Paris shopping: BHV
 

Since we had been to Paris a few times before, when we returned in May we had more time to explore the city. One fun stop for both of us was BHV, the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville Department store for home-improvement.

We've just moved into a new (for us) house, so it was amazing to see all the choices of modern and old-fashioned bathroom fixtures, kitchen supplies, hooks, knobs, lamps and do-it-yourself tools. While my girlfriend was checking out French bedding, I poked around the travel & camping supplies. The travel knife/spoon/fork sets I picked up for a few euros came in very handy on our many picnics. A power plug adapter set helped us use our British cell phone in France, and our French iron when we went on to London.

It's not the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame, but it was a fun site to visit and explore. Anyone else a fan of this amazing store?

Oh sure. I never go to Paris without stopping in the BHV. Did you notice the coffee bar there now? You can sit and sip an espresso and listen to home improvement seminars and demonstrations.

By the way, the door knobs are a different size in France. I learned this the hard way many years ago after lugging a half-dozen Limoges porcelaine knobs back to the USA.

alan64, its a nice change of pace and well worth a quick peek. I've done it several times.

I also love the selection of door knobs. I have brought them back twice, once for the bathroom, which fit fine in place of the ones I was replacing, and once for the kitchen. I'm about to install them on cupboards that I recently finished painting, but these doors didn't have any knobs before so there shouldn't be a problem with fit.

Hardware aside, BHV has a good selection of handbags too.

And also al nice café on the top level. The pet stuff in the basement is also interesting, and my husband loves all the hardware stuff.

Hardware and handbags are all well and good, but can a fella get a decent cup of coffee there?

I'd like to know if they serve coffee too as I was too busy looking at the handbags:)

Check it out: http://www.bhv.fr/?r=cafeBHV

Coffee, yes: all the usual suspects. And good pastries, too, and nice meals.

I absolutely love BHV. I bought a few brass tassels that go on the ends of the strings for horizontal blinds. It really dresses up a window. Now I want to replace all of the other plain plastic ones but here in the States, I can't find any! I keep trying to convince my husband we need to go back to Paris just to get more :o)

Thanks for posting this Alan. It is going in my to-do list of places to stop at in Paris when we're there in the fall. Sounds like the kind of place that both my husband and I love poking around in!

I LOVE BHV :D

My favorite floor is the kitchen stuff -- dish towels, baking dishes ... utensils ... I'm in heaven ;)

I've never found anything in the home improvement section (although I really don't like buying big things when traveling and trying to figure out how to get them home), but I like shopping in their housewares section just for cheap French stuff that is better quality than I can easily get at home from Target or my grocery store. I've bought canopeners, a waiter's corkscrew, pepper mills, stuff like that which I like.

I like their cosmetic section also, although I suppose it isn't that different from many of the stores. I've never had coffee there.

I do remember once trying to get an adapter plug in there, thinking it would be easy, and it wasn't. I don't think I ever found one in there.

I do enjoy the hardware and housewares sections, but really don't like their clothes. A little too staid for me.

It's always at the top of my to-do list in Paris. I've bought intersting hardware and then replaced the hardware on various cabinets and pieces of furniture. Replaced the doorknob on my front door with a lever type old brass one from BHV and now think of Paris every time I go in or out my house. On my last trip I bought some great fabric and made a table runner for my dining room table and some pillows. I've also bought housewares, office supplies, etc. I love that place.

We loved the hardware and housewares. We were amazed at the crowd of people in hardware late on a Saturday afternoon in February! Only bought an adapter and some mustards, though.

Wow, I thought we were unusual tourists to spend time there, but I guess the secret's out!

One problem we had was that we found bedding, but didn't know the measurements of our U.S. queen size bed and how it related to French sizes. Any one here know?

The basement of the BHV is one of my favorite places in Europe. It's a Tim Allen dream.