Shop for Unique Hand Crafted Gifts - this tour lasts 2 hours
This tour focuses on offbeat, unique shops that offer hand-crafted French products. We will visit up to 10 boutiques, depending on our time.
A few examples :
- unique chocolate shop run by 2 sisters from Japan, creators of unique fusion chocolates & pastries
- a tea shop dating from 1692, with 200+ different types of tea & beautifully hand-crafted gifts
- designer handbags, distributed only in France, with prices starting at 80€ (you read that right)!
- for male shoppers - leather belts crafted right there in the workshop & a unique manufacturer of pen-knives offering tattooed engravings
- honey from around the world - many with exotic flavors (avocado trees, lime, etc.)
- a charming little boutique that sells vintage fragrances from the 1700s to the 1950s
You will take home the most unique gifts for those very special someones in your life.
Palais Royal, history & luxury shopping - 1.5 hours
The Palais Royal is a charming garden in the center of Paris. Built by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634, it later became the 1st shopping mall & pleasure garden - frequented by courtesans, politicians, prostitutes and revolutionary firebrands. Today the neighborhood is a mix of tradition and modernity with chic boutiques, craftsmen's ateliers and cozy bistros. We visit an opulent perfumery, a shop with vintage designer clothes & several unique artisans who craft unusual hand-made products (shoes, eyeglass frames, etc.) The tour ends over a glass of wine in a cozy wine bar (not included in tour price).
Vintage Designer Boutiques : Shop Chanel & Dior - 2 hours
This is a tour of the city's best boutiques specializing in vintage designer fashion and accessories. These shops sell designs by top notch names in fashion - Chanel, Dior, Yves St Laurent - dating from the 1940s to today.
You'll find unique pieces from the elite designers as well as the lesser known brands, all of them curated for their style and price. Find yourself an original Chanel jacket from the 1940s, shoes from Ferragamo or a handbag from Louis Vuitton.
The boutiques range from multi-brand (from Azzedine Alaïa to Yves Saint Laurent) to brand specialists (Chanel). One shop sells 2nd hand items, not vintage, so you’ll find recent fashions at consignment shop prices.
Each boutique offers a personalized selection and shoppers are certain to find a unique, one of a kind piece to their liking. Some shops will even ship your purchases to your home.
Shopping for designer brands
A discreet boutique
Racks of vintage brands
Accessories from designer labels
Happiness is finding that one unique luxury item that nobody else owns
Browsing the racks
Covered Galleries : the 1st Shopping Malls - 2 hours
The very first covered gallery was built in 1786, in the Palais Royal. The gallery was an early form of a shopping mall, a place where fashionable women could shop in an enclosed environment protected from the rain & cold, rather than having to go from one corner of the city to the next looking for shops through dark muddy streets.
Most were built during the first half of the 19th Century & by the 1850s there were 150 galleries in Paris. However they were for the most part abandoned when the department stores became popular in the late 1800s. By the 1950s only a dozen or so remained, many quite dilapidated.
They are now being lovingly restored as upmarket malls with glass ceilings for natural lighting & beautiful ornaments and decors.
They provide a uniquely historic way of seeing the boutiques of Paris.
