Paris Shopping - The Printemps

Paris Shopping - Printemps Department Store

So this week has been full of all kinds of back to school shopping.  It's always fun to get three girls ready for school.  Each year as they get older, I swear it gets harder and of course more expensive.  I am working on a "Back to School" clothing post, as my girls feel this year their style has become a bit more French or European - but in the meantime, I wanted to write a little bit about a wonderful department store in Paris - Le Printemps.

In July, while we were in Paris, my husband wanted to take the girls into the original Printemps and show them a "big city" department store.  In the States, we always lived in the suburbs and only had mall department stores.  Printemps is a beautiful example of a big department store and has an incredible history.

According to their website:

(It's) 1865! A visionary entrepreneur is struck with a genius idea: to build a department store that offers everything. Several months later, Printemps opens its doors. Its name refers to the spring season, symbolising renewal, freshness and the blossoming of dynamic ideas. Right at the centre of Paris, it is the first to be equipped with electricity and to offer set prices: an incredible breakthrough at a time when haggling was commonplace.

Parisians make a beeline for Printemps... In the 1930s, the sumptuous Art Nouveau pavilion of Printemps is at the heart of the World’s Fair. But the store continues to innovate and move forward! Despite two fires, Printemps never ceases to renew, modernise and embellish itself... In 1975, it receives the absolute honour: the building’s facade is registered as a Historic Monument.

You can see from the photos that the building is stunning and so beautiful - not wonder it's become a national landmark.  My husband's mother worked at Printemps in the 1970's and he wanted to show his daughters what a special place it is.

 Parisian Stores are known to have some of the best window displays in the World.  There is just something very artistic and colorful about many of the windows.  I unfortunately didn't take any photos of the current window displays at the Printemps - but some examples can be seen here:  Printemps store Windows.  You can see below a couple other stores near Printemps and how fun their window displays look.

So once we went into Printemps, it's a whole special world.  It's truly a big city department stores with each designer having their own boutique or space in the store.  Burberry, Stella McCarthy, Kenzo, Gucci, Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Yves St. Laurent just to name a few.  Not being a big city person myself, I felt a bit intimidated just walking through each floor.  It was also interesting to see that each designer area had it's own security guard and would only allow so many shoppers in the boutique area at one time.  They had ropes for people to wait behind if they wanted to go in and look around.  It was interesting to see that many of the serious buyers making purchases that day were Chinese.  Keep in mind this was July, so we were definitely looking at more tourists than true Parisians.  Many people like us were just browsing through - admiring the displays, the mannequins and the whole new shopping experience. My girls had fun telling us which mannequins had their style!  My middle daughter below loved the leather and jean look.  Each floor seemed to be set up this way - and then there was a whole floor designated just for shoes!  My husband was impressed with how the store had changed as his memory of it in the 1970's was that it had it's designer sections but the the majority of the store had moderately priced sportswear.  

 As we toured through the many floors of the store and continued up - we eventually landed on the top floor and viewed the beautiful and stunning brasserie

This restaurant is located under the legendary dome of the listed cupola, the Brasserie Printemps provides a remarkable setting where anyone can enjoy a tasty break. The Brasserie is known for its pastries, fragrant teas and cups of smooth chocolate.

After viewing the beautiful Brasserie, we headed down and across to the other building to see the stunning panoramic view from the roof.  There is also a little cafe up on the roof so one could sit and have a small bite, but we were more interesting in seeing the sights of Paris.

Waiting patiently for her turn...

Looking at the map to see the landmarks they can see.

Nothing like a mother and daughter photo with the Eiffel Tower in the background.  I'm not sure what the girls enjoyed more, the fashion of the store, the fun of all the neat displays or the view from the roof.  Printemps definitely has a lot to offer!  The store is actually made up of several buildings, A Woman's store, a Men's store, Children's shop and a Home Store.  We didn't take the time to tour it all - but it's definitely a different experience than walking through Macy's, Marshall Fields or  Lord & Taylor!

I had some fun with the following photos - it's fun to give them some history - after all - Printemps dates back to 1865!  I just love imagining Paris in the past -old cars or  horses, buggies, hats and dresses of the wealthy women shopping and living in Paris.  So much fashion history here.

 Above the view and how it looked today and below the same view as it might look in a movie.  So much fun to imagine!

 When we looked North off the roof, there was a stunning view of the Sacre Coeur.  

