We dedicated today to shopping in the Champ Élysées district. We originally planned to visit Petite Palais, located along the way to Champ Elysees, but we ended up skipping the sight and dedicating the full day to shopping.

The 8th Arrondissement – Home of Luxury Shopping

The 8th Arrondissement covers a large area from Place de la Concorde to Arc de Triomphe. This area is well-known worldwide for its luxury boutiques and shopping malls. We started the day by having breakfast at le Petit Flottes near our hotel. The cheerful staff at the cafe gave us a friendly welcome and patiently ran through the breakfast menu with us. Their breakfast was hearty and delicious, and the cafe’s ambience was cosy and had a Parisian flare.

We took the metro to the Louis Vuitton flagship store along Ave des Champ Elysee. I read online that the store was always crowded and wanted to beat the crowd by arriving in the morning. Coming out of the metro station next to the Louis Vuitton store, a huge silver box with LV printed all over attracted our attention. This is the LV hotel, which is still under construction. We did not have to wait too long before being allowed into LV’s flagship shop. The service at this store was not that great. Staff were ignoring customers and happily chatting amongst themselves. We had to look around for someone to assist us with our purchase. After payment, the staff just wandered off and were never seen again. I spotted Kenzo behind the LV store and wanted to get a sweater as the weather was turning cold in Paris. The service here was worlds apart from LV. The personable Assistant Store Manager immediately greeted us and helped me decide what to get. She was patient when I was torn between choices. The assistant store manager then brought out a sweater representative of Paris, which, according to her, had just come in this morning. I was happy with the purchase and the service we received at this store.

We returned to the shopping strip near our hotel, where more luxury stores such as Chanel (their flagship store is here), Dior, Goyard, Hermes, etc. Our first stop here was at Chanel, where we had to wait 30 mins for anyone to help us with our purchases. The staff assigned to assist us came across as insincere and seemed to be rushing. He would disappear after we made our payment, probably busy attending to the next customer. We headed to Dior, just across the road next. The staff at Dior were friendly and welcoming. We were warmly welcomed by the staff at the shop and promptly assisted by another staff member while her colleague served us drinks. As we wanted to check out men’s collections on our own, the staff gave us directions to head upstairs and told us to approach any of her colleagues if we needed help. We like the customer-focused service at Dior. We headed to Hermes next to help a friend get a pendant. The lady assisting us was lovely, but the rest of her colleagues were just crowding around and talking to each other. We received no help from the staff on the ground floor in the leather goods section. With our hands full, we returned to our hotel. Most of the time we were shopping, a lot of time was spent waiting for someone to assist us.

The 9th Arrondissement – The Rooftop with a View

I read that there is a rooftop at Galeries Lafayette in the 9th Arrondissement near the Opera where we could view Paris’s city skyline. Entrance to the rooftop was free, and no reservations were required. We wanted to go to this rooftop to see a different perspective of Paris. When opening Google Maps, I noticed several Galeries Lafayette in Paris. The one with the rooftop view is the one at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. As it was nearing dinner time and we had skipped lunch, we had dinner at one of the restaurants we chanced upon. The food at Hippopotamus was yummy. The grilled chicken was juicy and tender, and the service at the restaurant was excellent. After dinner, we headed to Galeries Lafayette Haussmann for the rooftop view but were disappointed to learn that the store was closing. It was 8.20 pm when we arrived there, and the store closed at 8.30 pm. As this is our second day in Paris, we figured we would have time to return for the rooftop view. At this hour, it seems all the shops are closed. The only other thing we could do at this hour was to see the Palais Garnier across the street from the outside. We only took photos of the exterior of the building as it seemed close. It was raining, and we decided to take a metro to return to our hotel to rest for the night.