SHOPPING IN PARIS

Paris the capital of France is one of the leading shopping centers in the world. The greatest part of Paris is its contribution towards fashion, arts and culture. Most of the stores remain open from Monday through Saturday in major cities. Shops remain closed on Mondays in the provinces. On Sundays there are exclusive openings of so many food shops. On holidays most of the shops remain closed except during the morning hours when some of the bakeries remain open.

Like Printemps, Samaritaine, there are few other departmental stores that provide usual amenities to the tourists like tax free shopping, currency exchanges, translators and many more. These stores make a mark in the history of Paris providing huge items for sale. Virgin megastore and FNAC are chain of stores that provides huge variety cultural products such as books, music, photography equipments and many more. For perfumes and cosmetics there are tax free boutiques in opera area.

Paris being a paradise for shopping will always threaten your handbags and credit cards. The famous Haussman store is a world of Fashion in Paris. It competes with Printemps the historical departmental stores, which is a few yards away in Boulevard. FNAC the leading books and cd stores dominates Paris cultural commerce. Just few minutes of walk around Paris will make you understand that the beauty of Paris lies not only in its monuments and museums but more on its elegant shopping centers and malls. We also find lot many small shops lane to lane that sells everything in the world.

There are streets and lanes that specialize in particular shopping – rue des Francs- Bourgeios specializes in fashion and decoration. The rue de Rome near Saint Lazare station specialized in musical instruments.

The true pleasure of Paris is the market streets that remind us about the middle ages. Narrowed with high and old houses these market streets provide air food store, restaurants and morning animation. Meat, fish, pastries and other kinds of foods are sold in a freshly prepared hygienic way. These market streets are lined by lot many cafes also. These areas are very different from the city shopping centers. Travel in a car through these markets is not possible since most of these are pedestrian areas and are very small.

The famous flea market called ‘lea marche aux puces de Saint-Ouen’ was inaugurated in the year 1885 and extends over six hectares. During its opening days on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays it welcomes nearly 70,000 visitors. In the earlier sixties this place had beautiful collections of furniture.

Department stores in Paris offer a convenient fashion shopping. Summer and winter are the two sales seasons. At the end of January the Parisian winter sales season starts and in the late June the summer shopping begins.

For the remembrance of the trip or for any small gift item nothing could be so appropriate than the kitschy souvenir. Paris being very famous for its food and wine, visitors who think of bringing a little of to home with them can also have a wonderful selection of mustards, cured meat, vinegars, etc from the stores.