Galeries Lafayette

Sunday made it two weekends in a row that we went on a clothes-shopping adventure. (Last time we hit up Ding Fring, in Belleville.) We went back to Galeries Lafayette, which had been closed the first time we stopped by.

Along with Bon Marché, Printemps, BHV (owned by Galeries Lafayette) and La Samaritaine (closed until 2011), Galeries Lafayette is one of the "Big Five" Parisian department stores that have been around for more than a century. "Department Store" is actually a poor translation; they're more like malls unto themselves. Each has a restaurant, a café, a supermarket, a gourmet épicerie, as well as expansive collections of clothes, kitchen ware, furniture, electronics, media, everything. Galeries Lafayette, for example, is spread out over three huge buildings, one of which is 10-stories tall. Take that, J.C. Penney! Unlike American department stores, there's no sense of "lowest common denominator" in the products offered (sorry, Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger fans). Rather, you can find cheap, store-brand stuff, as well as high-fashion, boutique-style items. It's impressive.

Also unlike American department stores, these French department stores haven't done well as franchises, with just a few other locations around the world (including Jean Nouvel's Galeries Lafayette in Berlin). In part, that's because the grandiosity and flash of each store makes it an event as much as a retailer, and that's hard to replicate.

To give you an idea of what I mean, check out the escalator bank of the five-story Galeries Lafayette building (home and kitchen wares, restaurant, café) just across the street from the main one:

Clearly I was dazzled by all the pretty colors and flashing lights, as well as the seemingly-unrelated place names and nouns (Engrish?). Eventually we crossed the street and entered the extension to the main/original building (can you tell this is a big operation?) where we were completed overwhelmed by the throngs of people who had had the same idea: it's Saturday! There are sales (soldes)! Let's go shopping!

Also overwhelming were the smells of the place. After another, less interesting escalator ride, we arrived at the epicenter of odors: the spice table just outside the supermarché:

We still hadn't gotten to the clothes, or the original building. First, we had to cross a skywalk, which (as if not to waste any space) doubled as one of two locations to buy sunglasses. But then, we arrived at the Galeries Lafayette Coupole (dome), and immediately forgot the crowds, the smells, and the terrible dollar-to-euro exchange rate:

Clearly France isn't so far behind the states in terms of the total commercialization of Christmas - even here, the soundtrack in the store was Christmas carols, and it isn't even Thanksgiving (which the French don't celebrate, commercially or otherwise) yet. But gosh, is that dome beautiful - and the tree, too.

We didn't end up buying anything, in part because the crowds were too intense. I guess that means we'll have to go back! (On a weekday. After Christmas. Having left our credit cards at home.)