opéra: You’re in the middle of Right Bank glamour. Here you’ll find the Opéra Garnier and the Fragonard Perfume Museum (described on here). If you’re shopping ‘til you’re dropping, the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores (both described earlier) are located a block or two north, up Rue Halévy. If you’re exhausted from counting the zeroes on price tags, relax with a drink at venerable Café de la Paix across from the Opéra (daily, 12 Boulevard des Capucines). It’s an appropriately elegant—and pricey—way to end this tour.
• When you’re ready to go, look for the convenient Opéra Métro stop.
(See “Sèvres-Babylone to St. Sulpice Walk” map, here.)
This Left Bank shopping stroll runs from the Sèvres-Babylone Métro stop to St. Sulpice Church, near Luxembourg Garden and Boulevard St. Germain. You’ll sample smart clothing boutiques and clever window displays while enjoying one of Paris’ more attractive neighborhoods. This shopping walk ties in well with my Left Bank Walk. Some stores on this walk are open Sunday afternoons, though the walk is better on other days.
Start at the Sèvres-Babylone Métro stop (take the Métro or bus #87). You’ll find the Bon Marché behind a small park. The Bon Marché (means “inexpensive,” but it’s not) is Paris’ oldest department store. It opened in 1852, when fascination with iron and steel construction led to larger structures (like train stations, exhibition halls, and Eiffel Towers). The Bon Marché was the first large-scale store to offer fixed prices (no bargaining) and a vast selection of items under one glass roof, arranged in various “departments.” This rocked the commercial world and forever changed the future of shopping. High-volume sales allowed low prices and created loyal customers—can you say “Costco”? But what began as a bargain store has evolved into one of Paris’ most elegant shopping destinations.
Start your tour in the center, under the atrium with a high glass ceiling and crisscross elevators. Browse the perfumes, then take the escalator up to higher floors for a better perspective. Notice the sales clerks seated behind desks rather than standing at counters (at these prices, they seem more like loan officers). Find the less glamorous escalators in the corners of the store to bring you to the very top floor, where you’ll find a treasure trove of children’s books, toys, and clothing. If you’re hungry, there are trendy restaurants in the basement and an elegant tea salon on the third floor.
From the Bon Marché, walk through the small park, cross Boulevard Raspail, and start heading down Rue de Sèvres (along the right side). The Hôtel Lutetia to your right was built for shoppers by the Bon Marché’s owners and is now undergoing a floor-to-ceiling renovation. A few steps down Rue de Sèvres, you’ll find La Maison du Chocolat at #19. Their mouthwatering window display will draw you helplessly inside. The shop sells handmade chocolates in exquisitely wrapped boxes and delicious ice-cream cones in season. Parisians commonly offer chocolates when invited over, and no gift box better impresses than one from this store.
Be sure to lick the chocolate off your fingers before entering Hermès (a few doors down, at #17), famous for pricey silk scarves—and for the former designer of its fashion house, Jean-Paul Gaultier. Don’t let the doorman intimidate you: Everyone’s welcome here. This store, opened in 2011, is housed in the original Art Deco swimming pool of Hôtel Lutetia, built in 1935. Take a spin through this ultra-trendy space, which covers more than 20,000 square feet.
Across the street sits the marvelously old-school Au Sauvignon Café (10 Rue de Sèvres, open daily). It’s well situated for watching the conveyor belt of smartly coiffed shoppers glide by. Check in for a hot or cold drink, and check out the zinc bar and picture-crazy interior. If your feet hurt, relief is at hand—a Mephisto shoe store is almost next door.
Continue a block farther down Rue de Sèvres to Place Michel Debré, a six-way intersection. A wicked half-man, half-horse statue (ouch), the Centaur, stands guard. Designed by French sculptor César in 1985, it was originally intended for a more prominent square, but was installed here after many deemed it too provocative because of its metallic genitalia. The face is of the sculptor himself.
From Place Michel Debré, boutique-lined streets fan out like spokes on a wheel. Each street merits a detour if shopping matters to you.
Make a short detour up Rue du Cherche-Midi (follow the horse’s fanny). This street offers an ever-changing but always chic selection of shoe, purse, and clothing stores. Find Paris’ most celebrated bread—beautiful round loaves with designer crust—at the low-key Poilâne at #8 (Mon-Sat 7:15-20:15, closed Sun). Enter for a sample. Notice the care with which each loaf of bread is wrapped. Next door, the small Cuisine de Bar café is a bar à pains (bread bar) and serves open-faced sandwiches (tartines) and salads with Poilâne bread (closed Mon).
