Ah, now here’s a book for me. Shopping in Paris. In fact, why didn’t I write this book?! If Paris and shopping are synonymous to you-as they are to me (exchange rate be damned!)-then pick up a copy of this book and read it from cover to cover on the plane ride over.
The book is divided into convenient sections, including Insight’s Top 10 Shops (although that’s a subjective opinion, of course, since several of mine seem to be missing from this Top 10 list), then categorized by shopping areas, including the Champs Elysees, Palais Royal and the Grands Boulevards, Les Halles and Sentier, the Marais, Bastille and the East, Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter, west of Invalides, Montmartre, and the markets of Paris.
Special features include hot couture, galleries and passages, the rag trade, urban regeneration, and exploring the 16th, along with essential maps and an A–Z listing of stores.
Shopping in Paris is a visual delight, and this book includes beaucoup color photos of shop fronts and merchandise…a bit of window shopping without even having to begin your promenade through the streets.
If you already have a shopping list ready when you go to Paris-for yourself or for souvenirs-this book will point you to the best shops for what you want-La Hune, for example, one of my favorites and a quintessential Left Bank bookstore (and one of the few shops that stays open late…for night owls and bookworms, like myself, a bookstore in Paris open until midnight is a treasure); E. Dehillerin, French cookware and kitchen utensils for the chef among you; or Pierre Herme for melt-in-your-mouth pastries (these are but a few).
If, on the other hand, you’re going with a blank slate, well, then, simply turn the pages and get ready for the delights that await you.
As my little niece says, “Is there anything better than shopping in Paris?!” And this from someone who hasn’t yet been there…but I’ve taught her well! You’ll say the same thing once you’ve read this book.