The cathedrals of shopping: the department stores of Paris

Amongst the places to visit in Paris, other than the monuments, squares, streets, museums, churches and gardens, if you are a lover of shopping you can’t not take a visit to the Department Store of Grands Boulevards and the other shopping malls that have popped up around the French capital.

The Galeries Lafayette  and Printempsare not simply places to visit to shop in Paris, not only because their sheer structure can be classed at monumental, but also because, since their building in early ‘900’s, these two places have represented the "joie de vivre", the typical Parisian joy of living. With a stroll from the Opera down one of the famous historical Parisian streets, the Boulevard Haussman, you should arrive at number 40 and 64 (Metro stop Havre Caumartin and Chaussee d’Antin, lines 1 and 3), to visit these two Paris malls that will take your breath away due to their size, taste in display of merchandise and originality in the window displays. An interesting point: the first lifts in Paris were installed in the Lafayette Department Store.

From your accommodation in Paris, if you love to shop and would like to deepen your knowledge on the best way to do so, don’t miss a trip to Bon Marché, at 24 Rue de Sèvres, Metro lines 10 and 12,  Sèvres Babylone stop. From a tiny little shop opened in 1838 it has become the largest department store in the world, it was the first department store to have fixed prices, where, to quote its founder Aristide Boucicaut, “every woman that enters must feel like a queen”.