Many consider Paris to be the fashion capital of Europe. Parisians are well dressed, elegant and chic and the city is full of couture houses, designer clothes shops and swanky department stores. Most of the couture houses, including Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel and Dior, are located around rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré. Slightly more affordable are the small designer clothes boutiques around place des vosges in the sophisticated Marais quarter. The main department stores (grands magasins) are Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, both on the magnificent boulevard Haussman and they’re great to stroll around even just for window-shopping, to get a feel for French fashion and style.
Books
There are marvellous new and second hand bookshops all over the city. The bookstalls or bouquinistes that line the rive gauche (left bank) of the Seine in the Quartier Latin sell wonderful old books, volumes, prints and paintings, and there are several good bookshops in St-Germain-des-Prés.
Antiques and Art
Some of the most upmarket antique dealers and art sellers are on the rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré, while there are plenty of charming, small, independent shops all over St-Germain-des-Prés.
Markets
France still has a very strong market tradition and the markets around the city are always bustling with Parisians buying fresh bread, vegetables, meat, cheese and flowers. The best food and flower markets are those at rue Lepic, rue Poncelet and rue de Seine. For something a little out of the ordinary, Marché St Germain has very good Mediterranean, Mexican and Asian produce. Paris is also renowned for its flea markets (marchés aux puces), which sell all manner of goods from antiques and bric-a-brac to old jewellery and second-hand clothes. The most famous is St Ouen, but the Marché de la Porte de Vanves is also worth rummaging around.
