"design" flea market sale coming in may

If you haven't checked out the Quartier Montorgeuil, centered around rue Montorgueil in the 2nd, this is a great chance to do so. A funky sale with 20th century modern furniture and accessories will take place May 19-21. Check out the link for more details.

children's clothing- private sale

this just in-- a vente prive of new desinger anne zoe's children's clothing from march 31- april 1. see link for details:
http://annezoeb.googlepages.com/ventepriv%C3%A9e

Bensimon at Monoprix

Colorful, fun French line Bensimon has a new line out at hypermarche Monoprix. Bright printed clothes for mom, dad, and the kids are for sale, along with a funky line of home decor items-- printed totes, soft coolers, baby bags, and more. Fun gift items such as floral printed mugs and wacky plastic vases printed with goldfish round out the offerings. Go quickly as Bensimon is a favorite of young Parisian families, and the Monoprix line is moins cher than the regular Bensimon line found at its boutiques.

designer spring sale

Just got an invite for this that I thought I'd pass on to all the Chic Shoppers out there:
Vente de Printemps [Spring Sale], April 1- 9, at the Loft Sevigne, 46 rue de Sevigne, Paris 3rd. No mention of what brands will be on sale, but it does say Big Name brands for women & men, French & Italian labels at exceptional prices.

new Lancel shop on the Champs

After a long closing for renovations, French leather goods brand Lancel has reopened its doors on the Champs-Elysees [no. 127, to be exact]. With a red resin canopy marking its space, the new shop shows off its handbags, leather goods, jewelry and luggage lines and adds to the chic-ifying of the Champs, started by Cartier, Mont Blanc, and the new LV boutique a few years back. Bienvenue!-- We are glad that the Champs is finally living up to its reputation as one of the most famous streets in the world.

chic must: secretes of paris blog

Talented writer and girl about town Heather Stimmler-Hall, creator of the fab Secrets of Paris website, now also has a blog to keep you up to the minute on just what the name implies-- the ins and outs of behind the scenes Paris. So check out her blog and enjoy!
http://secretesdeparis.blogspirit.com/

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....

chic bust: galeries lafayette return policy

to be fair, galeries lafayette does try to go the extra mile to welcome foreigners/tourists to its shops-- with welcome staff that speak multiple languages, 10% discount cards for tourists, etc. however, i had to have a laugh at their return policy, spelled out in detail in their big christmas catalog. the page i am referring to is titled "le client est roi" [the client is king], which would make one think that they are adopting the american customer service attitute.....but this is one of the listings:

Remboursement de la Difference: Si vous trouvez moins chers ailleurs, avec la meme offre de services, nous vous remboursons la difference, dans un delai de 30 jours, sur presentation du justificatif d'achat.

Translation--
We will reimburse the difference: If you find it cheaper elsewhere, with the same offer of services, we will reimburse the difference within 30 days, with proof of purchase.

on first read, it sounds dandy and fair. but read closer-- the second part of the sentence, reading "...with the same offer of service...," sounds a bit ambiguous to me. and probably one of those french things where they would rather argue over the subtlties of their return policy for hours rather than give you your money back....

anyone out there actually tried to use this policy? let us know....

chic shopping tip: press sales

here is the lowdown on the press sales in paris. if you work in PR or fashion or have good connections, you can get invited to advance sales, which happen several weeks before the twice-yearly sales. [translation-- they are happening now!] we went to a zadig & voltaire sale the other day, where scads of hip-but-nearly-identically-dressed young women were waiting out in the cold to get in-- only to find out that the cashmere, zadig's hot item of the moment, had all been snapped up by the first few who got in. lucky for me, i had baby lucie in the stroller, and got to enter tout de suite, bypassing the line and drawing some very mean stares from the hipsters in the cold.

not on the invite list? well, if you see a big line of greedy looking girls huffing and puffing in the cold, ask what sale it is and jump in the line. might be worth it, if you have the time. and make friends with store employees and sign up for mailing lists whenever you can.

mode & merveilles sale this weekend

looking for unique holiday gifts? stop by the winter salon held by mode & merveilles, a cooperative of up-and-coming designers. funky clothing, bags, jewels and more are on sale--check their site for ideas of what they offer. saturday, december 10th from 11am to 9pm and sunday from 11am to 7pm.

9 /11, cour Debille - 75011 Paris
Métro Voltaire

quick curls

as you probably know by now, french women are as into their "brushing" as big apple girls are into getting their hair blown-out. to follow this season's trend in curls, sephora champs elysees, the headquarters of the mega beauty emporium, has a special deal going on. stop by the style lounge frederic fekkai [named after French hottie hairdresser to the stars], and in 20 minutes you'll have a head full of curls. [11am to 9pm] the price? 12 euros! quel bargain! and while you are there, check out the other quick beauty fixes-- the brow bar, quick peeling center, etc.

fall sale: mode et merveilles

this just in: a sale of cool stuff by up and coming young french designers on nov. 5 & 6-- see info. on their site, mode et marveilles

chic bust: returns at monoprix

ok, so i frequent my monoprix on an almost daily basis-- i mean, 3 times a week, minimum. most of the cashiers know me by now, and even watched me go through my pregnancy and no know baby lucie. anyway, a few weeks ago i had purchased a storage bag to stash away a bunch of baby clothes. as soon as i tried to zip it up, the zipper broke-- basically, it looked nice, but was a piece of crap. so i finally got around to taking it back today, receipt and all. had to wait in line, then had to wait for a manager that i'd never seen before to do the return. she frowned at the date on the ticket, then opened up the storage bag to see what i'd done with it. i had explained the situation, the faulty product. she didn't seem to believe me, and even had the nerve to say to her colleague that she thought that 'madame had tried to put too much stuff inside the bag before zipping it up,' not caring that i was standing right in front of her. she then proceeded to give me the refund, not at all pleasant about it.

what i want to know is this: since when do workers at monoprix get personally offended about the quality of the merchandise? i mean, really, did she make the darn thing herself? will she loose money on it? non, non, et non!

and the best part is that they have a new ad campaign that promises to make your experience more comfortable, more sincere, more friendly. hah!

chic bust: new petit bateau store

ok, so when will these stores get it? a lovely new petit bateau store opened up by my place a few months ago, and me being a jeune mere, i was quite excited. i've been in the shop a few times w/ my daughter in the baby bjorn, but this time i took the pousette [stroller], and realized something that i had not noticed before-- that the baby stuff is all the way in the back (inconvienient), and that to get there, you have to navigate a step, go a few more meters, and then navigate two more steps, then two more. i do consider myself a citified stroller pusher, and can do buses, curbs, etc. with the stroller with ease. but why try to make a shopping experience more complicated?