Les soldes

French for Black Friday

Forget the lines standing outside for the early bird special the day after Thanksgiving. Twice a year Paris erupts into a shopping frenzy unequaled elsewhere in the world, for it is only semiannually that the prices here are reduced to the level of mere mortals. Yes, New York and L.A. are expensive, but this is taking the evil exchange rate into consideration. I fondly remember shopping last year with a friend from Penn who had visited me during her spring break. We thought the gods of fashion were smiling benevolently down upon us. Oblivious and ignorant, I did not know that Parisians are wise enough to avoid shopping until "les soldes" begin because almost universally every store and boutique slashes its merchandise by thirty, forty, fifty percent.

Living in the Marais and working on Place de la Concorde, I am based in two of the arguably three best places to shop in Paris. Tempting, an understatement. Torturous, yes. However, the order of important things a coworker told me was: where the bathroom and vending machines are located; who to avoid if possible; and to not buy anything until Wednesday, June 28, 2006. The Grands Magazines, officially Galeries LaFayette and Le Printemps, open at 8 am to an eager, yet patient, crowd. Not one to hide from a challenge, I decided to brave the masses and try my luck during lunch. I couldn't believe my eyes as I passed lines waiting outside the Channel, Tod's, Hermes, Gucci stores on rue Faubourg St. Honore, the smaller Champs Elysees or Madison Avenue of Paris. The burly men, who usually politely open the door and act as a deterrent for any would-be thief, actually were keeping track of the number of people entering and exciting their respective store. (And yes, true to the standard stereotype, the vast majority in the lines were Asian tourists.)

Undeterred, I continued on my path to the Grands Magazines, happy that I had already been in the day before to browse, identify and try on what caught my eye. Foolish, utterly foolish! After weaving through a pack of people, what greeted me once I passed the doors of Galleries LaFayette? Lines outside of each respective designer purse kiosk! Once again, burly men, but this time they did not have the luxury of glass doors separating their merchandise from the mob. Instead, depending on the brand, VIP velvet ropes or the vinyl ones airports use. As I ascended the elevator I stared in disbelief at the horde of people, swarming like busy bees, snatching articles from one another with the intensity of Friends' Rachel in Filene's Basement on her wedding dress hunt.

Returning to work with a stress level higher than at any time within the duration of my actual job, I decided shopping in the Marais would be better. A quaint area known as the gay or Jewish neighborhood depending on your exact location, all of the best and most popular boutique designers have a store branch within an approximately five square block radius. Not dissimilar from shopping in Old City. Barbara Bui, Erotokritos, Ted Baker, Chloe, Zadig & Voltaire, Maje, Comptoir des Cottons, Les Petites, Diesel...The list goes on and on with more and less well known brands. Walking through cobblestone streets and encountering fewer people is definitely an advantage, the one problem is that all of the stores close some time between seven and eight pm and most are not open on Sundays.

The third best shopping area is in the St. Germain des Pres area in the sixth arrondissement. The advantage with that is it has both the smaller boutique designers as well as your Yves Saint Laurent. Have I found anything, you might ask? Only one day in and a black, vintage clutch and red, cashmere, tunic sweater are happily in my possession. The mental wish list based on what I've seen has grown, but I realized, like a different coworker warned me, "c'est fou". Translation: it's foolish. Foolish to try to compete with experienced Parisian shoppers honed at an early age to ravage the first day and also to forget that it's easy to get caught up in the buying mood and end up with something you wouldn't have bought, even if it was fifty percent off the original price. One last tip: the stores always hold back and add more and a second slash occurs in two weeks!

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.