Comments

Book Review: The Gospel According to Coco Chanel by Karen Karbo — 9 Comments

  1. Fendi is not a normal store by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing, it’s Italian so the fact that they have a store in Paris suggests something. We’re talking haute couture. Sunglasses will run you several hundred dollars. A bag will cost over 1k easily. Probably closer to 2k, if not more. For a purse.

    Now, unless you can afford to shop there, you probably aren’t going to go there. And if you can afford to shop there, you probably don’t own anything from the Gap because why would you? I mean, I know why I would, because even if I could afford to pay over 1k for a pair of jeans I can’t see myself doing it. But then I can’t see myself spending over $400 for a pair of sneakers and they have those at Fendi too.

    Trust me. You don’t have to worry. Jeans and a jacket will have you looking more Parisian than most American tourists.

  2. I like Satia’s answer! When I think about Paris, I think about bookshops and food, not clothing. 🙂 From your description of your outfit, you definitely looked good today!

  3. Joy, I love window shopping in Paris, but I haven’t really ventured into those expensive stores. Instead, I’d suggest you find some fabulous vintage stores. Then you can feel fashionable and spend less money. I never really feel like people are staring at me because I’m such a fashion faux pas, but I always admire those French women who make it all look so easy. This sounds like a great book.
    Thanks for playing along today. Here’s my Dreaming of France meme

  4. Joy while you do not want to stick out like a tourist, Paris is full of tourists. If you want to do some shopping it depends what you want to shop for. I like The Marais a lot. There are boutiques and name brand stores that you will find elsewhere in Paris. The Marais is open on Sunday afternoons-it is a very lively area. Another favourite area is St. Germain des Pres. This is the left bank where you will find the designer shops, do not let that scare you there are many fun boutiques here. Duck into Poulaine-it is a bakery with a cafe next door. Great bread and cookies. The cafe is closed on Mondays. You can also head to Les Grand Magasines-the large department stores, Galleries Lafayette and Printemps-in the 9th on Blvd Hausmann. Do pop up to the roof of Printemps for a lovely view of the city. My suggestion if you really want to shop is to go early. GL is very popular with the Asians and the store gets jammed packed. You can sit down and enjoy a glass of champagne will shopping. In GL the front desk also speaks English-they really cater to the tourists here. You can also do your tax refund if you spend over 175 euros. I do not know what your size is however I do not believe that most stores carry anything larger than a US 10. The French are small. Shoe size I cannot tell you as I have small feet so I have never looked for a larger size. The French sizing is 36-38-40-42-44 for clothes-a 36 is a US 2. Shoes start at 36, 37, 38 etc with a 36 being a US 6. Stay off the Champs des E. for shopping it has been overrun by American brands. Window shopping is a lot of fun. I always shop when I am in Paris and I do a combination of both window shopping and purchasing. Rue Honore also has many of the designer shops along with Rue Montaigne. PS. do not dream of walking into a store with food or an open drink. Thankfully you do not see someone’s left over Starbucks just sitting on a shelf. If you are interested I will look for the name of a scarf shop close to the Marais where I have enjoyed a few purchases. Just let me know. One other piece of advice-many of these stores are quite small. The French are a little fussy-it is their style. While we tend to walk into a Gap and pull everything off the shelf they do not tolerate that-there will be something on display and many times other sizes are shelved elsewhere-they are not fond of you pulling everything out-they would sooner you ask. I am there twice a year so if you have any questions do not hesitate to email me.

  5. I’m not a great follower of fashion either, but this does sound an interesting book. I’m hoping to buy some shoes on my next trip, I don’t think that I’d have the nerve to go clothes shopping.

  6. Pingback:Books on France Challenge — Wrap Up – Joy's Book Blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>