Bon Marche is the oldest department store in Paris. Chuck read this in Rick Steves: " It opened in 1852. Bon Marche was the first large scale store to offer fixed prices, no bargaining, and a huge selection of items under one glass roof.
This rocked the commercial world and forever changed the world of shopping. High volume sales allowed low prices and created loyal customers. Can you say Costco." Of course, the prices aren't low these days, however, there is a sale on Wednesday. The ground floor has a big perfume section. We sprayed scents on strips of paper, on ribbons, whatever was offered. We sniffed and sniffed. We found some wonderful scents, grapefruit, pomegranite, and old scent I love called Habit Rouge, and lots we didn't like. How does one say yuk in French, I wonder. The escalators are beautiful, this view shows them and part of the main floor. The top floor has a wonderful section of bed linens and towels, and two specialty areas. One was devoted to Scandinavia...clothing, books in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, household goods, things we never see at home. We went over to the second store. The gound floor is all food. A high end grocery store, with everything imaginable in very attractive displays, and very expensive. It was funny to see the American food section. Oreos, French's yellow mustard, as well as some high end American salad dressing, and other items. There were spices, rice, coffee beans, tea, fancy pastas, chocolates, everything. Upstairs, there was a cute little cafe with an outdoor eating area, creating somehow in the middle of the building. It was surrounded by little boutique departments. By this time, it was definitely afternoon coffee break time, before our loooong walk back to the Cite.
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