The orginal Le Bon Marche.

I decided to wander over to The Bon Marche, the original one. This is Paris' first and oldest department store, and its being built was a direct cause of the demise of the covered passageways that I explored (and wrote about) earlier. This is a VERY upscale store. The mens section has everything from Dior to Gucci and the womens has Hermes to Versace. Each section has a small rack of "sample" clothes and a rather snooty salesperson to show them to you. No touching allowed! Mon Dieu!

The make up and perfume area is the same (pictured here). The dishware was all LaLique, Baccarat and Wedgewood. I wanted to ask where the Corningware was located!

It was overwhelming and I didn't stay long, I was rather uncomfortable. However, next door they have "La Grande Epicerie Paris", the most amazing "grocery store" (for lack of a better word) I have ever seen! Everything from smoked salmon (at 84 Euro a kg) to Beluga caviar to regular fruits and veggies. I spent quite a while browsing here, there were so many sections....an area for Japanese items, Turkish items, organic items and so forth. It was great!