Return to the Centaur in Place Michel Debré. Check out the Comtesse du Barry pâté store, which sells small gift packs. Then turn right and head down Rue du Vieux Colombier.
You’ll pass the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier (1913), one of three key venues for La Comédie Française, a historic state-run troupe. Enter and find the timeline to the right; take a moment to look for names you recognize. How about the playwright Anton Chekov and poet T. S. Eliot—who both wrote plays performed here—or folk singer John Denver?
In the next two blocks, you’ll pass many stores that specialize in just one or two items, but in a variety of colors and patterns. At Longchamp (#21), you can hunt for a stylish French handbag in any color, and Victoire offers items for the gentleman.
Cross busy Rue de Rennes—glancing to the right at the dreadful Montparnasse Tower in the distance—and continue down Rue du Vieux Colombier.
Here you’ll find more specialty boutiques. If the man or petit-garçon in your life needs a swimsuit, check out Vilebrequin (#5). There’s Aubade (#4) for lingerie and Hervé Chapelier (#1) for travel totes and handbags.
Spill into Place St. Sulpice, with its big, twin-tower church. Café de la Mairie is a great spot to sip a café crème, admire the lovely square, and consider your next move. Sightseers can visit St. Sulpice Church (see here) or Luxembourg Garden (here). Or you can head north on Rue Bonaparte two blocks to Boulevard St. Germain for more shopping and several grands cafés (described on here).
Our walk continues east, exiting the square (with the church on your right) along what is now called Rue St. Sulpice. 
Estrella is a boutique with excellent teas and coffee beans (including real French roast), and a friendly owner, Jean-Claude (closed Sun, 34 Rue St. Sulpice). Pause at 
Marie Mercié’s to admire the window display of extravagant and wildly expensive hats (23 Rue St. Sulpice).
Now turn left onto Rue de Seine. What’s the best pastry shop in Paris? According to local shopkeepers, it’s 
Gérard Mulot’s pâtisserie (closed Wed, 76 Rue de Seine). That’s saying a lot. Ogle the window display and try his chocolate macarons and savory quiches—oh, baby. Pick up lunch to go and munch it at nearby Luxembourg Garden. If you need a traditional French picnic knife to cut your quiche, backtrack to the 
Tabac (78 Rue de Seine) for a fine selection of Opinel knives, made in Savoie since 1890. Or if you’re missing any other food supplies for the picnic, pop into 
Marché Alimentaire St. Germain (a covered food market on the next block). The English-language bookshop 
San Francisco Book Company is a few blocks east at 17 Rue Monsieur le Prince (used books only, see map on here). Around the corner at 10 Rue des Quatre Vents sits Au Gré des Vents, a well-established consignment clothing and accessory shop, where you can rummage through the cast-offs of well-heeled neighborhood residents.
If you’d like more shopping options, you’re in the heart of boutique shopping. Sightseers could take my Left Bank Walk (you’re near several points along the route). Or catch the Métro to your next destination at St. Germain, Odéon, or Mabillon. As for me, stick a fourchette in me—I’m done.
As they race from big museum to big museum, visitors often miss the market streets and village-like charm that give Paris a warm and human vibrancy. Rue Cler remains my favorite market street (see the Rue Cler Walk chapter). But for an authentic, less-touristy market street, serving village Paris, stroll down Rue des Martyrs.
This walk starts at the base of Montmartre, a block from the Pigalle Métro stop, and takes you downhill six blocks along a lively market street, ending at Métro station Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. Like any market street, it’s generally quiet on Sunday from 12:00 on, all day Monday, and the rest of the week from about 13:00 to 15:00, when shops close for a break. While Rue des Martyrs is quiet, it’s not traffic-free like most other boutique strolls in this chapter.
From the Pigalle Métro stop, head east along Boulevard de Clichy to the first street, where you turn right on Rue des Martyrs. Entering Rue des Martyrs, you pass into a finer neighborhood with broader streets, richer buildings...and signs of the reality of raising a family in an urban setting.
Security can be a concern. The school immediately on your right has barriers to keep possible car bombs at a distance. (Terrorist attacks that rocked Paris decades ago inspired a ban on parking in front of schools or near buildings that serve a predominantly Jewish clientele.) Several side streets are “voie privée”—private lanes or high-rise, gated communities. Behind big carriage doors, lanes lead to peaceful inner courtyards serving clusters of apartments.
