Brussels and the Hema Department Store
Want a fast, easy and fun shopping experience outside of Paris? Recently, Nuit Blanche Tours went on a fun weekend excursion to Brussels, and we discovered a magnificent shopping find: the department store HEMA (pronounced Hey-Ma). Travelers could also do this trip in a day.
First of all, our weekend started out with a super cheap SNCF bargain to Brussels that included return train fare on Thalys, two nights stay at a lovely and central hotel, and two breakfasts, all for just 100 euros each. The hot and cold buffet breakfast was the best we’ve ever had in Europe. On our first day we set out for the main pedestrian shopping street, Rue Neuve. This street has mainly European and international chain stores but we decided to poke our heads into a store we’d never heard of before, HEMA. And are we ever glad we found this gem! Shelves of cosmetics, hair, body and skin products boasted prices averaging around 1,00 euro each. At first, we thought we were seeing the pricing wrong, how could this be? The products were mostly private label, smelled great and were simply but wonderfully packaged. We loaded up on shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, body and skin creams, face masks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bath products and a myriad of other products. There were even Miss Helen and Paris Chic products for less than half the price than I have seen at Monoprix and other stores in Paris.
We forced ourselves to leave this department and scour the rest of the store where we met with amazement rows of Belgium chocolate, biscuits and other gourmet delights for mostly under 2 euros. On the second floor, we discovered that the clothing sections can largely be skipped because the fashions are quite conservative in nature, but worth checking out for basics like socks and underwear. On this floor, however, we found great candles, towels, sheets, curtains and all manner of dishes and other housewares. We did a quick pit stop in the HEMA cafe where tasty drinks, sandwiches, soups and baking could be had. I figured out that this chain is a smaller, more manageable IKEA-clone, with the addition of the beauty products. If it opened in Paris, people would go absolutely nuts. Oh, and how do the pas cher products rate in terms of quality, you ask? The best, we’ve tried them and love them all, especially the hand cream!
Our advise is to scout out cheap tics to Brussels, take your largest shopping cart on wheels (or two) and head directly to HEMA to bulk-buy a few months worth of all your necessary everyday products. It will be worth it, even with the cost of the train tickets. This trip can even be done in a day and it is not necessary to change currency as all prices are in euros in Brussels.
HEMA has stores in Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany. Visit the HEMA site for more information, at http://www.hema.nl/SITE/HEMA-NL/FOOTERS/About+HEMA/default.aspx. Nuit Blanche Tours (www.NuitBlancheTours.com) is a female-friendly tour company in Paris, France. Read fun and interesting articles, subscribe for free to the internationally popular newsletter, Paris Café, buy eBooks online.
Karen Henrich spends her time between Paris, France and Vancouver, Canada, running a tour company (www.NuitBlancheTours.com) and writing about joie de vivre. She is constantly on the look-out for cool Parisian sites to see and memorable experiences to be had. She also practices the fine art of finding ways to creatively stretch her tragically low Canadian dollars when in Europe, value that she passes onto her visitors. Her exciting new Paris ‘novelettes’ can be purchased online by visiting the eBooks section of the website/blog. Karen pens an internationally popular newsletter, Paris Café, where readers get to live vicariously in the City of Light, and is a contributing writer for TripAdvisor.com, Journeywoman, Bonjour Paris, Paris Woman and Women & Wine.
