Shopping & Boutiques

Travel-writing guru Rick Steves called Rue Cler “my favourite street in Paris,” enthusing, “Rue Cler, lined with shops that spill out into the street, feels like village Paris – in the skinny shadow of the Eiffel Tower.” The Seattle...

If it’s quantity you’re looking for, just follow the crowds to the boutique-jammed streets of the Marais. But for a real Paris quartier with everything you need for a fun shopping day in the city, Rue de Charonne...

The Bordeaux wine-growing region is centred on the city of Bordeaux, but extends across the whole of the Gironde department. At 120,000 hectares in total, it is the largest wine-growing region in France and, with...

Two exciting new developments from Galeries Lafayette in Paris this Spring. First and foremost, the famous department store is now open on Sundays, which means you can shop to your heart's content on dimanche (historically,...

Spring in Burgundy always takes me by surprise. The landscape appears to wake up from hibernation overnight. Suddenly the sky is sighing with swallows and butterflies, vines stretch out their tendrils, and the colza fields light up in...

The passage couvert, these glass-roofed shopping arcades which flourished in early 19th-century Paris, owed their success in part to a promise inherent in their architecture – the capacity to transport their visitors to another place. In the 1800s, a passage...

Ever since Louis XIV organised artisans – from perfumers to saddlers – in guilds to serve his gargantuan palace, France has been a world leader in the design and production of handmade luxury goods. Now that France’s global behemoth brands (you...

"I think the translation is ‘hardware store’,” I say to my dad as we enter our town’s old quincaillerie. Ducking beneath the rainbow of market baskets which hang over the entrance, my belle-mère is giddy: “I used to...

Sitting on a bench beneath the towering ramparts of Provins, I can easily imagine I’m back in the Middle Ages. Gentlemen on horseback are showing off their falconry skills to ladies in flowing gowns, their hawks skimming over our heads...

During the 1849-50s Gold Rush, many French came to San Francisco to find their fortune.  It was San Francisco that grew rich with the addition of French culture, and that continuing influence is seen...