The carousel at the intersection is a reminder that families live in tight quarters. Along with small children, they have small kitchens, small fridges, and no gardens. They shop daily for small amounts—which helps keep the neighborhood strong.
Slalom past people strolling with dogs and babies. Goods spill out onto the sidewalk. People know their butcher and baker as if they lived in a village. Locals willingly pay more in a shop that’s not part of a chain.
Stroll slowly downhill. Notice the variety of small shops. Paris is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe, which makes the streets particularly vibrant. Look up and imagine how population density is great news for fishmongers, flower merchants, and bakers.
The traditional charcuterie at #58 still sells various meats, but it has morphed with the times into an appealing traiteur with more variety, food to eat in as well as to go, and prepared dishes sold by weight.
Just next door you’ll see one of Paris’ countless late-night grocery stores. These are generally run by North African immigrants who are willing to work the night shift for the convenience of others. Beware: Produce with the highest prices is often priced by the half-kilo.
At #50, the cheesemonger has been serving the neighborhood ever since it actually had goats and cows grazing out back. Notice the marble shelves, old milk jugs, and small artisanal cheeses.
At #46, the English-owned Rose Bakery serves a young, affluent, and health-conscious crowd with top-quality organic and vegetarian breakfasts and lunches. Across the street, the baker Delmontel (at #39) proudly displays his “best baguette in Paris” award from 2007 and his fresh-baked temptations. At #42 sits Terra Corsa, a café/gourmet food shop selling fine foods from Corsica and tasty lunch plates served with wine, beer, or Corsican cola. Maison Landemaine (at #26) is another eye-popping bakery.
Continuing your stroll on Rue des Martyrs, take a look at the traditional butcher at #21. You know he’s good because the ceiling hooks—where butchers once hung sides of beef—now display a red medallion that certifies the slaughtered cow’s quality. Like carrots come with greenery intact for the discerning shopper, here the chicken comes with its head on, the rabbit with his heart exposed, and the fish with eyes open. Freshness is expected.
Sebastian Gaudard’s pâtisserie at #22 is worth popping in to see the typically French edible works of art. Bakers enjoy making special treats in sync with the season: Easter, Christmas, First Communion, and so on.
Nearby, at #20, the tobacco shop/café is coping well with the smoking ban by putting out heaters (in cool weather) and as many tables as will fit on the sidewalk. Shops like this—once run by rural people from what was then France’s poorest region, Auvergne—are now often managed by Chinese immigrants. Traditionally the corner café was the community’s utility sales outlet—where you could pay parking tickets, pick up stamps and Métro tickets, and play the lottery. In spite of the giant letters reading “fumer tue,” (smoking kills) cigarettes sell well. Oh...and there’s good coffee too.
Down the street (at #9) sit two ultra-specialized food shops: one selling olive oils made exclusively from French olives and La Chambre à Confiture, displaying fruity creations like fine jewels that will forever change the way you think of jam (they’re generous with samples).
The “City” Carrefour at #7 is a small version of a big supermarket chain. With long howwurs daily and more convenience, modern supermarkets are threatening many smaller shops.
Across from Carrefour, browse the long line of produce. Note how price tags come with the place each item was grown. Two more butchers and a cheese shop later, you reach the neighborhood church (the Neoclassical Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, circa 1836) and the end of this street.
Our walk is over. The Métro station Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (line 12) awaits. Find the discreet entrance on the opposite (front) side of the church.
Paris’ sprawling flea markets (marché aux puces; mar-shay oh-pews; puce is French for “flea”) started in the Middle Ages, when middlemen sold old, flea-infested clothes and discarded possessions of the wealthy at bargain prices to eager peasants, allowing buyers to rummage through piles of aristocratic garbage.
Puces St. Ouen (pews sant-oo-an), at Porte de Clignancourt, carries on the Parisian flea market tradition, but at a more elevated level—the fleas are gone, as are the bargain prices. This is the mother of all flea markets, attracting interior designers and those who appreciate this ever-changing museum of household goods. More than 2,000 vendors sell everything from flamingos to faucets, but mostly exquisite antiques and vintage silver and art (Sat 9:00-18:00, Sun 10:00-18:00, Mon 11:00-17:00, closed Tue-Fri, pretty dead the first 2 weeks of Aug, tel. 01 58 61 22 90, www.st-ouen-tourisme.com and www.les-puces.com).
