Can anyone suggest where to find shopping areas of paris for more arty/quirky items? I recently saw there is a series of arcades which are little known to tourists...

Maybe you are referring to the covered passages [or galleries] in the Grands Boulevards area. There was a thread on this a couple of months ago. Search using Degas. Or google for "Passages Couverts" and then pull up the english translation.

There is nice shopping in the Marais. There are Arcades in the Place des Vosges.
Sadly for the Yankee, wonderful for me, there is always something to buy in Paris, it is a shoppers paradise. Along the Seine, you can shop at the bookinistes..I bring home all sorts of posters each trip, kitchen items, look in the shops on the small side streets on the Left Bank..Happy shopping!

I second the Marais for cool little shops with interesting stuff.

Scarlett, there you are! How appropriate that my first sighting of you in 2 weeks is on a thread titled "Shopping in Paris." LOL!

I think just poking around shops in the Marais or St-Germain are your best bet. I've been shopping in several arcades and don't consider the shops in them particularly more arty or quirky than the ones in the Marais or St-Germain. Some of the shops are just branches of ones in other places, anyway, or nothing that unusual.