The Shopping Scene

Best Buys

Foodstuffs -- Nothing makes a better souvenir than a product of France brought home to savor later. Supermarkets are located in tourist neighborhoods; stock up on coffee, designer chocolates, mustards (try Maille or Meaux brands), and perhaps American products in French packages for the kids. However, to be sure you don't try to bring home a prohibited foodstuff, see section 2, "Entry Requirements," in chapter 3, "Planning Your Trip to Paris."

Fun Fashion -- Sure, you can buy couture or prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), but French teens and trendsetters have their own stores where the latest looks are affordable. Even the dime stores in Paris sell designer copies. In the stalls in front of the department stores on boulevard Haussmann, you'll find some of the latest accessories, guaranteed for a week's worth of small talk once you get home.

Perfumes, Makeup & Beauty Treatments -- A discount of 20% to 30% makes these items a great buy; qualify for a VAT refund , and you'll save 40% to 45% off the Paris retail price, allowing you to bring home goods at half the U.S. price. Duty-free shops abound in Paris and are always less expensive than the ones at the airports.

For bargain cosmetics, try out French dime-store and drugstore brands such as Bourjois (made in the Chanel factories), Lierac, and Galenic. Vichy, famous for its water, has a skin-care and makeup line. The newest retail trend in Paris is the parapharmacie, a type of discount drugstore loaded with inexpensive brands, health cures, beauty regimes, and diet plans. These usually offer a 20% discount.

Getting a VAT Refund

The French value-added tax (VAT -- TVA in French) is 19.6%, but you can get most of that back if you spend 182€ ($237) or more in any store that participates in the VAT refund program. Most stores participate.

Once you meet your required minimum purchase amount, you qualify for a tax refund. The amount of the refund varies with the way the refund is handled and the fee some stores charge you for processing it. So the refund at a department store may be 13%, whereas at a small shop it may be 15% or even 18%.

You'll receive VAT refund papers in the shop; some stores, like Hermès, have their own, while others provide a government form. Fill in the forms before you arrive at the airport and expect to stand in line at the Customs desk for as long as half an hour. You must show the goods at the airport, so have them on you or visit the Customs office before you check your luggage. Once the papers are mailed, a credit will appear, often months later, on your credit card bill. All refunds are processed at the point of departure from the European Union (EU), so if you're going to another EU country, don't apply for the refund in France.

Be sure to mark the paperwork to request that your refund be applied to your credit card so you aren't stuck with a check in euros, which may be hard to cash. This also ensures the best rate of exchange. In some airports, you're offered the opportunity to get your refund back in cash, which is tempting. But if you accept cash in any currency other than euros, you'll lose money on the conversion rate.

To avoid refund hassles, ask for a Global Refund form ("Shopping Checque") at a store where you make a purchase. When leaving an EU country, have it stamped by Customs, after which you take it to a Global Refund counter at one of more than 700 airports and border crossings in France. Your money is refunded on the spot. For information, contact Global Refund Canada, Box 2020 Station, Main Brampton, Ontario L6T 353 (tel. 800/993-4313 or 905/791-9078; www.globalrefund.com).

Duty-Free Boutiques

The advantage of duty-free shops is that you don't have to pay the VAT, so you avoid the red tape of getting a refund. Both Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports have shopping galore (de Gaulle has a virtual mall with crystal, cutlery, chocolates, luggage, wine, pipes and lighters, lingerie, silk scarves, perfume, knitwear, jewelry, cameras, cheeses, and even antiques). You'll also find duty-free shops on the avenues branching out from the Opéra Garnier, in the 1st Arrondissement. Sometimes bargains can be found, but most often not.

Business Hours

Usual shop hours are Monday to Saturday from 10am to 7pm, but hours vary, and Monday mornings don't run at full throttle. Small shops sometimes close for a 2-hour lunch break and some do not open at all until after lunch on Monday. Thursday is the best day for late-night shopping, with stores open to 9 or 10pm.

