chic must: new bonpoint concept store

all the chic mamans et bebes know that bonpoint is the shop for exquisite baby and kids clothing and gifts. the newest boutique, bonpoint concept, is the largest bonpoint to date, with clothing, jewelry and accessories, shoes, a restaurant and a garden all in a must-see mansion/boutique. it is truly lovely, and should be a stop on every jeune mamans trip through paris! at 6 rue de tournon, 6th (call before you go, as it opens to the public later this week.... 01 40 51 98 20)

marc jacobs comes to paris

as many of you fashionistas know, monsieur jacobs lives in the city of light. well now he officially works here too, opening his first european shop in the lovely palais royale. so stop on buy the christian liagre decorated boutique to see his collections for women, men, home, accessories and perfumes and you might just run into muse sofia coppola or one of the other sweet young things that are drawn to his vintage-inspired confections. 56-62 galerie montpensier in the arcades of the palais royale.

embroidery class

so you've been to paris a dozen times, seen it all, done it all. or maybe this time you don't want to aquire a new longchamp bag, but would rather aquire a new skill. check out the amazing embroidery classes at ecole lesage. this is the place that does the beautiful hand embroidery on many a couture dress-- and now they'll pass on their craft to you. in as little as 3 hours, the school will teach you how how to weild a needle and some beads to make something 'couture' of your very own.

chic must: picard

there is something soothing walking into an all white store with nothing but freezers-- eerie, i'll admit, but calming too. picard is one of those amazing french concepts that has yet to be exported. the concept is this-- nothing but frozen food. but not just your basic frozen pizza-- picard's pizza has ingredients that you can pronounce and if not all natural, pretty close. but if you don't want pizza, how about duck or tarte tatin or chopped fresh herbs, or, really, almost any french delicacy that you can imagine. but frozen? yes-- and it works. it works so well that it is the skeleton in the closet of many a french dinner party hostess.

it's not only a chic must because it is oh-so-yummy, but the customer service is top notch too. the staff where clean white chefs jackets with neat blue aprons. they bag your groceries for you and they do it with a smile-- not at all like the poor service at big supermarket maven monoprix. so next time you are in paris and you wander by picard, stop in to peruse the offerings. some stuff [cinnamon figue ice cream, for ex.] doesn't need to be cooked at all....

atelier des chefs

chic shopping paris discussed this hip, new cooking school in our chic beat newsletter months ago, but since then, atelier des chefs has continued to expand. now you can take cooking classes after you have shopped-until-you-drop at the printemps nation location, at galeries lafayette's main store, and at the atelier's own location. so far, it appears that the courses are in french only-- their site used to list english classes as well, but that no longer seems to be listed on their site. [we have contacted them to find out more....] what they do offer is quick, inexpensive cooking classes with a variety of themes.. sign up for a "60' chrono" lunchtime course, cook your meal and eat it, all in under a hour. yum.

update-- the response from atelier des chefs re: classes in english:
We used to offer classes in English but foreign people didn't want them because they wanted to have classes in French as they were in France. So for the moment, we haven't planed to organize again classes in English. But people who do not understand everything in French really can be students here. You should come and try once, to see.

vintage lingerie at printemps

in case your cheri forgot to get you something silky for february 14th, , stop into printemps to check out this sexy limited time 'exposition vente'-- couture vintage lingerie for sale along with new pieces in limited edition. but hurry up-- it's only until march 11th at printemps haussman and nation locations.

discount shopping in paris

discount {or "stock" stores as they call them in french} are the new trend in bargain shopping & more and more shops keep popping up around town-- and all the better for us bargain shoppers... some are clubs that you have to pay a minimal yearly subscription to [www.espacecaterinemax.com, www.showroom-30.com], others are open to everyone [www.lapiscine.fr]- but they all have big name brands with big bargains. such as todds loafers for 130e, prada jeans for 60e, etc. our tip? get on the mailing lists of the ones that interest you to get advance notice of sales on your fave brands....