City Guides
Paris guide: Retail, design, and natural wine
Ten great places for your next visit.
By Dan Frommer on Friday, July 5, 2019 at 1:45 pm
I know many of you spend a significant portion of the year traveling for business, and that often means a few free hours for exploring. So I’m excited to launch a new feature for members in the form of curated city guides, highlighting interesting and current “new consumer” shops, developments, cafés, hotel lobbies, etc.
I’m starting today with Paris, where I’ve spent the spring, and will aim to add new cities and updates over time.
1. Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées
How do you design a high-street department store for millennials? Is that even the right question to ask? Either way, Galeries Lafayette — whose Paris flagship is one of the grandest, most cathedral-like shopping spaces in the world — has taken over this former Virgin Megastore with a smaller new concept, designed by Danish architect du jour Bjarke Ingels. (Photo above. BoF explainer, press kit PDF.)
The selection includes beaucoup de streetwear, an undulating sneaker wall, cafés, design-y books and magazines, a jewelry corner by Dover Street Market, many rotating Instagrammable moments, and a new staffing model with 300 “personal stylists” armed with a custom app. It’s not the way I prefer to shop for clothes, but it’s a big bet — and a big spectacle — that’s worth a peek.
The basement food court has a good selection of healthy food to stay and take away, ample seating (good for an air-conditioned email session), and a bar by Yard, which specializes in natural wine. This is one of the few places in the world where you can reliably find French winemaker Patrick Bouju’s sparkling pét-nat gamay rosé, Festejar, which you should absolutely try (or just take a bottle home). Also, excellent all-gender, single-stall restrooms available, including Toto Washlets!
The New Consumer City Guides are exclusive to members — join now to unlock the entire 1,450-word guide, including nine more featured places and a handful of my favorite restaurants, wine bars, and coffee shops. Subscribers should sign in here to continue reading.
Hi, I’m Dan Frommer and this is The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.
I’m a longtime tech and business journalist, and I’m excited to focus my attention on how technology continues to profoundly change how things are created, experienced, bought, and sold. The New Consumer is supported entirely by your membership — join now to receive my reporting, analysis, and commentary directly in your inbox, via my twice-weekly, member-exclusive newsletter. Thanks in advance.