Sunday shopping is limited to tourist areas and flea markets, though there's growing demand for full-scale Sunday hours. The department stores are now open on the five Sundays before Christmas. The Carrousel du Louvre, a mall adjacent to the Louvre, is hopping on Sunday but closed on Monday. The tourist shops lining rue de Rivoli across from the Louvre are open on Sunday, as are the antiques villages, flea markets, and specialty events. Several food markets enliven the streets on Sunday. For our favorites, see the box "Food Markets". The Virgin Megastore on the Champs-Elysées, a big teen hangout, pays a fine to stay open on Sunday.

Great Shopping Neighborhoods

Here are the best of the shopping arrondissements:

1st & 8th Arrondissements -- These two arrondissements adjoin each other and form the heart of Paris's best Right Bank shopping strip -- they're one big hunting ground. This area includes the rue du Faubourg St-Honoré, where the big designer houses are, and the Champs-Elysées, with hot mass-market and teen scenes. At one end of the 1st is the Palais Royal, one of the best shopping secrets in Paris, where an arcade of boutiques flanks each side of the garden of the former palace.

Also here is avenue Montaigne, Paris's most glamorous shopping street, boasting 2 blocks of ultrafancy shops, where you float from big name to big name and in a few hours can see everything from Dior to Caron. Avenue Montaigne is also the address of Joseph, a British design firm, and Porthault, maker of the poshest sheets in the world.

2nd Arrondissement -- Right behind the Palais Royal is the Garment District (Sentier), as well as a few sophisticated shopping secrets, such as place des Victoires.

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. Of them all, we prefer Passage de Grand Cerf, between 145 rue St-Denis and 10 rue Dussoubs (Métro: Bourse), lying a few blocks from the Beaubourg. It's a place of wonder, filled with everything from retro-chic boutiques to (increasingly) Asian-themed shops. What's exciting is to come upon a discovery, perhaps a postage-stamp-size shop with a special jeweler who creates unique products such as jewel-toned safety pins.

3rd & 4th Arrondissements -- The border between these two arrondissements gets fuzzy, especially around place des Vosges, center stage of the Marais. The districts provide several dramatically different shopping experiences.

On the surface, the shopping includes the "real people stretch" (where all the nonmillionaires shop) of rue de Rivoli and rue St-Antoine, featuring everything from Gap and a branch of Marks & Spencer to local discount stores and mass merchants. Many shoppers will also be looking for La Samaritaine, 19 rue de la Monnaie, once the most famous department store in France. It occupied four noteworthy buildings erected between 1870 and 1927. These buildings have been sold and are undergoing renovation to be completed in 2012. The new owner has not made his intentions clear about the future of this Parisian landmark.

Hidden in the Marais is a medieval warren of twisting streets chockablock with cutting-edge designers and up-to-the-minute fashions and trends. Start by walking around place des Vosges for galleries, designer shops, and special finds; then dive in and lose yourself in the area leading to the Musée Picasso.

Finally, the 4th is the home of the Bastille, an up-and-coming area for artists and galleries, where you'll find the newest entry on the retail scene, the Viaduc des Arts (which actually stretches into the 12th). It's a collection of about 30 stores occupying a series of narrow vaulted niches under what used to be railroad tracks. They run parallel to avenue Daumesnil, centered on boulevard Diderot.

6th & 7th Arrondissements -- Though the 6th is one of the most famous shopping districts in Paris -- it's the soul of the Left Bank -- a lot of the good stuff is hidden in the zone that turns into the residential district of the 7th. Rue du Bac, stretching from the 6th to the 7th in a few blocks, stands for all that wealth and glamour can buy.

9th Arrondissement -- To add to the fun of shopping the Right Bank, the 9th sneaks in behind the 1st, so if you choose not to walk toward the Champs-Elysées and the 8th, you can head to the city's big department stores, all built in a row along boulevard Haussmann in the 9th. Department stores include not only the two big French icons, Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, but also a large branch of Britain's Marks & Spencer.