Getting to Puces St. Ouen: Take Métro line 4 to the end of the line at Porte de Clignancourt, then carefully follow Sortie, Marché aux Puces signs. Walk straight out of the Métro down Avenue de la Porte de Clignancourt, passing leather stores and blocks of tents hawking trinkets and cheap clothing. Ignore street vendors selling knockoff designer bags and fake Marlboro cigarettes. Your destination is just beyond the elevated freeway (white bridge). Cross under the freeway—leaving Paris and entering the suburb of St. Ouen—and veer left on the angled street, Rue des Rosiers, the spine that links the many markets of St. Ouen. To get to the best markets as soon as possible, enter the Vernaison market through an easy-to-miss archway at #129, then use Vernaison’s peaceful lanes to get to the others—or continue along Rue des Rosiers. Avoid the crowds along Avenue Jean Henri Fabre, parallel to the freeway, and you’ll do fine. If you’re considering buying a large item, be aware that shipping is very expensive (Camard company has the best reputation, tel. 01 49 46 10 82, www.antikaparis.com/camard).
Taking bus #85 lets you skip the scruffy stretch between the Métro station and the market, leaving you near the Vernaison or Paul Bert markets on Rue des Rosiers. Catch line #85 (direction: Mairie de St-Ouen) from stops located near the Luxembourg Garden, Hôtel de Ville, or Montmartre. To return to the city, navigate back to Rue des Rosiers and hop on buses heading to Luxembourg.
Visiting the Market: The area around the market shows off Paris’ gritty, suburban underbelly and can be intimidating (in Paris, the have-nots live in the burbs, while the haves want to be as central as they can get). No event brings together the melting-pot population of Paris better than this carnival-like market. Some find it claustrophobic, overcrowded, and threatening; others find French diamants-in-the-rough and return happy. (Wear your money belt; pickpockets and scam artists thrive in these wall-to-wall-shopper events—and don’t use ATM machines here.) The markets actually get downright mellow the farther in you go. You can bargain a bit (best deals are made with cash at the end of the day), though don’t expect swinging deals here.
Space for this flea market was created in the 1800s, when the city wall was demolished (its path is now a freeway), leaving large tracts of land open. Eventually the vacuum was filled by street vendors, then antique dealers. The hodgepodge pattern of the market reflects its unplanned evolution. Strolling the stalls can feel more like touring a souk in North Africa—a place of narrow alleys packed with people and too much to see.
The St. Ouen “market” is actually a collection of individual markets. Most of these are covered alleys, each with a different name and specializing in a particular angle on antiques, bric-a-brac, and junk. You’ll find them by walking down the “spine” of the market, Rue des Rosiers—look for a map that tries to explain the general character of each (get it at shops or the TI branch just off Rue des Rosiers on Impasse Simon). Here’s a brief rundown of the marchés: Vernaison (enter through an easy-to-miss archway at #129, small shops selling a mishmash of stuff from lace doilies to clock parts), Dauphine (a glass-roofed arcade with quiet shops lining its interior-only lanes), Biron and Serpette (classy antiques), and Paul Bert (open lanes of shops selling high-end designs for your home, with clean—and free—WCs).
Even if antiques, African objects, and T-shirts aren’t your thing, you may still find this market worth the Métro ride. Pretend you just rented a big, empty apartment...and need to furnish it. Come for a reality check—away from the beautiful people and glorious monuments of Paris—and get a dose of life in the ’burbs. Time your trip around lunch; there are many lively and reasonable cafés.
Eating at Puces St. Ouen: Buried in Vernaison Market, $$ Chez Louisette delivers a rousing lunch experience. Listen to a latter-day Edith Piaf and eat with a Toulouse-Lautrec look-alike. Madame belts out vintage French chansons with an accordion and keyboard to back her up, the ramshackle decor is laced with red garlands and big chandeliers, and the jovial crowd sings along. It’s popular, so come right at noon or expect to wait (expect to tip the singers, Sat-Mon only, 130 Avenue Michelet, tel. 01 40 12 10 14). $$ Café Paul Bert is where locals come for a traditional brasserie meal. The decor is wonderful inside and out, and the cuisine wins rave reviews (closed Tue-Wed, 20 Rue Paul Bert, tel. 01 40 11 90 28). $$ La Chope des Puces bar is famous for its live Gypsy music concerts on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, complete with a questionable clientele (open 10:30-19:00, 122 Rue des Rosiers, tel. 01 40 11 28 80). High-end interior designers and costume makers flock to $$$ Ma Cocotte. This upscale bistro was designed by living legend Philippe Starck and is tucked into the Paul Bert Market just off Rue des Rosiers (open daily, 106 Rue des Rosiers, tel. 01 49 51 70 00).
