Paris is on SALE!

Shopping in Paris can take on many forms. There are the high end stores like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Yves St. Laurent - places that I'm too nervous to walk into. There are chic boutiques all around the city sporting up and coming and recognized but small shop designers. There are the global chain stores like H&M, Gap, Nike. And there are are consignment shops - carrying the high end items but at half or less than the designer cost.

In addition, - there are the "soldes" or sales - which until this year occur only twice a year - stores were required by the government to only put inventory on sale twice a year - in January and the end of June - for about a month each time. The economic downturn has forced the government to permit stores to do interim discounts - but these are not the soldes.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, with Myra and Tracy in tow, we checked out a couple of the designer consignment shops - we perused through racks of Chanel, Ralph Lauren, YSL etc. and shoes - don't let me forget the shoes - yes, I know I have a problem, bags and other accessories. While we didn't do much buying, we definitely did a lot of looking - and yes, I found a pair of shoes at a steal (really, only 35E - more than 70% off) and a very very cute dress and matching coat for my niece (I'm aiming to corrupt her even before she is out of the womb because I am totally vying for the "cool aunt" title).

On Wednesday - the soldes began. Every shop has signs up for sales of 50-70% - now not everything is on sale, but there are plenty of options to peruse - in the boutiques and malls. I haven't checked to see if the haute couture items are on sale - but I doubt it and even if they were, they would still be way out of my price range.

Today, I went to the Defense area - a bit outside of Paris. It's what I would call the modern commercial area of Paris - skyscrapers and shiny buildings. It was built outside of the center of the city on purpose, so that the historic nature of Paris could be preserved. The metro and RER stations take you right into the mall - with tons of shops to peruse. I didn't find anything today, but since the sales go own for the next month - who knows what goodies may come home with me. I hope I don't have to buy a new bag - Oh well, at least it will be on solde.