Paris Day 2 - Shopping

Outside Rue St Honore, Chanel Store

It is many ladies dream all over the world to buy branded goods and the 'best of the best' places to shop in terms of quality, price (yes price unbelievably), service and for the latest fashion accessories, the chic women, the tai tais, the supermodels, the film stars (men and women) all flock to Paris. Make no mistake. This is the centre of high fashion. I followed my wife shopping and the experience is quite underwhelming, to be frank. I was half expecting people to be bowing at us (like in Tokyo) or salesgirls who run and are familiar with all the models of bags, shoes and purses. On the contrary, the service provided by some boutique shops was (according to my wife) substandard. Salesgirls were poor in their product knowledge, whether they had stock of that make of bag, or in the colours she requested. They were not arrogant, although one store (I won't name) was quite high handed in stating that they 'never' have a sale.




Louis Vuitton Store Display with the Summer Collection 2009

We visited Chanel, Balenciaga, Hermes, Givenchy and Ferragamo. On the whole the service was reasonably good although I had heard for 'high end shoppers' they would serve champagne but we were probably looking like middle class tourists just window shopping. There were several good 'buys' which compared to Singapore shops, the savings were as much as 30% even without the summer sales.




101 Ave de Champs Elysee - Home of Louis Vuitton Flagship store

One thing I noticed, the gay men in Paris dress very very fashionably. There was one very dashing looking fellow, he looked about 6 foor tall and had his tie undone,with a full suit and hair coiffered. Of course he had a 5 oclock shadow (unshaven chin) and I thought "wow, this guy is cool". He spoke very stylishly and as he showed my wife and I down the stairs to the basement for more items, he 'galeked' or walked very daintily with his limp wrist sticking out like carrying a tray ! I was quite speechless. There are some handbags which the gay men like to carry and Chanel and Hermes caters to their gay clientele.



Typical Parisian Street

Many tourists make a beeline for LV as it is most distinctive but spare a thaought for the more humble Department Stores such as Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. I bought a pair of Tiger (former name of ASICS) for EUR 95 (S$ 200) and Zegna shirt for EUR 160 (S$ 320). Not cheap and there is a tourist VAT of 17.5% on top, which can be claimed at either the airport or at the store itself. The thing is, Paris shopping is tops for quality, variety and of course genuineness. No one will dream of an imitation whatever here. The truly discerning shopper can tell the difference in the clot, cutting,the design and colour and 'how well put together it is'. No pasar malam clothes shopping here.

The shopping never ends and the dreams of many women the world over are satisfied in Paris.