Store-ies in Paris
This is a little nostalgic love note to the shop facades in Paris. Shop fronts that I thought were so eloquent. Or shops I remember for how lovely the people were.
Colourful and bright facades. Some stores just invite you in with how cute they are. Or at least stop and take a picture. Or walk past casually, many times. Until you get the right picture!!
The passages of Galleries Vivienne are lovely. But this little bookstore in the corner is the highlight. The comfy lighting, the smiling store keeper who is so happy to let you walk around and is still so obliging even if you only buy a ridiculous amount of postcards from his store. It’s right out of a storybook!
Go up the elevators to the roof of the Printemps Mall and you’ll be rewarded with views like nothing else. The cafe is apparently a very welcoming space. I went up really early morning for some photos, and nobody seemed to mind.
If you think you’re extra, you have to meet the roof of the Galleries Lafayette. Of course, this place turns into a winter wonderland during the Christmas season. But even on an average Sunday, despite the throngs of humans spending ridiculous amounts on things, you can’t shake off that feeling of being in the presence of something holy and grand.
Just the sight of the rattan bistro chairs of Paris makes me ache. It brings alive the warm sun, the coffee/wine/chocolat chaude/berthillion ice cream, the subtle saltiness of the batter-fried snack and the sense of blood going back to my over-flanuer-ed feet. It reminds me of the very Parisian habit of unapologetically taking a pause. One beer or a coffee or a glass of wine, and you’re set for the next couple of hours, with or without company. More often that not, if it’s not rush hour, you’ll find a chatty waiter who will make a performance of bringing you your food. I know, I know, Parisian serving staff have a terrible reputation of being short with you. But somehow, we’ve always caught them at their leisurely best. But even if you have grumpus waiting on you, which other city allows this luxury of uninterrupted pause with front row seats to this magnificent show called Everyday Paris!?
Add to this more often than not, Art Nouveau interiors and typography and you feel like you just might chance upon Hemingway or Fitzgeralds waxing rhapsodic about whatever they rhapsodised about!
Angelina is that snooty friend, who looks at you witheringly, is sometimes scalding mean, makes you wait and then opens your palms and places the loveliest thoughtful little present in it. The hot chocolate is a memory that I still taste, still miss, still want after all these years.
My heart broke when I read that Shakespeare and Co. almost succumbed to the pandemic. And it had me wondering what other lovely places didn’t quite make it by the skin of their teeth. I hope that this place with its cats and low staircases and boy at the piano will last for all of time, so that we have this worthy place to make our Hemingway pilgrimages.
This is my favourite souvenir shop. It sits cosily, arm in arm with Shakespeare and Co. It’s a cavernous little space, stuffed to the gills with pretty things, where you’re terrified of the destructive powers of your elbow.
Isn’t this window display the cutest? When I tell people to go to Le Marais and they ask why, I literally have no one answer. I end up gushing about this and that and more. Right from quaint window displays to innocuous-looking bookstores that open up like Ali baba’s cave wonders to sudden visitations from fashion royalty like Chanel, Le Marais is a treasure trove of winding streets and fascinating shop stories.
One of my favourite things about Paris is that boulangerie smell in the morning. Nothing like having a mini-ritual - going over to your Airbnb’s boulangerie every morning for some croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat, mille feuille, etc. etc - picking a new special delight every time. Feeling a bit like you live there - especially when the woman behind the counter begins to recognise you and give you a familiar smile. <3
Montmarte has no dearth of cute stores. But a little away from the throngs is this cute design studio/Store.. It’s so quaint that it has a sign requesting people to not photograph the interiors. C’mon, you have to be really confident in the photo-value of your interiors to put up a sign like that. And Paul has every right to that confidence. His store and his art is just lovely.
I can’t begin to describe how fascinating this store was. Wildly expensive, vintage posters, books, maps, pictures cover every inch of the store. Here the lovely store keeper is wrapping up some affordable postcards for us with some stories to boot - the only thing we could afford in there.
As most of you know, this is the cafe featured in the movie Amelie. For a whole lot of us, this was our introduction to Paris, whimsical backgrounds scores and quirky, aspirational haircuts. Jean Pierre Jeunet’s love note to Paris might be grossly cliche and twenty years later, it might have become fashionable to hate it. But the truth is that it was once the fairytale we all wanted read to us every night. We wanted that racing heart, that Yann Tiersen score and that Parisienne life.
The stores of Ile de la Cité neighbourhood specialises in nooks of interest and sweet store keepers. I bought a little something from the store on the left, which the store keeper wrapped in pretty paper and flourished with a swan’s feather. I mean, how romantic, right?! And at another store, I picked up a lovely book with illustrations of Paris. And I spotted a little photo magnet, for which I made a ‘I want that’ face to Sahit. To which he made “Nope. Forget it!” face. And the store keeper was like “It’s gift. For you!” in as many words and facial expressions. And my heart melted.
A leisurely stroll by the Seine is very Parisian - to state the obvious. But to pause, peruse through old titles and find gems in these bouquinistes that dot the river bank is quintessentially ‘accompanied-with-accordians’ Parisian. They’ve been around since the 16th century, making reading and collecting more affordable by giving second-hand books and random memorabilia a home.
Come the weekend and flea markets sprout everywhere across Paris, offering bric-a-brac and oddities of every kind. I remember during our first trip, we were on such a tight budget - a good part of which we spent on museums (takes a massive bite out of your daily budget) I wish we chose to give the big-euro-ticket museums a miss when we were on so short on the euros. But we did. And to be fair, they did enrich our first trip to Paris. But these little opportunities for flaneur that cost us nothing filled our days with so much everyday French culture (and a bigger lunch budget). Also, window shopping heaven!
This is a candy store. Closed on a Monday. But I’d gone by on another day and had such fun picking out edible souvenirs. And the store keeper is just the most delightful person to look at. I like Parisian storekeepers. They almost always give me little gifts. But for now, here’s one of my favourite stores being very interesting even when it’s closed.
Parisian chic has nothing to prove. It’s an attitude that is contagious. It’s in the water. In the air. Parisian chic is the art of nonchalance, or elegantly giving zero fucks.
I mean, lounge chairs right on Rue Rivoli. How cool is that? And that yellow facade. Sigh!
Boxed red geraniums, catching the light, glistening like rubies against the créme of the typical Haussmanian-scape. The wrought-iron-railinged balcony serves no real purpose except cosmetic. But then again, there’s no place for anything un-pretty in Parisian real estate.
By far one of Sahit’s favourite stores in Paris. of course, it’s a camera store!
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the sexy shops of Montmartre. I hadn't really seen this side of charming Montmartre until we did a pub crawl. Montmartre by night is definitely not PG13. The Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi, Ce Soir really comes out to play in the after-hours. It’s quite funny, and telling, how the virginal-white dollop of creme Sacre Couer rubs shoulders with the raucous not-so-pious-side of human nature. I guess it’s two sides of the same coin and the sooner we accept it, the better.
I recently found out that this space was once a butchery that sold horse meat. Today, other than for its interesting facade, it’s moved on to more socially-fashionable merchandise. I love how they kept the facade while moving on with the times. You just have to love a city that takes in the non-fashionable past and make it a quaint imperfect present. And that is just one of the many magics of Paris.
