The holidays are coming up... and I'd really like to find some UNIQUE gifts that you can't find anywhere else. Anyone have any good shopping suggestions for some nice, special souvenirs from Paris?

We love the sauces that Fauchon sells(bordelaise, etc.) and they come in beautiful small tins, easy to carry back. All the foodies I've given them to have loved them also. It seems most items can be found now in the U.S., at least in the major cities, espcecially NY.

I bought some wonderful handmade soaps at a little shop off Rue Mouffetard. My friends loved them!

Old black and white postcards at the flea markets and foods...mustards, sea salt, marmalades...

Fauchon sells pretty little glass jars of Fleur de Sel. The jars are squat and unlike a lot of others, so I find I keep them and reuse them for things all the time. My favorite souvenir, and a gift that others seem to like a lot.

March of 2004 in the latin quarter I bought small porcelain dolls, each unique to each other in dress, hat, hair, etc. for about 6 euros each. I bought several, all different, for all the girls and women in my family (including myself , and everyone loved them. Mine is still in my curio,
It is about 3 inches tall sitting, 5-6 inches tall standing. And the doll definately "says" Paris

..I find it harder and harder to find unique gifts in our global village. Soaps are a great idea (inc the Roger gallant (?)) soaps. Fouchon is marvelous. If you have teenage children/nieces/cousins the scarves that are everywhere are great. I did find some nice antique prints but these are "bigger" gifts. If you have a knitter in the family the Annie Blatt yarn and patterns are fabulous. If you have an itty bitty in the family there are lovely toddler and infant clothes but they are pricey.

Every year I try to bring back 'unique' bits of France for my family. Recent hits include:
tins filled with candy/cookies;
nouget;
pine sap candies,
jelly candies not made with gelatin,
la pinel knives;
flavoured mustards;
special jams and jellies (milk, fraise de bois);
fleur de sel is always a hit;
museum posters;
fabric with province or alsace patterns,
washcloth mits,
nutmeg grinder,
seasonal kinder eggs,
speciality cooking gear...

Soap store info:

Bienvenne en Provence
7 rue de l'Arbalete (west off of Rue Mouffetard between Rue Jean Calvin and Rue Edouard Quenu)

Hi P,

>..some UNIQUE gifts that you can't find anywhere else.<

Plastic, glow in the dark, Eiffel towers that light up and blink.

ira,

No, you can get those in China!

A lovely easy to carry gift can be found at a little musical box shop in the Palais Royal - (suggested by a post on Fodors). I went there and bought my mom one that plays La Vie en Rose, a beautiful French tune. Also bought the tune Sous Le Ciel De Paris!

On my recent trip, I bought tea at Mariage Freres for some friends. I don't know if the tea itself is any better than premium tea that you can buy in the States (I'm not really a tea drinker), but it comes in a beautiful tin with the company's "seal" on it. My friends seemed very pleased with the gift.
The website, with locations, is at www.mariagefreres.com

only throwing my 2 cents in on the Fauchon items because I have bought from the NY store. I like their French pastry items best, the tarts.

Just an opinion. The macaroons are becomming kind of generic in NYC. Just starting to see a lot of these in different shops around the city. I also paid $40 for a medium size box and then my sister found them way cheaper in central NJ (wexfield's)(Fauchon brand). Just being brutally honest here, I much prefer richer denser macaroon's I make or you can buy in some gourmet dessert shops here.

I am sure the Parisian Fauchon is way better than the NYC one, just not sure some of the jarred items are that great. I took a bunch of jarred fruit compotes as a gift to my brother inlaw on a trip to Hawaii. Now he was a fruit farmer with a 700 acre farm much of his life, so this might color his opinion but he said they were very flat and not rich in flavor. He thought they were watered down if memory serves.

I was thinking about Marron Glace myself. I loved these in Italy not sure about the French ones if they are much different.

What about a perfume you can't buy in U.S?

The candied fresh fruit items there look interesting in Fauchon. They use to sell for $50 a pound on the Madison Avenue store in Manhattan. I have no idea what they taste like.

PS might be worth it to thumb through "shop till you drop Paris".

We found a great mustard shop, Maille, that had wonderful mustards and vinegars. There were something like 20 flavors of mustard, and there were some great gift packages that included the mustard and the vinegar. We brought back several, as we thought they made great gifts. The location is 6, Place de la Madeleine in the 8th, and their website is http://www.maille.com/maille/en/Cust...ent=Navigation.

I brought some macaroons home from Laduree, but unfortunately they didn't seem to take the flight home very well. Many of them got damaged and they definitely dried out some.

Tracy

Fleur de sel is always good. Even a modest supermarket can be a gift store for items like jams, mustards, candies --I bought one jar of La Bonne Maman rhubarb conserves and wish I had bought more!! Tins of pate and fois gras are good as are dried sausages. I even bought some in CDG with euros I was trying to get rid of. One of my best purchases was a tablecloth in an Alsatian grapevine pattern - from the Strasbourg airport gift shop no less. I use it on my patio dining table and we feel like we are dining at a French outdoor cafe. Also, unusual wines that are difficult to get in the U.S. - vin jaune, Banyuls, eau de vie, liqueurs. I also bought exqusite dried morel mushrooms. French scarves. Perfumes that are harder to get in the U.S. - many of the Hermes brands, for example. I must admit I also purchased tacky little Eiffel Tower ceramic salt and pepper shakers but they were still fun. I collect tea cups and so I also look for those when I travel.

Fragonard has shops on St. Germaine and near the Opera. They sell beautiful smelling soaps. They also sell boxes of mini glass bottles of their perfume in floral scents. My friends love them! I always buy several. My good buddies get the whole box and for small "remembrances" I break up the box and give one bottle as a gift to an aquaintance or as a hostess gift.
Estaban has stores in Paris too. Their stuff is available in the U.S. but it is less expensive in Paris and there is more selection. One thing they have are these pretty (and masculine too) tiny scented mobiles that can hang in a car or closet. They are strongly scented and last for a long time.
And eveyone else is right. You can't go wrong with small food items like salt or mustard or jams. There is a great store for this sort of thing on the Ile St. Louis.

In the 7th is Poilane - one of the best bakeries in Paris. Since the breads are enormous (although it didn't stop us from schlepping one back) - they have a great box of the best shortbread cookies I've ever tasted. They also have a great bread knife and bread bag that are cool. For choclates that look like they came from Tiffany's - also in the 7th, Maison du Chocolat. Fantastic. If you go to Poilane, ask them to take you to the basement where they've been making bread for decades.

A Laguiole knife or corkscrew from the Laguiole store at 1 Place Staint-Oppotune just off Rue du Rivoli.