Comparatively tiny and civilized with sidewalk stalls and a more traditional flea-market feel, Puces de Vanves is preferred by many market connoisseurs (Sat-Sun 7:00-17:00, best to arrive before 13:00—when the best stalls close, closed Mon-Fri, Mo: Porte de Vanves).
Several traffic-free street markets overflow with flowers, produce, fish vendors, and butchers, illustrating how most Parisians shopped before there were supermarkets and department stores. Shops are open daily except Sunday afternoons, Monday, and lunchtime throughout the week (13:00 to 15:00 or 16:00). Browse these markets for picnics, or find a corner café from which to appreciate the scene.
Rue Cler—a wonderful place to sleep and dine as well as shop—is like a refined street market, serving an upscale neighborhood near the Eiffel Tower (Mo: Ecole Militaire; for details, see the Rue Cler Walk chapter and the Sleeping in Paris and Eating in Paris chapters).
Rue Montorgueil is a thriving and locally popular café-lined street. Ten blocks from the Louvre and five blocks from the Pompidou Center, Rue Montorgueil (mohn-tor-goy) is famous as the last vestige of the once-massive Les Halles market (just north of St. Eustache Church, Mo: Etienne Marcel). Once the home of big warehouses and wholesale places to support the market, these have morphed into retail outlets to survive. Today you’ll find cafés and cute bistros and no food shops, with one important exception—the irresistible creations at Pâtissier Stohrer, where the French expression for “window licking” must have started (51 Rue Montorgueil, tel. 01 42 33 38 20). Several traffic-free lanes cross Rue Montorgueil: Don’t miss the nearby covered arcade, Passage du Grand Cerf, described later.
Rue Montorgueil leads directly to the Forum des Halles, a big modern shopping mall under a vast, yellow, eye-catching (and water-catching) glass-and-steel canopy. The canopy has louvers to maximize the shade and is designed to collect rainwater, which powers a fountain that cascades from its peak down to a babbling man-made brook. The mall, which stands on the former site of the city’s main produce market, is the embodiment of 21st-century urban design: It quietly rests over a massive underground transportation hub and faces a delightfully green city park. The park (overlooked by the spindly gothic Church of St. Eustache and the stately old Bourse de Commerce, or stock exchange) has a fun kids’ zone. What about actually visiting the mall? If you’ve never been to a modern American mall, do it.
Rue Mouffetard, originally built by the Romans, is a happening market street by day and does double-duty as restaurant row at night (see here). Hiding several blocks behind the Panthéon, it starts at Place Contrescarpe and ends below at St. Médard Church (Mo: Censier Daubenton). The upper stretch is pedestrian and touristic; the bottom stretch is purely Parisian. Pause for a drink on picturesque Place Contrescarpe, then make your descent down this popular street.
Rue Daguerre, near the Catacombs and off Avenue du Général Leclerc, is the least touristy of the street markets listed here, mixing food shops with cafés along a pleasing, traffic-free street (Mo: Denfert-Rochereau; for Catacombs description, see here).
Rue de Seine and Rue de Buci combine to make a central, lively, and colorful market within easy reach of many sights (Mo: Odéon; see also “Les Grands Cafés de Paris,” on here, and my Left Bank Walk). This is a fine place to enjoy a late afternoon drink and observe Parisian shoppers at work (also fun for dinner).
Rue des Martyrs, near Montmartre, makes Paris feel like a village. Consider exploring this lively (though not traffic-free) market scene as part of my Montmartre Walk or my Rue des Martyrs boutique stroll, earlier.
