Shoe shopping in Paris near St Germain

[Volkl]

I leave tonight for Paris and will have one afternoon free for shopping tomorrow. I believe it is now the solde season, so I was hoping to get lucky in the 6th and 7th arrondissements, basically walking up boulevards St. Germain and Raspail and hitting

LodinG
C&J
Shipton and Heneage
Berluti (which I cannot afford)
Bexley

My real hope is to score something at C&J. I am an impatient retail shopper, so any advice on where to concentrate my energy in this part of the city would be most welcome. Are there some of these I should skip, or more importantly others I should add?

 

[Gus]

I really like Heschung and have bought several pairs in Paris. I think the style and price makes them a very good value. They have some pretty cool designs as well as some classic styles. They have several shops around Paris and I believe one is near St Germain.

 

[gdl203]

Add Emling to your list. Some attractive designs and very good value on sale.

 

[audiophilia]

The sale last year at Loding was amazing. 150 Euros, and I liked everything!!

 

[RJman]

Originally Posted by Volkl

I leave tonight for Paris and will have one afternoon free for shopping tomorrow. I believe it is now the solde season, so I was hoping to get lucky in the 6th and 7th arrondissements, basically walking up boulevards St. Germain and Raspail and hitting

LodinG
C&J
Shipton and Heneage
Berluti (which I cannot afford)
Bexley

My real hope is to score something at C&J. I am an impatient retail shopper, so any advice on where to concentrate my energy in this part of the city would be most welcome. Are there some of these I should skip, or more importantly others I should add?

For shoe sightseeing in that area there are also Aubercy on rue de Luynes and Lobb on BSG, as well as Altan off boul Raspail on a small side street. C&J is expensive even on sale -- I believe the sale prices for handgrade SUBS were still over 300 euros. Lobb sometimes has interesting sale prices in Paris -- I got my first and only pair of Lobbs there during sales for 150 euros.

Bowen has a shop around there. Finsbury probably does as well. There is a Paul Smeese shoe shop on Boul Raspail and a Church's on rue du Dragon, although it is much more expensive than the US. The Bon Marche on rue de Sevres has a decent shoe section with Paraboot as well as many designers -- and may have decent sale prices. It's probably the most interesting department store in Paris. Paraboot is my favorite walking shoe brand -- their main shop is somewhere in the 7th on one of those streets (rue de Grenelle, maybe?).

I would say concentrate on Loding or Finsbury for shoes if you are on a budget. Made in India or Portugal probably, decent quality and designs. Bexley's designs are generally not elegant. Bowen used to be nice but seems to have slipped. I believe they are affiliated with Manfield, which is a shop off BSG that sells various shoe brands including Moreschi and may have a decent sale. Berluti never has sales but they are made by a company called Stefanobi, which makes shoes with a similar esthetic. Toni Truant on rue des Canettes or rue Guisarde sell them and will probably have a sale on.

Emling is nice. Good quality and designs by the French Alan Flusser, Marc Guyot. Donegan is also a good brand. Not sure if they have shops in the 6th and 7th -- check their sites.

 

[Volkl]

RJman, you are the man! That is incredibly helpful. I was going to skip Lobb on budget grounds, which is probably still the right move, but your tale of a sale find means I will definitely pass by at least. Heschung also looks like a find.
All this advice is timely and much appreciated.

 

[pabloj]

Can't you take the metro to Opera and visit Carmina? Great shoes and will probably have a sale going on.

 

[Volkl]

It's very doable--I am just lazy (or I could say, prospectively jet-lagged, but lazy is closer to the mark). What sort of price range might Carmina come in? Don't know much about them.

 

[pabloj]

If I remember well it's from 250 to 500 € (upper limit is for shell cordovan), I've posted a photo of their shopwindow somewhere in this forum (here)

 

[Volkl]

Thanks--I will expand my horizons and cross the river to check out the Carmina store.

 

[lasbar]

And JM WESTON , even if the Champs-Elysees shop is more impressive...

 

[Volkl]

JM Weston, like everything else on the Champs Elysees, is probably beyond my means, if I have understood its pricing structure correctly.

 

[HHD]

Prices for C&J in Paris are very high compared to their English shops. The prices have not been reduced to reflect the rise in value of the euro against pounds sterling: Bear in mind that even in the sale, you might be paying 100 euros more than you'd pay in London for the same shoe.

As far as I can tell, this is true of all the English brands in Paris.

Paraboot, Weston and Heschung are worth checking - I'm not keen on Heschung's recent turn towards fashion shoes, but the traditional walking shoes (still made in Alsace, in some cases) are well worth your time.

 

[lasbar]

The difference in prices between the UK and France is more due to the collapse of the pound more than a definitive trend.
Most upmarket brands have roughly the same prices around the world..
It is only the currency fluctuations we're talking here.
A few years ago , when the pound was a lot higher ,English people used to come shopping in France.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by pabloj

If I remember well it's from 250 to 500 € (upper limit is for shell cordovan), I've posted a photo of their shopwindow somewhere in this forum (here)

Yeah €300-€500 with regular shoes being €350 if I remember correctly. They have some nice lasts and models.