Paris Shopping

When I wrote my Paris blog six years ago, I included (at least) two posts listing some of our favorite restaurants.  My purpose at the time was just to organize my thoughts and help me remember some wonderful meals.  It turns out that those posts are among the ones that I have turned back to most often in the intervening years.  Many friends have visited Paris and asked for my restaurant recommendations, and I have simply supplied the links to those pages.  I'll write an updated list of restaurants here at some point, but now I'd like to do something similar with shopping.

There is, of course, a lot of good food shopping in Paris.  Some of it--meats, fruits and vegetables--is really only relevant for immediate consumption.  Some of it, though, is great for taking back home if you're just visiting.  Chocolates and other sweets come immediately to mind and there is a lot of good options:  Pierre Herme has wonderful macarons (won't keep so well) and sables au chocolat (much longer shelf life) and Jean-Paul Hevin has great boxed chocolates.  For anyone who is a real chocolate connoisseur, Chapon has lots of exotic single origin bars.  (Also, very good mousse to eat there.)

Cheese, especially harder cheeses, travels well, and a lot of the fromageries will vacuum pack it for you.  I don't really have a favorite overall cheese shop--I go to many different ones in different neighborhoods and ones that specialize in different cheeses.  I will mention La Coop Paris, across the street from the Theatre Odeon, that sells Beaufort, a mountain cheese from the Savoie region that I love.  They usually have three different varieties which differ in age but also in the quality of the milk from different seasons based on what the cows are eating.  

La Chambre aux Confitures has fantastic jams and they’ll let you try them.  Also Bremond Fils is a good place to go for jams and vinegars and other stuff.

The-Ritoire is a charming teahouse near Odeon which has great loose-leaf teas.  I especially like the Margaret's Hope Darjeeling, but they have a wide variety.  I’m sure there are lots of other good places around Paris to buy tea, but a lot of my knowledge is centered around the 6th, Odeon in particular.  (In fact, many of the places I mention in this post are in that neighborhood.)

There is a cafe in the same general area called The Smiths which has a very good flourless chocolate cake.  I have not been there this year--I will make a point of visiting now that I'm remembering it!

Kate recently discovered an American-style bakery called Clove.  Sometimes you just need an honest-to-goodness, authentic chocolate chip cookie, and theirs are fantastic.

Spending time slowly walking through a French grocery store can also be fun and surprising.  (Monoprix is my preference.)  Many of the packaged foods will be familiar and nothing special.  There are many differences, though, and it's fun to pick out some things to try.  I especially like the savory sables au fromage by Michel et Augustin.  They come in many flavors, such as Cantal, Parmagiano, Chevre, Comte, etc. (I always buy some to take back to my sister, who loves them.)  

And, of course, no guide to Paris food shopping would be complete without a mention of the markets.  I sometimes go the Marche Maubert, but more often to the Marche Port Royal.  Meat, fish, cheese, butter, yogurt, olives, nuts, and a wonderful selection of local, in-season fruits and vegetables is often complemented with a stand selling kitchen gadgets, or a scarf vendor, or prepared-food stands.  There is a griddled flatbread stuffed with spinach and feta--available at many markets--that I like.   

Ok, now onto non-food purchases.  I should say that a lot of people come to Paris to shop for the so-called luxury goods:  Hermes scarves and bags, Chanel perfumes, Louboutin stilettos.  I will not be of much use advising on those purchases, but I imagine that google would.  I tend to look for the somewhat quirkier, off-the-beaten-path items (although some of my suggestions are pretty standard). 

La Soufflerie near Odeon has a cool story and has hand-made, sort of rustic, not very expensive glassware.  (There was a recent article in Strategist about them, I think, that you can probably google.)  Glass stuff is a little bit of a hassle to bring back, but if you have room in your carry-on, it usually works. 

Dehillerin is old and famous and fun to visit and has beautiful cookware and knives, and lots of other stuff.  I just bought a set of knives and a cutting board and two aprons with the store name on them for a wedding present.  Merci in the Marais is also supposed to be great for housewares but I haven’t been.  (It's on my to-do list for the next couple of months.)

BHV is a big department store, also in the Marais, that I think is great.  On its upper floors, it has lots of beautiful kitchen and table top items, as well as some fancy foods, and I could walk around there just looking for hours (or at least many minutes).  There is a floor that has luggage, bags, and lots of quirky gifts, that is fun to walk around as well.  There are a few floors with clothing, of course, and a basement with more hardware-store stuff.  The basement is definitely worth checking out, because there are so many unusual and interesting and beautiful home goods and accessories that one would not find in the US.  One word of caution about BHV, though:  it is very confusing to navigate.  The floors are laid out in a non-intuitive way and it's easy to miss whole sections while thinking you have traversed the entire level.

There is a wooden jigsaw puzzle manufacturer here in Paris called Puzzle Michele Wilson.  They have a dedicated store, but their puzzles are also available at other places.  We became obsessed with fancy wooden jigsaw puzzles during the pandemic, and theirs are nice because they’re pretty challenging and simply different in a lot of ways than the ones you can get in the states.  

There is a store in the Marais that has French arts and crafts called Empreinte.  They have some lovely and unusual pottery, jewelry, objets d'art, etc.  I would say that, in general, walking around the Odeon area and the Marais are good bets for finding interesting little stores.  There are big chains in Paris, of course--H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Muji, Ikea--but there are also hundreds of interesting boutiques, antique and vintage shops, and concept stores of various types, which will often be the best and most unusual shopping.

And, of course, no guide to Paris non-food shopping would be complete without a mention of the markets.  We have gone to the famous Marche aux Puces in Saint Ouen, which is huge and overwhelming.  (I am not an easily overwhelmed shopper.)  If you have many hours and substantial stamina, there is definitely a lot of very cool stuff to see there.  Anna bought some antique copper kitchen utensils there a couple of years ago.  I have gotten several assorted aperitif glasses there, and other small items.  We have also been to ones at the Porte de Vanves, Denfert Rochereau, and Montparnasse.  They are smaller but still interesting.  On a recent visit to the market at Montparnasse, we bought a small vintage pennant that said "Carcasonne" to hang on the wall of our cabin.  (I assume it was part of a series of pennants of tourist attractions in France.)  Anna said, "To be clear, for us, it refers to the board game, not the city."  We have, in fact, been to the city Carcasonne, but fair point.