Spontaneous Spree: Paris

Spontaneous Spree: Paris

8 stops in 8 hours in the City of Light (and even Greater Shopping)
Take a brief wander off-route to reveal a different Paris and some wonderful discoveries in the world of boutique shopping.
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Spontaneous Spree: Paris

By Simon Miles, wallpaper* magazine - 7 min read

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Paris is a fast but highly civilised pleasuredome of design, lights, good living and al fresco world-watching.  Old but always modernising, the city refuses to become a beguiling relic. So, yes, instantly recognisable attractions line the streets of rives Gauche and Droit, while the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Pompidou are the visitors’ essentials – but smaller museums, like the Musée Rodin, the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Bourse du Commerce, have more cachet and much shorter queues. And although super-sized, world-class luxury is for sale within the golden triangle of Avenue Montaigne, Avenue George V, and Avenue des Champs-Élysées, even a brief wander off-route – to Pigalle, Montmartre and Saint-Germain, Rue des Francs Bourgeois in the Marais or the Bon Marché in the 7th arrondissement – will reveal a different Paris and some wonderful discoveries in the world of boutique shopping. 

 

Renaissance Hotels has six Paris properties – Renaissance Paris Vendome Hotel, Renaissance Paris La Defense Hotel, Renaissance Paris Nobel Tour Eiffel Hotel, Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel, Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel and Renaissance Paris Hippodrome de St. Cloud Hotel. The Renaissance Vendome is a short walk from the Louvre museum, the Opera Garnier and the Tuileries Garden, but your hotel Navigator will tell you how to take a few detours and find the best cafés, shops, gaufre vendors and galleries along the way. Bonne chance!

  1. Patchouli Intense Eau de Parfum 1

    Nicolaï Parfumeur-Créateur

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    The Nicolaï maison and brand opened its first shop, in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, in 1989, selling perfumes exclusively created by founder/parfumier Patricia de Nicolaï in the store’s own, small laboratory. Keen to give customers a chance to peek behind the scenes, the shop follows in the tradition of original modern perfume makers, particularly de Nicolaï’s ancestor Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain, founder of Maison Guerlain. The house classic is New York, de Nicolaï’s signature perfume.

  2. Dry Powder Deodorant 2

    Yodi Beauty

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    With over 30 years of experience in the beauty industry Yodi founder Hélène Azancot has established a beauty and cosmetics company that sells natural, vegan products made with minimalist formulas, concentrated with active ingredients. The range is water-free, preservative-free, and contains no synthetic allergens – simplifying and taking away instead of adding, to create a new approach to beauty.

  3. Aldoshop Luchadora Vase 3

    Bonjournaldo

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    The Aldo universe is the brainchild of Dorothée Alauzet, a French ceramicist living in Paris. Colourful, offbeat, witty and poetic, her work draws inspiration from folklore and traditions around the world to create objects that blur the line between utility and sculpture. R FINDS likes the new collection of Aldo vases that references Mexican wrestlers, or luchadoras.

  4. Jeanne Necklace 4

    Alice Bianca

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    On a mission to change the way jewelry is made, purchased and worn, Alice Bianca’s products are carefully manufactured to consume just the right amount of raw materials and use energy only in reasonable quantities. The atelier up-cycles jewelry – partially or entirely – with pieces recovered from dormant stocks destined for trash, and even offers to recycle customers’ old costume jewelry. Elegant and sustainably minded.

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    Merci

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    Paris’ resident, super-chic types all shop at Merci. Huge and multi-storeyed with myriad departments – homeware, clothes, gifts, books and much more – this is the kind of shop you want to move into. Duralex glasses sit alongside Jars Céramistes pottery. Plates by Pierre Casenove rub shoulders with preloved pieces. Merci’s authenticity lies in the pairing of opposites: classic and contemporary, handcrafted and mass-produced, expensive and inexpensive. This eclecticism is apparent in all three floors of the store, where furniture, linen, men’s and women’s fashion, eating spaces, practical objects and lifestyle items combine under a single roof. After a long browse, across several floors, we chose the silk PJs.

  6. Laulhère Summer Chic Beret 6

    Laulhère

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    Founded at the foothills of the French Pyrenees by Lucien Laulhère, Maison Laulhère has been manufacturing berets since 1840. Experts in the fine art of millinery, the Laulhère team use the time honoured skills of knitting, fulling, felting, dyeing, ennobling and many other processes specific to the production of a traditional beret. Try on a “Beret Parisienne” at their store. Bring your own baguette.

  7. Josephine Bracelet 7

    Estée Dahl

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    A designer, collector, globetrotter and button vendor extraordinaire, Estée Dahl’s studio takes unique haberdashery pieces of Bohemian crystal, jet, pressed glass, Bakelite, Galalith, casein and corozo from the Victorian, art nouveau, art deco and 1960s eras, and transforms them into one-off jewelry pieces. All buttons and accessories are, Dahl insists, “original vintage”. Find her designs at six Paris locations, including Museum of Decorative Arts in the 1st arrondissement.

  8. POTERIEETCIE Thais Cup and Saucer 8

    POTERIE ET COMPAGNIE

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    Welcome to Sandrine Chriqui’s Poterie et Compagnie (pottery and company) Paris workshop, located in the heart of the capital. Recognised as a Maître Artisan en Métier d’Art (Master Craftsman in Artistic Professions) the passionate potter’s objective is gifting her customers time-honoured know-how, contemporary innovation and ceramic joy via this earthy and infinitely versatile material. “We knead, model, turn, enamel, cook... we live,” says Sandrine. And we drink tea from this cute cup and saucer.