L’Echoppe
47 rue des Martyrs Paris 9th Métro: Saint-Georges/Pigalle
A gourmet boutique on the chic rue des Martyrs that will assemble just the right beautifully wrapped gustatory gift for any special occasion. Owner Sabine de Soyres, a dedicated gourmande, has scoured France to find the best regional delicacies in four categories: wines and champagnes, flowers, gourmet groceries, and sweets and chocolate. Each of the 50 or so wines available in the store hover around the €10 mark, but Soyres caters to any budget.Michel Chaudun
149 rue de l’Université Paris 75007
A wonderful chocolate shop filled with traditional filled chocolates and trompe l’oeil creations including chocolate gargoyles. Specialties are the dark pastilles filled with crunchy bits of cocoa bean and the melt-in-your-mouth pavés, little cubes of cocoa-dusted ganache.La Bagagerie
41 rue du Four Paris 75006
A trendy fashion leader in handbags and luggage since it was first launched by designer Jean Marlaix in 1954, now run by his son Frédéric Marlaix. Other branches are located at 12 rue Tronchet and 11 rue Faubourg Saint-Honore in the 8th arrondissement; 74 rue de Passy in the 16th; and in the commercial centre attached to the Tour Montparnasse.Pierre Hermé
72 rue de Bonaparte, 6th; 185 rue de Vaugirard, 15th
A pâtissier with a passion for chocolate, Hermé creates pastries with incredible flavor combinations—like passionfruit macarons with milk chocolate filling—as well as amazing filled chocolates including the Makassar, a frothy mousse of salted, buttery caramel coated in dark chocolate. His “collections” vary with the seasons.Avril Gau
17 rue des Quatres Vents Paris 6th Métro: Odéon
If you’ve worn shoes by Robert Clergerie, Chanel, Charles Jourdan or Stéphane Kélian in the last 20 years, chances are you’ve worn Avril Gau's handiwork. Her new boutique in Saint Germain des Prés is the first dedicated to her own label of shoes, bags and gloves, and it’s earning rave reviews from Parisian fashion mavens. Her sleek pumps, sandals and ballerina flats in top-quality leather, reptile and lambskin are a welcome departure from currently ubiquitous platform stilettos.L’Eclaireur
40 rue de Sévigné Paris 75003
Armand and Martine Hadida's "concept store" mixes high fashion with design, art and contemporary furniture by such hot names as Philippe Starck and the team of Garouste and Bonetti. "This is not just a shop, it's an experience," boasts Arne Quinze, the store's avant-garde designer, who, among other things, embedded the walls with 147 video screens projecting subliminal black-and-white images. The clothes include select pieces from Lanvin, Balmain, Dries Van Noten and Junya Watanabe, alongside collector items from China and other exotic corners of the world.Grand Palais
Ave Winston Churchill Paris 75008 Métro: Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau
The spectacular exhibit hall built for the 1900 World’s Fair. The recently restored nave is used for exhibits, trade fairs and other special events.Catacombes de Paris
1 ave du Colonel Henri Roi-Tanguy Paris 14th Métro: Denfert-Rochereau
An extensive network of underground passages, originally quarries, later the resting place of the tightly packed bones of six million people, transferred here in the late 18th century. An extraordinary sight, but not for the claustrophobic. Over two hundred steps and a little over a mile to walk. Bring a flashlight and don't take a bone souvenir; bags are searched at the exit. Closed Mon.Caviar Kaspa
17 Place de la Madeleine Paris 75008
Rival of another caviar boutique in Place de la Madeleine, Café Prunier.Périgot
16 blvd des Capucines Paris 75009
Really useful home equipment, from feather dusters to shopping carts, and great foldup, ecologically friendly shopping bags to tuck into purse or pocket and unfold when needed.Musée Bourdelle
18 rue Antoine Bourdelle Paris 15th
In the gardens and studios where Bourdelle (1861–1929) lived and worked, an exceptional collection of plaster casts, bronzes and marble sculptures—some of them monumental in size—created by the man who was an assistant to Rodin as well as a teacher of Giacometti and others. Closed Monday.Victoria Christmas
39-41 galerie Vivienne Paris 75002
Babywear in organically-grown Japanese cotton and all-natural dyes, and hypoallergenic infant cologne.