Artisan chocolatier
There are multiple locations of much-loved chocolatier À la Mère de Famille around the city, but head to the 9th arrondissement for the original shop with its historic facade, tile floor and wooden cashier booth. Founded in 1761 and family-owned to this day, À la Mère de Famille is the oldest chocolaterie in the capital, and more recently acquired Stohrer, the city’s oldest patisserie. All the chocolates, caramels and jellies are made in France, and anything they don’t create in their own kitchens is made by small, independent artisans. Don’t miss the window displays around the holidays.
35 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, lameredefamille.com
Fragrances and beauty
With its wooden apothecary displays filled with vintage-style bottles, and classical music playing, walking into Officine Universelle Buly 1803 is like stepping into an elegant past. The historic beauty brand was given a second life in 2014 by Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touhami, drawing on its 19th-century roots. Known for its water-based, alcohol-free perfumes, Buly sources natural ingredients globally and transforms them into perfumes, creams, soaps and candles in France. The sophisticated package design integrates intricate drawings with fine typography, and there’s an emphasis on the personal service of past eras with a calligrapher at checkout to handwrite gift labels. There are multiple Paris locations; expect a queue at the original Rue Bonaparte store.
6 Rue Bonaparte (also at 45 Rue de Saintonge and 19 Rue Vieille du Temple), buly1803.com
Personalised porcelains
Parisian sculptor Alix Depondt-Reynis blends the past with modern functionality in her own collections of tableware, porcelain decorative lighting and jewellery. Her shops (called Alix D Reynis) feel like stylish homes, perfectly showcasing porcelain wares with subtle patterns and neutral tones against a dark wood backdrop. Prototypes are made in the Paris workshop (originally in the Rue Jacob location), and then cast in Limoges, a city with a long history of porcelain-making. Products can be personalised with names and monograms.
22 Rue Jacob and 14 Rue Commines, alixdreynis.com
Toy shop crammed with treasures
The historic Passage Jouffroy in the 9th arrondissement is home to one of the oldest toy stores in Paris, Pain d’Épices, which opened in 1849. Crammed with treasures over two storeys, it feels like you’re wandering through a rickety old home with delights to be discovered at each turn – from dolls to puppet theatres, rocking horses to music boxes. Most famous of all are the dollhouses and intricate miniature creations, with everything from tiny furniture to food (making workshops are held here, too). The shop’s “Made in Paris” status celebrates their work on a local level, employing more than 90 local artisans.
29 Passage Jouffroy, paindepices.fr
Immaculate stationery
Papier Tigre is a French stationery brand that’s not afraid of colour. Their notebooks and planners are printed on recycled paper and made in France with creative covers, spanning from ombré tones to notebooks designed for the Élysée Palace. There’s a huge marker and pen collection, along with accessories, from pencil cases to rubber stamps, to keep you organised. One step into this shop in the 3rd arrondissement and you’ll see why it’s also popular in Japan (their second location is in Tokyo). Look for the giant blue pencil outside the Paris flagship shop in the haut (upper) Marais.
5 Rue des Filles du Calvaire, 75003 Paris, papiertigre.fr
Vintage science and books
Deyrolle feels like a private museum of days gone by. Enter through Le Prince Jardinier, a garden store, and head upstairs to Deyrolle – the fantastical cabinet de curiosités full of taxidermy animals (don’t worry, every animal died of old age or illness), insect specimens and fossils – and time-travel back to 1831 when it was founded. The shop, at its current location since 1888, is truly one of a kind, even though it had to be rebuilt after a fire in 2008. Science and education have always been a key focus of Deyrolle, so check out the beautiful books, children’s curiosity sets and vintage-style scientific posters celebrating the natural world.
