Leaving to Paris in 5 days- shopping recommendations?

Hi Rose,
I hope you have a wonderful trip. Inexpensive souvenirs are sold in little shops close to all the major tourist site, ie Notre Dame, the Louvre. For memorable souvenirs you mght chose buy yourself a lovely silk scarf or beautiful shawl. I'm not able to recommend best bargains for clothes and shoes as I had little time for shopping. Hope you have a great time.

Rose- The best bargain shopping I found was on the border of the 8th & 9th, in a section called Place d'Europe. All the street names are cities in Europe, near Gare St. Lazare. There are many discount handbag and shoe stores, as well as a chocolatier, apparel, and a large toy store. Have fun!
Emily

I will definitely check that out.
Thank you for your help.

There are so many neat places to shop in Paris it is unbelievable.Here are a few of our favorites. We absolutely love Porte de Vanves flea market. It is on Saturday and Sunday mornings early 8 AM on. Metro is Porte de Vanves. Also there are wonderful outdoor markets all over Paris.....the bigger ones are on the weekend, but they take place all week. You can google markets of Paris and find them by arrondissement. We love a few in Particular....president Wilson market, the Saxe Breuteiul market, rue Mouffetard market,Rue Cler market street. Although they have food they have scarves , wonderful market baskets that are all the rage here now,great little house ware things like cheese keepers , and little kitchen gadgets. On the Rue Cler , there are little tea shops, honey shops, little grocery stores have French soap , candies, etc. Pharmacies have soaps and makeup, etc. Chocolate shops are a great source of gifts,as well as little perfumeries.Have a wonderful time.........you will love Paris. Bon voyage!!!!!!!

In my VERY old copy of Cheap Sleeps in Paris by Sandra Gustafson, there is a chapter at the end of the book about bargain shopping in Paris. I checked the most recent version on Amazon (which is 5 years old...), which is now Great Sleeps Paris, and it still has a chapter on that. It seems to have good information, particularly for clothing, but also for unique gifts. She goes into detail about bargains on designer clothes, too, if that interests you. It looks like the new book (based on the search inside preview) is expanded and includes more listings. I don't know if you have time to buy it before you go, or if the information will be too outdated. Have fun! I love Paris, and in some ways, I wish I could recapture that first trip to Paris feeling. There's nothing like it.

I would not bother to buy a book that lists shopping thats five years out of print... things change too fast! There are some other shopping guides out there taht are updated much more often.... Personally I can do better on shoes/clothing in the US. The prices are high for the good stuff in Paris and the quality on the cheap stuff is "cheap" Rue de Rivoli near the Louve has tons of places to shop for souveniers. I bought some really cute Christmas ornaments there... Santa climbing the Eiffel Tower, etc.. they make me smile everytime I put them on my tree! :)

To me the question is are you wanting to shop to buy something specific or shopping to enjoy the fun of shopping in Paris? If you like to shop for recreation try Le Bon Marche Rive Gauche, Galeries Lafayette or the shops inside Palais Royal.