Faire du shopping

I think the shopping here deserves its own post. I arrived just in time for les soldes, actually spending the whole first day at the Bon Marché with Shirin exhausted, thirsty, hungry, and endlessly digging through piles of clothes. We had a hard time finding the shoe department because neither of us could pronounce 'chaussures' correctly, until a nice guy on the second floor said, shoes? Right. They had roped off each designer section of the department, and were only allowing 4 people in at a time, so there were multiple lines all around the floor. Never seen anything like it before! It was one of the longest, but of course most wonderful being the shopaholic I am, days of my life. My new life love:

Even the pharmacies here have sales! I'm not sure how much I want discounted meds, but it's just completely crazy this time of year. In the chaos, I love going over to Etienne Marcel to Kiliwatch [I've already been there twice this week] for some vintage! Well, not all of it's vintage, but it's a huge mix of new, old, and foreign. The front section is all magazines and books, and then a jean bar, women's, leather jackets and accessories, men's shoes, men's. It looks like a big watering hole of the very edgy trendy of Paris [read: very hot guys]. Saint-Honoré has been crazy everyday, and although it's a really touristy area, if you walk a bit north to avenue de l'Opera, you'll find the best Monoprix ever!! If anyone doesn't know about my obsession with Monoprix, it started last spring when I first discovered it on an outting by the Bastille. The closest comparison I can think of in WalMart, but it's SO much better! It's all kinds of cosmetics [Bourjois, Vichy, La Roc, Nivea, etc.], every thing you could think of to put in a house, clothes [plus Petit Bateau!], a bookstore, AND a supermarket that actually has great food. So yes, I am obsessed. I spent 2 hours there yesterday.

Last look: the graveyard of empty shopping bags in the corner of my apartment, casualities of the war we are fighting in Paris for fashion!