We enjoyed our time learning and touring around Printemps - but needless to say didn't buy anything there - but since my girls were in the mood to shop (who wouldn't be after touring one of the most beautiful stores in Paris) - we headed off to find some of our favorite smaller "affordable" stores to make the girls happy.  We will definitely enjoy returning to Paris and learning further about it's fashion history, styles and stores.  Who knows...next stop Champs-Elysees,

Another May Park Festival...Le Mai Talencaise

Le Mai Talencaise - Parc Peixotto

Another long weekend in France...We don't celebrate Memorial Day here - but it is Pentecost on Monday - so it's a holiday.  What I'm enjoying about Bordeaux is actually the same thing I loved about Saratoga Springs, NY (where we moved from) - you can always find something to do.  As I was riding on the tram earlier this week I saw a billboard advertising a park festival - Le Mai Talencaise.  Talence is another suburb of Bordeaux, right next to our town, so very convenient.  This festival featured a lot of great artists, food vendors, family activities, and country charm.  It was actually a 3 day festival - we ended up going twice - once on Saturday night and again on Sunday to enjoy the majority of the activities.

Saturday night featured Bootleg ABBA - a British tribute band to the 70's band ABBA.  Now, I love ABBA's music and fell in love with the movie/Musical Mama Mia - so I was all over this event!  Unfortunately, as we are in France, it didn't begin until 9:30 at night.  It was held outside in the park and free to the public.  After some discussion and a low key day - we decided to take all the kids to this event.  (My 4 year old managed to fit in a dinnertime nap which I think helped her survive the evening!).  Needless to say, it didn't disappoint - we met friends of ours there and we were entertained for the rest of the night!  The band was excellent and we all had a great time listening, singing and dancing.  I have to say, you know you have a preteen when she and her 12 year old friend roll their eyes when you start dancing and singing to the music!  It didn't stop us though - and we all had a blast.  Below, are a few photos from the concert - it was extremely well attended - so much fun!  I was honestly amazed that this kind of event was free to the public.  We definitely saw all generations enjoying this event.

After this wonderful concert, everyone was further treated to a beautiful display of fireworks!  One would think this was the 4th of July or for the French Bastille Day (Independence Day July 14).  The display was one of the most beautiful displays I have ever seen.  The whole display was choreographed to music and was a musical and light journey around the world.  The story was you were in a balloon floating around to the world experiencing the different countries and continents and the music matched the cultures.  This was amazing as at times the fireworks were icy like Antarctica, or blue like the sea, glittery like India, Red -dragon like for China and Stars and Stripes for the USA.  Quite the experience and I know my description does not do it justice.  Below are a few examples.

So we had this feeling after that wonderful night that it should have been the climax or end of the festival - but there was another whole day left.  I decided to take my kids back on Sunday to experience the day -time events.  


As we entered the park, Sunday afternoon - we saw the farm area first.  There were cows, chickens and goats.  It was fun that the kids could get so close.  My middle daughter who is my animal lover enjoyed petting one of the cows.  She even wanted to name it Maisey.  I think she might have stayed there for a long time if we didn't have so many other things to see.

After we walked through the farm area, the girls wanted to head over to the family activities.  There were areas set up to play lawn games - mini soccer, balance beams, and giant connect-four game and even an obstacle course to follow.  In addition to those free activities, there was the carousel, pony rides, mini-motor bikes and trampoline jumping.  I gave my girls a choice as there were lines at many of these latter activities. Families could easily spend all afternoon or most of the day here.   My youngest daughter decided she wanted to enjoy a few turns around the carousel- while my middle daughter (8 years old) decided the trampoline jumping would be a lot of fun.  We have seen trampoline jumping before - but never had an opportunity to do until now.  I was excited that she was feeling so brave.

I have not walked around Park Peixotto before this festival - Although each time I ride the tram into the city, we go by it - so I have seen it from outside the fence and always wondered what it was like inside.   It is a beautiful park situated in the center of the suburb of Talence.  Like the other parks I've found in Bordeaux - lots of nice walking/riding roads and small lakes and playground for the kids.  This park also houses a beautiful chateau in the middle of the park.  It's a charming place to spend an afternoon and even if this festival wasn't going on - it would be a very pleasant place to just enjoy.

Finally, I was taken with the diversity of vendors at this festival.  There was a separate section for plants & flowers, another section for food products and artisan goods.  I also loved the landscape and outdoor designer vendors who set up lovely displays to give people more ideas of what to do with outdoor living space.  There was definitely a little something for everyone at this festival.  As I said earlier, this was a 3 day festival and in addition to these vendors and activities which I mentioned there were dance & music presentations going on throughout the weekend.  I loved the variety of demonstrations - from classical piano, to reggae, zumba & Calypso music.  This festival will definitely be on my calendar to return to next year.