Marché des Enfants Rouges is a compact, covered market for the northern Marais neighborhood. It’s also the oldest covered food market in Paris, built when Louis XIII ruled in 1615. It’s named for an orphanage where the children wore red uniforms (the name means “Market of the Red Children”). Here you’ll find everything under one roof: organic produce; stands offering wine tastings; fun, cheap, international lunch options—and scads of character (Tue-Sat 8:30-20:00, until 18:00 in winter, produce stands closed 13:00-15:00; Sun 9:00-14:00, closed Mon; a 15-minute walk north from the heart of the Marais at 39 Rue de Bretagne, Mo: Filles du Calvaire or Temple, see the East Paris color map at the front of this book). Find the man making socca—a chickpea-flour crêpe specialty from Nice, and consider lunch at any of the food stands.
Every neighborhood has a marché volant (“flying market”), where piles of food stalls take over selected boulevards and squares throughout Paris for one to three mornings each week (for a complete list, visit www.goparis.about.com and search for “food markets”). Expect a lively combination of flea- and street-market atmosphere and items.
Marché d’Aligre, 10 blocks behind the Opéra Bastille down Rue de Faubourg St. Antoine, is a small open-air market where you’ll encounter few tourists. You’ll find lots of fresh produce, a small but atmospheric market hall, and a swap-meet-like square for trinket shopping (Tue-Sun 9:00-13:30, closed Mon, Place d’Aligre, Mo: Ledru-Rollin). From Métro Ledru-Rollin, walk east (with your back to the Bastille column) and veer right at the second traffic light onto Rue Crozatier.
Marché de la Bastille is the best of the lot, with a vast selection of products extending more than a half-mile north of Place de la Bastille along Boulevard Richard Lenoir (Thu and Sun until 14:30, Mo: Bastille); consider combining either of these two markets with a stroll through Promenade Plantée park (see here) and my Marais Walk.
Marché Place Monge is small, with produce, clothing, and a few crafts (Wed, Fri, and Sun 8:00-13:00; near Rue Mouffetard, Mo: Monge).
Marché Boulevard de Grenelle, a few blocks southwest of Champ de Mars park and the Rue Cler area, is packed with produce, nonperishable goods, and Parisians in search of a good value (Wed and Sun 7:00-12:30, between Dupleix and La Motte Picquet-Grenelle Métro stops).
Marché Belleville is big, favored by locals, and very untouristy (Tue and Fri, Mo: Belleville).
Marché Raspail, between Rue du Cherche-Midi and Rue de Rennes, is where the rich and famous shop for food (Tue and Fri 7:30-14:30, special organic-only market Sun 9:00-15:00, Mo: Rennes).
Marché des Batignolles is Paris’ largest organic market, located along Boulevard des Batignolles between Métro stations Place de Clichy and Rome (Sat only 9:00-15:00). Saturdays are also big wedding days in Paris: Sneak up Rue des Batignolles to the neighborhood Hôtel de Ville (16 Rue des Batignolles), have a post-market coffee in a café across the street, and watch as the colorful wedding parties stream by.
More than 200 of these covered shopping streets once crisscrossed Paris, providing much-needed shelter from the rain. The first were built during the American Revolution, though the ones you’ll see date from the 1800s. Today only a handful remain to remind us where shopping malls got their inspiration, although they now sell things you would be more likely to find in flea markets than at JCPenney. Here’s a short list to weave into your sightseeing plan. (They’re found on the map in this chapter and on the East Paris color map at the front of this book.)
Galerie Vivienne, behind the Palais Royal off Rue des Petits-Champs and a few blocks from the Louvre (ideal to combine with a visit to the courtyards of Palais Royal), is the most refined and accessible of the passages (Mo: Pyramides, Bourse, or Palais Royal). Inside this classy arcade, you’ll find a chic wine bar (Legrand Filles et Fils, tel. 01 42 60 07 12), tea salon, funky café, and trendy dress shops.
Passage Choiseul and Passage Ste. Anne, four blocks west of Galerie Vivienne, are fine examples of most Parisian passages, selling used books, paper products, trinkets, and snacks (down Rue des Petits-Champs toward Avenue de l’Opéra, same Métro stops).
Passage du Grand Cerf, up Rue Marie Stuart a block from Rue Montorgueil, is an elegant arcade where small offices and artsy galleries sit side by side. It is easily combined with a visit to the nearby Rue Montorgueil street market described earlier (Mo: Etienne Marcel).
Passage Panoramas and Passage Jouffroy are long galleries that connect with several other smaller passages to give you the best sense of the elaborate network of arcades that once existed (on both sides of Boulevard Montmartre, between Métro stops Grands Boulevards and Richelieu Drouot).