5 Best Shopping in Paris, France

Founded in 1852, Le Bon Marché has emerged as the city's chicest department store. The fact that it isn't nearly as crowded as the department stores on the Right Bank is an added bonus. On the ground floor of the main building, look for makeup, perfume, and accessories; this is where celebs duck in for essentials while everyone pretends not to notice. On the floor above, you can do laps through dozens of glamorous and überhip labels. The next floor up is home to streetwise designers and edgy secondary lines. Under the restored glass ceiling, the gleaming Le Soulier shoe department assembles the crème de la crème of European shoes. Meanwhile, the menswear department has consumed the entire basement level and has even added a barbershop. Across the street, the home-goods store in the sister building is a great place to browse the latest designer furniture, stock up on French linens, porcelain, cookware, and luggage, or just relax over tea or a gourmet lunch in the soaring atrium restaurant. Before leaving, be sure to visit the spectacular La Grande Épicerie and cave (wine shop) on the ground floor of the main building; it's the haute couture of grocery stores. Artisanal jams, olive oils, and much more make great gifts, and the luscious pastries, fruit, and huge selection of prepared foods beg to be chosen for a meal or snack.

After standing empty for 16 years, the Samaritaine department store finally reopened in 2021 following an ambitious renovation by new owners LVMH. The space dating to 1870 retains many of its Art Deco details, including its beautiful facade overlooking the Seine, and is also now home to the city's Cheval Blanc hotel. You can enter the store via Rue de la Monnaie, encountering labels from more than 600 fashion brands, including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, and Moschino. The new Samaritaine is also home to a spa and several eateries, including a gorgeous fifth-floor restaurant, Voyage, where you can dine on seasonal, international dishes beneath the department store's beautiful glass roof.

A retail institution, Au Printemps is made up of three major stores: Printemps Maison (with home furnishings on four refurbished floors), Printemps Homme (featuring six levels of menswear plus two levels for the gourmet shopping area, Printemps du Goût, which opened in January 2018), and fashion-focused Printemps Mode (which has everything à la mode, from couture to teen trends). While in the Printemps Mode building, be sure to check out the newly enlarged beauty area—the largest in Paris—with the Nuxe spa, hair salons, and seemingly every beauty product known to woman under one roof. The luxurious Printemps du Louvre—in the Carrousel du Louvre, at the underground entrance to the museum, across from I.M. Pei's inverted pyramid—carries fine leather goods, accessories, watches, and beauty products; fittingly, it also hosts revolving art exhibitions.

This mammoth department store is one of those places that you wander into unawares, leaving hours later a poorer and humbler person. Inside its flagship building at 40 boulevard Haussmann, a Belle Époque stained-glass dome caps the world's largest perfumery. The store bulges with thousands of designers, and 25-minute fashion shows are held Friday at 3 pm in the upstairs café to showcase their wares (reservations are a must: email [email protected]; admission €12). Another big draw is the comestibles department, stocked with everything from herbed goat cheese to Iranian caviar. Just across the street at 35 boulevard Haussmann is Galeries Lafayette Maison, which focuses on goods for the fashionable home. The Montparnasse branch is a pale shadow of the Boulevard Haussmann behemoths.

With branches throughout the city, this is the French dime store par excellence, stocking everyday items like cosmetics, groceries, toys, kitchenwares, and more. Monoprix also has a line of stylish, inexpensive, basic wearables for the whole family—particularly adorable kids' clothes—and isn't a bad place to stock up on French chocolate, jams, or confit de canard at reasonable prices.