I want to buy some nice french perfume in Paris but not break the bank to do so. Can anyone recommend places to do so and recommend some brands to buy? thanks!

Hi R,

All of the major Paris dept stores sell perfume.

Only you can decide which one to buy.

What to buy depends on you..but the first place I hit when I arrive in PAris is City Pharma, on the corner of rue Bonaparte and rue du Four. They have wonderful perfumes and cosmetics at great prices>

I guess when I ask about brands, believe me, I know I need to try them - I just wanted names of brands that are uniquely parisian, or even french is fine - but that are known to be better brands and not cheap brands like you would see in a drug store here in the good ol' U.S. of A. Does that make more sense? And thanks for the info so far.

Enjoy is quite sublime (Jean Patou)

Sephora (the branch on the Champs Elysees, for example) also sells a wide range of perfumes as well as skin care and cosmetics.
Don't test more than a few perfumes at any one go as your nose will quickly lose the ability to sense the finer points of each perfume. Also, use the testing papers available to narrow your list before testing the final candidates on your skin.
I didn't follow this advice last winter. I tested about 10 different perfumes on myself at Sephora. By the time I left, I smelled like a hooker(but an expensive one, I hope). Even worse, when I next went to the Diptyque store on the Blvd. St. Germain to choose some candles, my sense of smell was so screwed up, I literally couldn't smell any of them. I ended up buying the feuille de lavande (lavender leaf) candle based purely on memory.

Sofia Coppola recommends Pharmacie Homeopatique Weber at 8 rue du Capucines.

I recommend Amin Kader at 2 rue Guisarde/1 rue de la Paix

For most brands found in the USA, it's not the complete line that is available (i think lesss tha 30% of the Guerlain ones are sold in USA)
For less common brands you can look for Fragonard or Annick Goutal or l'Artisan parfumeur

Do they sell Fragonard in shops in Paris? I bought some really nice Fragonard sandalwood cologne (smelled exactly lik Chanel Pour Monsieur) at the Fragonard factory in Eze.

You have Fragonard stores in Paris :
Rue Scribe and rue des Capucines even have tiny museums
There is one rue des Francs Bourgeois and one boulevard Saint Germain

Serge Lutens perfumes - you can find these at Sephora but a wider and exclusive selection can be found at Shiseido Palais Royal (25 Rue de Valois) in the Palais Royal. I can buy them in London but only a smallish selection. There are many, many more which you can only find in Paris. At Sephora, look out for jars of coffee beans to sniff. This is to refresh and reset your sense of smell so that you can sample more fragrances. Bon chance!

I'm back in the US now, after almost two months of an incredibly insightful sojourn in Europe-and do I have to say-not happy to be back? oh, you have NO idea!) But I digress.

While I was in Paris a few weeks back, I discovered Annick Goutal fragrances-there are 6 lovely shops in Paris-I went to the small one in the Marais (on the ancient rue des Rosiers-in the heart of the Jewish Marais) but there are shops on the Place Saint Sulpice, Champs-Elysees, and the rue de Castiglione (also sold in all the great French department stores, Galeries Layfayette, Printemps, Le Bon Marche, Franck et Fils). There is also a shop in Brussels on the Avenue Louise, which I saw last week, and one in Rotterdam.

Now, I'm not a perfume person, because I'm allergic to most scents, (allergic to most everything, actually!) but I went in, took a deep whiff, and fell in LOVE with these perfumes! Light, mostly floral/citrusy-but there are more complex fragrances, as well as limited editions. If you like light, elegant, floral-type fragrances, that are both romantic and sensual (I think) then you might really like to go and check out AG's shops-I guess you could say I'm a big fan of AG now-I bought the limited edition scent "DESLYS" and "CE SOIR OU JAMAIS" while there, have used them both nearly every day since I've bought them (they can be used both day and night-other AG fragrances are heavier, and are intended only for evening). Based on my little samples that they gave me (six different ones!) I'm also going to get QUEL AMOUR-fresh, slightly spicy and sophisticated.

I found it interesting to read about Annick Goutal, the founder, and her obviously personal attachments for the scents she labored to create in her lifetime.

The Annick Goutal website is here:

www.annick-goutal.com (English link at the bottom of page)

Viva la Paris!

Surprised that no one mentioned the great perfume discounter, Catherine, on rue Castiglione. You can get discounts on almost all of the major brand perfumes, as well as the detaxe refund. They sell makeup, too, and are generous with the free samples. You can also order from them and have things shipped overseas.

I was just going to suggest Catherine. I am going back to Paris is November and I'm going to try to find Eden Perfume. It's a shop I visited on my first trip to Paris. It's touristy because I was on a tour that trip and thats one of our stops....however, I got a perfume in there that I just love. It's called "Bastille" and I'm out of it, and I didn't get any last trip even though I saw the store or one of the stores and I want to see if it's still made. Cannot find here at all. I also bought J'adore and was so ticked when about a year later I saw it at Macy's.

There are a lot of people who suggest Catherines and I think I'll stop by there this next trip. As I understand it's a mother/daughter shop and the daughters name is Franny I believe and she speaks very good english, if that concerns you. I got some perfume at Galerie Lafayette. I got it because I liked it and I haven't seen it here, but it was no bargain.

I was going to suggest Annick Goutal, also, which I really like. They sell that in Bon Marche dept. store, though, no need to make a special trip to one of their boutiques. That's the store I like for cosmetic/perfume shopping, but others are fine, also. I like the staff in their, also, they are friendly and helpful (at least when I've been there). I really like the Gardenia fragrance.

Almost all French perfumes are going to be known in other countries, I can't think of a good name that isn't exported. So I can't think of any that are unique to that city.

The department stores do not discount perfume. Places like Catherine and Michel Swiss are discounters of beauty products and fragrances. The sales people are used to dealing with tourists and they all speak English.

Christina, I believe there are some perfumes that are not exported to all markets. My favorite perfume is Guerlain Nahema and I have never found it in the US. In fact, I do not think Guerlain is found at discounters in Paris, either, although it is sold as the duty free and at their shops.

Guerlain Nahema-here you go Ekscrunchy-it is currently out of stock at fragrance.net, which has them all:

(you can just type in the fragrance on the website, and it will pull it up)

http://www.fragrancenet.com/f/net/wf...=goUnassigned7

Thanks for the tip. But Nahema always seems to be "out of stock" on these internet sites. I think they list it as an offering although it is never available. Just a guess. But thanks for taking the time to post, Gipsygirl. I will look for it in the duty free at CDG.

We got a discount coupon for Printemps from the hotel where we stayed, and if I remember correctly, we also got back the VAT, so the department store price turned out to be good. But I would also check out Sephora.