Shop and you shall find
If you like to shop, you're in luck. France is packed with retail outlets, bargain-shopping streets, resale shops, and flea markets offering more cachet for less cash. You'll find local foods, housewares, books, cosmetics, clothing, and more. You just have to know where to look.
I swear by Monoprix, a Target-type chain, for lower cost chic. I've bought watches, lingerie, clothing, accessories, jewelry, and groceries here. I always stock up on Bourjois makeup, made in the same factory as Chanel but much less expensive. Tati stores resemble a huge indoor yard sale where you'll find lingerie, makeup, clothing, and much more, for much less. They even have specialty stores selling wedding gowns, jewelry, and candy.
In Paris, the Rue Saint-Placide is chockablock with bargains on shoes and clothing. Fabrics for decorating? The Rue de Rivoli boasts numerous souvenir shops selling embroidered Aubusson-like goods and fabrics for decorations, pillows, and tablecloths. I also frequent museum shops. At the Hôtel des Invalides (Napoleon's tomb), besides art reproductions, I purchased $20 pillows decorated with fleurs-de-lis and, for $10, Marie Antoinette's favorite music on CD. (Purchase a museum and monuments pass for two, four, or six days, and you'll save while visiting more than 70 sites.)
Regularly scheduled street markets offer produce, local delicacies, and flowers. On Sundays, for example, food cognoscenti head to Rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement or Rue de Buci in the 6th, for the vast arrays of gourmet goodies. In Nice, I get a thrill every time I visit the Cours Saleya market, where fruits and vegetables are artfully displayed like jewelry. Nothing beats the bargain-basement prices I've paid on everything from lemon soap from Menton, to Provençal herbs and olive oils to anise and violet pastilles from the Flavigny Abbey. (The Riviera Times lists information about the local markets in 45 towns in the Alpes-Maritimes, Var region, and Monaco; visit www.rivieratimes.com.)
Need a fashion fix? Dépôt-vente or resale shops, especially in the 16th arrondissement, provide huge hunting grounds. At Maison de Fanfan I found mint-condition, first-class clothing brands at coach prices.
The famous covered passageways of Paris can also be a mecca for markdowns. Built in 1823, Vivienne Gallery, with its impressive archways and indoor topiary, is a charming arcade with booksellers, cartographers, and tearooms. Others to note: the passages Choiseul and Grand Cerf, with their beautiful, 19th-century skylight windows.
I've even discovered discount deals on scarves, belts, and wallets in some of the underground shops in Metro stations.
To bag more bargains, head to flea markets. At the Marché aux Puces St.-Ouen de Clingnancourt I have scored stunning $5 glassware and $40 Limoges miniatures. At the Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves , I purchased a $30 copy of a 16th-century lithograph depicting Greek mythology. Fit it all into your schedule with a discounted Metro pass, available in many denominations.
Brand names for less? France offers a wealth of retail outlets where bargain hunters can get their fill of all things French.
La Vallée Village, 40 minutes east of Paris by high-speed train, offers at least 33 percent off on prestige-brand men's and women's fashions, shoes, accessories, lingerie, jewelry, and home design. Celine, agnès b., Charles Jourdan, Façonnable, Givenchy - they're all here.
For more fabulous finds, France's Marques Avenue outlet malls showcase hundreds of brands, from Alain Manoukian to Zapa and everything in between - including Hugo Boss and Yves Saint Laurent. In Troyes, 120 Marques Avenue shops offer at least 30 percent off original prices. Other Marques Avenue outlets are located in Paris at Île-Saint-Denis; in Metz; in Romans, in the Rhône-Alpes; and at the Côte d'Opale.
The McArthur Glen Center in Troyes, the charming capital of the Champagne region, has more than 80 outlet stores selling 200 luxury brands such as Armani, Courrèges, and Wolford.
Craving crystal? Head to Lorraine, where outlets sell slashed-price Daum and St. Louis. China? Make a pilgrimage to the Limousin region capital city of Limoges, for outlets discounting Limoges, Bernardaud, and Haviland porcelain. If you're shoe shopping, look no farther than Romans, where cobblers have bent over their workbenches for generations. In the Old Town, you'll find numerous shoe outlets within a network of picturesque alleys winding around the Romanesque and Gothic Collegiate Church of Saint-Barnard: Charles Jourdan, Stephane Kélian, and Robert Clergerie, at rock-bottom prices. The town even offers two-day Fashion and Culture weekends that include visits to the shopping outlets, the international shoe museum, and a gastronomic restaurant dinner.
Savvy shoppers should know: Big sales are regulated by the government and held twice a year, mid-June and mid-January.
If you live outside the European Union and make purchases totaling at least 183 euros in one day, in one department store, you qualify to receive the Value Added Tax (VAT) deduction. All goods in France carry a 19.6 percent VAT, but you can get a refund of at least 13 percent. All department stores throughout Paris have VAT offices where you can process the appropriate forms; bring your passport and safeguard your receipts.
Debbi K. Kickham can be reached at debbikkickham@hotmail.com. 