Paris Shopping

Read on for a few of our favorite shops not to miss on your next shopping trip to the City of Light:

Assouline Bookstore At the flagship bookstore of stylish French publishing house Assouline, seductive coffee table books on art, fashion, travel and lifestyle topics line the walls and are stacked on tables in a room that feels like a modern men’s club library. Many of their series come in creative boxed sets, perfect for hostess gifts. Their line of candles, called Leather, Wood and Books, designed by Diptyque, have become a kind of cult favorite among scent snobs.

Bonpoint Marie-France Cohen, founder of this well-known brand, has set the standard for fine French children’s clothes around the world. Many lucky newborns have donned her onesies with the days of the week in French embroidered on the front and lived in nothing but her designs until they grew out of them as teenagers. Smart parents were thus guaranteed that their offspring always looked well-turned-out. At the flagship store, you’ll find the whole range of infant to pre-teen fashions as well as a charming restaurant on a terrace that overlooks a garden, making it a great place for a snack before or after a shop and playtime in the nearby Luxembourg gardens.

Camille Fournet Camille Fournet has long been considered one of the finest makers of watch straps—Patek Phillipe, for instance, uses its alligator bands. This boutique, just off of the Rue du Rivoli, sells a range of goods of the same exquisite detailing. The house chooses only the finest hides (caiman, alligator, lizard and shark, among them), and each is rubbed with agate to bring out the color and texture. Working with haute-couture craftsmen, it has adorned its straps with stones, sequins and embroidery for rare bespoke pieces such as wallets, change purses, passport sleeves, money clips, jewelry rolls and mobile-phone straps.

Deyrolle The shop was destroyed by a fire in 2007 but the restoration is so masterful that you would have no idea that it had ever been damaged. The façade, the staircase and the grand rooms on the second floor which house its collection of stuffed animals and rare specimens of insects, fossils and sea creatures look just as they did before the blaze. Take the kids—it’s like visiting the Museum of Natural History, but where everything is for sale.

Dries van Noten To showcase his women’s collection, Belgian design god Dries Van Noten opened a gorgeous gallery in a former bookstore on the Seine, facing the Louvre. It may not be a museum, but browsing through his beautifully tailored and constructed clothes here feels like a form of art appreciation.

Karry ‘O In this small shop on the Left Bank, browsing for jewelry can turn into an afternoon tutorial on fashion history—especially if you are lucky enough to pay a visit when the owner is in. She collects both costume and fine jewelry, and the display cases contain Chanel pieces from the ‘40s and ‘50s worthy of museums as well as iconic Deco designs from Cartier and Tiffany. Because she also designs and sells her own one-of-a-kind handmade pieces, you can spend as little as a few hundred dollars or many thousands if you acquire a rare piece, but learning the provenance of each piece from such a font of knowledge is a rare experience in and of itself.

Merci This concept charity shop, which opened in 2009, put the Haut Marais on the map as a must-visit shopping area. Located in a former furniture fabrics warehouse in the Marais, the 1,500-square-meter space has an arty ambience and a wide range of products, mixing contemporary designs and antiques, vintage and designer clothes, hardware, flowers and books. There’s a restaurant and a café, and Merci also lays claim to being the city’s first “charity shop,” as parts of the store’s proceeds benefit a children’s charity. Don’t miss this commendable initiative, which is already backed by fashion designers, intellectuals and celebs.

Montaigne Market This multi-label addition to swanky Avenue Montaigne is the creation of Liliane Jossua and Alain Celhay, who know the tastes of demanding shoppers. The nearly all-white 4,000-square-foot space is filled with Lucien Pellat-Finet cashmere sweaters and Lanvin cocktail dresses, plus the latest looks from Anna Sui, Duro Olowu, Miu Miu, Thomas Wylde and Matthew Williamson. They also offer a small selection of men’s wear, including Dsquared and YSL. Unlike most upmarket boutiques, Montaigne has a deliberately friendly atmosphere, making it as welcoming to browsers as to serious shoppers.

R&Y Augousti Looking for sharkskin side tables and jewelry boxes in fuschia or teal? You’ll find them here. The designer’s wife had the brilliant idea of using leftover scraps from the making of furniture and boxes to create jewelry and little clutches that have become “it” bags among the superelegant in New York and London.

Victoire A visit to one of these boutiques is as close as you can get to raiding a Frenchwoman’s closet. The owners carry their own casual label, as well as those of designers that they like. They were the first to offer Romeo Gigli and Lacroix and have long been where Paris’s super-fashion-conscious shop. If you like what you see in the window, you will not be able to walk out empty-handed.