We may have a Sunday in September to stroll the Champs Elysees. Are there shops open after 6 pm? Enough to warrant a stroll? Would Monday morning, after an early morning visit to the Eiffel Tower, work better?

We are not high fashion shoppers - my mother about died when I spent $120 USD on a wallet - but I would like to be able to browse a bit, remind myself why I do not have a Louis Vuitton purse, and maybe buy something for my little sister ("I want a French purse, please'). However, if everything will be closed, we might have to readjust.

If this matters, we will also be taking the Metro to the Montmarte section of the city for the fabric shops on another day - don't know if the shopping is just as good there, and we can just walk a bit down the Champs to the Arc and not worry about the shops.

I don't know for sure because I don't typically spend time in that part of Paris, but Sunday evenings and Mondays are the least opportunistic times to shop anywhere in France.

And the Champs isn't at ALL the best place to shop in Paris, unless you want to replicate shopping at big US chain stores.

If your little sister wants a French purse, go downtown to the shops where Parisians shop or the big department stores and get her something French. Go to the 6ème around the rue de Buci or even the Latin Quarter, which I also usually avoid, which has all kinds of affordable unique shops, or the Marais for some interesting more unique stuff. There are some interesting shops in Montmartre, but again, not a place I'd go specifically to shop. I'd rather be in the Belleville market.

But really, the Champs Elysées is hardly a shopping mecca, or even somewhere I'd want to stroll. YMMV.

What St. Cirq says. Shop ANYwhere else than the Champs. It is just so so sterile.

The shops are indeed open on Sunday, generally until about 22:00 or midnight (FNAC, Virgin...).

If you really want to shop on Sunday, you can take the metro to La Défense where the Quatre Temps shopping mall is now open 7 days a week.

The small boutiques on Rue des Francs Bourgeois in the Marais are generally open Sunday afternoons and have trendy-but-upscale merchandise. Otherwise, the grands magasins, either Bon Marche on one side of the river or Au Printemps or Galeries Lafayette on the other are good bets. BHV opposite the Hotel de Ville is less expensive and perhaps less intimidating.

The department stores are all closed on Sunday in Paris (except for a few specially designated Sundays during the sales and in December).

If you just want to browse and buy "something", the Champs will be fine. There are some stores like Zara on there, as well as a Monoprix.

Rue de Buci seems close to our Hotel - Hotel Bonaparte. Will there be department stores around that area we will be able shop at on a Monday?

This is a quick trip to Paris, so our options are limited. I do not want to waste time walking the Champs for several blocks if we are not likely to find anything. I would rather walk it a block and see the Arc and window shop a bit, and shop at a department store the following morning.

Hotel Bonaparte is just a couple of blocks from Bon Marche - can't do better than that.

Stu Dudley

I think the Champs Elysee is a horror story.

I don't know why anyone would want to take a stroll on this street, let alone shop at one of its stores.

The Louis Vuitton next to Cafe Deux Magots is much nicer than the one full of trailer trash Americans on the Champs.

Thin, a simple Quaker