The Top Shopping Streets & Neighborhoods

Les Halles, Louvre and Palais Royal (1er and 2e)

Subterranean shopping mall Les Halles is a short stroll from major shopping strip the Rue de Rivoli. Both these destinations are a who's-who of the major international fashion chains, including H&M, Zara, Sephora, Etam, and Gap. At another end of the 1st is the Palais Royal, just north of the Louvre and one of the city's best shopping secrets. The 18th-century arcade of boutiques flanks the garden of a former palace and includes some of the hottest names in fashion and accessories. It signals the beginning of the busy part of the Rue St Honoré, to the south, and to the north, behind the Palais Royal, is another sophisticated shopping destination, the place des Victoires, which to the east joins with the Etienne-Marcel shopping neighborhood, known for its jeans and street wear. In the 19th century, this area became known for its passages, glass-enclosed shopping streets -- in fact, the world's first shopping malls. They were also the city's first buildings to be illuminated by gaslight. Many have been torn down, but a dozen or so have survived. The Passage de Grand Cerf, between 145 rue St-Denis and 10 rue Dussoubs (Métro: Etienne-Marcel), is filled with everything from ethnic-chic to jewelry and accessory shops. The Place Vendome is the city's fine jewelry quarter, set like a crown around the mythical Ritz hotel.

Annick Goutal

Astier de Villatte

Chantal Thomass

Christian Louboutin

Cadolle

Carrousel du Louvre

Cartier

Chanel

Colette

Dehillerin

Didier Ludot

Dior Joaillerie

Francis Kurkdjian

Galignani

JC de Castelbajac

Jean-Paul Hévin

Kiliwatch

Lavinia

Le Louvre des Antiquaires

Les Halles

Maison Fabre

Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres

107 Rivoli

Pierre Hardy

Salons du Palais Royal, Shiseido

W. H. Smith

Van Cleef and Arpels

Le Marais, Ile St Louis and Ile de la Cité (3e and 4e)

The Marais provides two dramatically different shopping experiences. The Lower Marais is concentrated around the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, where you'll find a succession of charming fashion, accessories, and beauty stores. But don't be afraid to strike off into the neighborhood's medieval warren of twisting streets chockablock with up-to-the-minute fashions and trends. The Northern Marais, concentrated around the Rue de Bretagne is a hotbed of independent French designers. Some in-the-know shoppers are skipping St-Germain or St-Honoré and heading here instead, for guaranteed cutting-edge fashion and design.

Azzedine Alaïa

Bensimon

Bijoux Blues

Bonpoint

L'Eclaireur

L'Habilleur

Les Mots à la Bouche

Merci

Marché aux Fleurs

Marché des Enfants Rouge

Sandro Homme

Shine

The Different Company

Champs-Élysées and Western Paris (8e, 16e and 17e)

The heart of the international designer parade is here on the Right Bank. Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré was the traditional miracle mile until recent years, when many of the exclusive shops shunned it for the even more deluxe avenue Montaigne at the other end of the arrondissement. (It's a long but pleasant walk from one fashion strip to the other.) Paris's most glamorous shopping street is lined with almost unspeakably fancy shops, where you float from big name to big name and in a few hours can see Dior, Chanel, and everything in between. The neighboring Champs-Élysées shouts "teen scene" with hot mass-market flagships. The zone around the Madeleine hosts many fine specialty food shops.

Artcurial

Au Nain Bleu

Baccarat

Balenciaga

Bijoux Burma

Cassegrain

Dior

Fauchon

Givenchy

Hédiard

Hermès

Jadis et Gourmande

Lalique

Le 66

Les Caves Taillevent

Jean-Paul Gaultier

Louis Vuitton

Le Maison du Miel

Maison de la Truffe

Marché Ave du Président Wilson

Nicolas

Parfums Caron

Sephora

Virgin Megastore

Opéra and Canal St-Martin (9e and 10e)

These two neighborhoods offer wildly different shopping experiences. Opera has at its beating heart the "other" two department stores: Le Printemps and Les Galeries Lafayette, built in a row along Boulevard Haussmann. Their commercial energy draws many other big names and chains. The sleepy Canal St Martin offers boho local charm along little streets Rue de Marseille, and Beaurepaire, the Quais de Valmy, and Jemmapes.

Agnès b

Antoine and Lili

Apple Store

Centre Commercial

Citadium

Le Printemps

Les Galeries Lafayette

Uniqlo

Pigalle and Montmartre (18e)

Villagey Montmartre's charming winding streets, fanning out around Abbesses, are filled with small specialty shops, in design, fashion, jewelry and food. Wander along the Rue des Abbesses, down the Rue Houdon, up the Rue des Martyrs for a sweet afternoon of discovery.

Chine Machine

Princesse Tam-Tam

Spree

République, Bastille and Eastern Paris (11e and 12e)

Shopping in Bastille is concentrated on and around the Rue du Faubourg St-Antoine, which heads east from the Place de la Bastille and counts big names and chains, and winding streets nearby, like the Rue de Charonne. The Viaduc des Arts running parallel to avenue Daumesnil is a collection of about 30 specialist craft stores occupying a series of narrow vaulted niches under what used to be railroad tracks.

French Trotters

Isabel Marant

La Plaque Emaillées et Gravée Jacquin

Viaduc des Arts

Belleville and Northeast Paris (19e and 20e)

Not a shopping zone, this is where tourists come to soak up the cosmopolitan atmosphere and explore specialty shops from the city's various immigrant communities.

Latin Quarter (5e)

More of a residential neighborhood, the Latin Quarter is better known for its major sights -- the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne university -- than for its shopping strips. However a host of specialist bookshops, which feed the local student population, remain a real draw.

Diptyque

La Tuile à Loup

Librairie le Bail-Weissert

Shakespeare and Company

St-Germain-des-Près and Luxembourg (6e)

This area is the soul of the Left Bank and is one of the most famous shopping districts in Paris. Traditionally a more literary neighborhood, high fashion addresses are gradually taking over the bookshops, and the Left Bank now rivals with classic Right Bank shopping zones such as St-Honoré and Avenue Montaigne. Wander the Avenue St-Germain, Rue St Sulpice, Rue du Cherche Midi and Rue du Vieux Colombier, the Rue Bonapart and Rue Jacob down to the Seine, or gourmet paradise Rue de Buci, for some elevated shopping experiences.

Bonpoint

Christian Constant

Cire Trudon

Erès

Hermès

La Maison Ivre

La Quincaillerie

Marché Buci

Pierre Hermé

Poîlane

Sabbia Rosa

Sonia Rykiel

Souleiado

Taschen

Tea and Tattered Pages

Village Voice Bookshop

Yves Saint Laurent

Zadig and Voltaire

Eiffel Tower and Nearby (7e)

The city's most glamorous department store Le Bon Marché sets the scene for another high-voltage shopping experience. If much of this neighborhood is more dedicated to culture and architecture than fashion, along its eastern edge, some of the glamour of adjacent St Germain rubs off, around the Rue du Bac and Rue du Grenelle for example, where you'll find all that wealth and glamour can buy.

Au Nom de la Rose

Barthelemy

Conran Shop

Deyrolle

Editions de Parfums Fréderic Malle

Le Bon Marché

Sennelier

7L

Montparnasse and Southern Paris (13e, 14e and 15e)

Located behind St Germain, this neighborhood is dominated both by Paris's only skyscraper and France's tallest building, the Montparnasse tower, and a major railway station. Montparnasse might be worth a trip for the major shopping center located under the tower, and the shopping along adjacent Rue de Rennes.

FNAC

Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves

Montparnasse Shopping Centre