46 Rue du Bac, deyrolle.com
Pure Parisian artistry
Marin Montagut, a few blocks from the famous Luxembourg Gardens, is the universe of French artist, illustrator and designer Marin Montagut, known for his watercolours of Paris, which have been adapted to a full product line. His creations celebrate elements from his favourite Parisian neighbourhoods, and are brought to life on silk scarves, with maps, painted glasses and ceramics, notebooks, pillowcases, postcards, tarot decks and even matchboxes that look like the facade of the shop.
48 Rue Madame, marinmontagut.com
Heart of glass
Everything in La Soufflerie in Odéon is made from recycled glass – beer bottles, wine bottles, champagne bottles – and is hand-blown, giving unique contours to one-of-a-kind pieces, from goblets to vases, many shaped in moulds (their most iconic pieces integrate faces). More recently, La Soufflerie has expanded into plaster, terracotta and candles. One of the missions of this family-owned business – with husband and wife duo Sébastien and Valentina Nobile at the helm – is to keep the art of glassblowing alive in Paris, and all pieces are made in the city.
7 Rue de l’Odéon, lasoufflerie.com
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Fabulous fromage
Fromagerie Quatrehomme is still run by the same family who opened a shop on Rue de Sèvres on the Left Bank in 1953 (it now has multiple locations). In 2000, Marie Quatrehomme was the first woman to receive Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) status, a designation only awarded to those at the top of their craft. They stock an endless variety of cheese specialities (more than 1,000 throughout the year), such as camembert with calvados and Saint-Félicien with black garlic. There’s also a collection of charcuterie, as well as wines, beer and treats to accompany cheese.
62 Rue de Sèvres, quatrehomme.fr
Timeless curiosities
Messy Nessy’s Cabinet, close to Notre-Dame, may be the newest addition to the Left Bank shopping scene, but each little detail, from the handprinted sign to the bookcases inside, feels like it’s been there for decades. A mix of new and old curiosities, there’s a timeless quality to all stock, from brocante treasures to travel accessories and signed books by local authors (including creator Vanessa “Nessy” Grall’s Don’t Be a Tourist series). Nessy also offers a concierge service to help you plan your trip to Paris, Europe and beyond inspired by the insider info gathered for her popular blog, Messy Nessy Chic.
19 Rue de Bièvre, shop.messynessychic.com
Where you can have it all
Just off of the popular market street Rue Montorgueil near Les Halles, G Detou is loved by chefs and bakers for its unique collection of ingredients, from big bags of chocolate to a wide range of nuts and array of mustards. Goods are both local to France and from different corners of the world. The retro facade is a reminder that this is not your typical food shop. The name is a play on words, where the pronunciation sounds like the equivalent of “I have it all” while also being named after the founder Gérard Detou, back in 1951. These days Benoît Bourloton is the owner (he’s an expert in vanilla). Until the 1970s, Les Halles was home to a big market, so you can find other cookery shops nearby too.
58 Rue Tiquetonne, on Instagram
Art house
The bookshop-gallery Artazart has called its Canal Saint-Martin location home since 2000. You can’t miss the bold orange facade, which is worth a closer look as artists often take over the window displays. Inside the walls are covered with the work of contemporary illustrators, with prints for sale that don’t break the bank. While most of its books – specialising in graphic design, photography, street art, cookbooks, illustrated maps and children’s books – are in French, the visual nature of everything in this shop is an invitation to add to your own collection.
83 Quai de Valmy, artazart.com
This store will leave its stamp on you
You’ll never come across another shop quite like Le Tampographe Sardon, a store full of rubber stamps from the mind of Vincent Sardon. Here’s the catch: it’s only open one day a week – Saturdays – which allows the creator to enjoy his time with customers and spend the rest of the week fabricating the stamps in his countryside studio. Stamp designs range anything from French curse words to bisous (kisses), skeletons, flowers, rooftops, or two-colour stamp sets. The best part of purchasing one is seeing what gets stamped on your bag. While in the area, pay a visit to Père-Lachaise cemetery, which has its own kind of magic.
4 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris, https://tampographe.com