Supermarkets open on Sunday in Paris?
 

Hi,

We are arriving in Paris at around noon on a Sunday, and will need to get some toiletries and food. Does anyone know if there is anything open near the Louvre?

Thanks,
Ellen

I don't think you're going to find anything open on Sunday afternoon.

There's a place called Drugstore near the Etoile, on the Champs. They sell toiletries and maybe a few items for food. The biggest part of this business is a restaurant.

Otherwise you might find something along the Blvd. St.Germain heading towards the Quartier Latin.

Good luck. Maybe you could buy a few items at the airport, since you can find some toiletries.

If you can't find any food, there will be places to get coffee and fresh croissants early on Monday morning.

Blackduff

Please do some search on Monoprix & Franprix HPs. I found some Franprix that are open on Sunday until 13:00, but none in the 1e arr.

http://www.monoprix.fr/Site/Template...ELECTID=1&

http://www.franprix.fr/magasins

But for the foods, there are some markets held on Sunday (until around 15:00).

http://www.paris.fr/portail/marches_...rtlet_id=12148

There are a number of supermarkets open all day Sunday or at least in the morning.

For example, the Franprix on rue Montorgueil is open until 13:00 -- that's probably cutting it close for you.

The one at 49 rue de Bretagne is open until 14:00.

At 105 rue de Sèvres, the Franprix is open until 21:00 seven days a week.

Just a few ideas...

(Generally, the farther you go from the center of the city, the more supermarkets are open all day Sunday, a fact that centrally located tourists almost never discover.)

Kerouac...Is the market on rue de Sevres in the 6th,7th, or 15th? I'm looking at my arrondissenment book and the streets aren't numbered. I might need a Sunday market,too and I know that the market in my neighborhood...at the corner of rue de Seine and rue Buci...isn't open on Sunday...unless things have changed. Thanks. Happy Travels!

Kerouac - why do not Sunday Closings by law apply to those supermarkets farther out? curious

I know Arab owned food stores can be open on Sunday thru some quirk in the law and some of these are mini supermarkets.

Sarkozy wants to change the law i believe to allow Sunday shopping but unions are fiercely opposed to having their members be forced to work on Sunday

The Champion supermarket, at the corner of rue de Seine and rue Buci is open until 13:00 on Sundays.

The street market, Richard Lenoir is on Sundays until around 14:00

On Sunday morning there are lots of food concessions, grocery, and outdoor market open in the 15th on R Lecourbe between r de Volontaries & R Cambronne. The metro stop Volontaries is 1 block away. Lots of good stuff.

Stu Dudley

What about the alimentaires? They will have some basic supplies if they are open on Sundays. (alimentaires are like a 'convenience store' in the US, candy, snacks, beverages, some food products, and usually produce....)

Throughout France folks head for the local Arab run convenience stores and many are in Paris as well as they are allowed to be open on Sundays by law i understand.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. Our plane lands at 11:30am, by the time we get to our apartment, the markets most likely will all be closed.

I did search for Monoprix and Franprix online, but the websites were all in French. Does anyone know a website in English that shows the store hours?

I will check out the Franprix at 105 rue de Sèvres, although it did not show up on google map.

There are no Monoprix open on Sunday now, not even the one on the Champs (which used to be open on Sun). I doubt there are any Franprix open, either.

I was in a mini supermarket in CDG terminal 2 last year that would probably be open

but there WILL be small food stores open all over Paris i believe all day Sunday - you will be able to buy basic foods.

elyang,

Don't fret. All the talk here about food markets being closed made me nervous before going to Paris, but we had a lovely "convenience" store across the street (not convenient for you in the 1st). It had everything and plenty to keep us going for a day before going to a larger market. It was even open on Christmas, as was the patisserie and many cafes.

Not sure how vast there toiletry supply was . . . maybe you can bring enough to last a night? Or go to a pharmacy.

CW

So, all of this sounds reassuring for a regular Sunday. But we will be arriving on Sunday, May 11, which is Pentecost, AND Monday, May 12 has just been re-declared a full holiday as well.

Do you think those small Arab-run markets will be open on either or both of those days? I'm sure we can find one near our apartment, but being Sunday and a holiday as well .....??

IME Yes

Right off the Seine side of the Place du Marché St-Honoré is an Arab-owned (at least it was) small grocery store. It's near one of our favorite bakery/café spots for breakfast and lunch, Le Pain Quotidien.

Thank you.

Sandy

The Marché Biologique on Blvd Raspail is open on Sundays. Expensive, but open until 2:00 pm.

There are a few others but virtually none after 2:30.
http://g.jouis.free.fr/marchesp.php3

You may be forced to go out for meals and "borrow" TP from a restaurant. ;-)

bkmark

The market near us (Ave. de Breteuil) was open on Christmas but not the next day. I don't know if that was holiday hours or regular daily hours.

why are you not bringing your toiletries? i found travel sizes last at least 7 days

Bring anything you can or you'll pay about twice as much there.

Not many Arabs will be concerned with "Pentecost", I don't think. :)

Can the person from whom you are renting provide some advice?

Avalon...Thanks. I didn't realize that it was open until 1 on Sundays...unfortunately I'll arrive into Paris after 5PM. Happy Travels!

bookmarking

This post answered a question I was about to ask! Our Sunday arrival is on the 30th, which is also when Europe switches over to Daylight Savings, which means we are unlikely to make it to the Champion at Buci & Seine by 13:00.

It is great to know about the Franprix on Rue de Sevres, Kerouac - Thanks!! I missed that one and we were going to just get necessities at a local Arab store.

Elyang, its about 20 minutes on the Metro each way to the Franprix for you. The Franprix is right near the Vaneau Metro stop. Go to www.franprix.fr , then click on "magasins" in the upper right, then enter "105 rue de sevres, paris" in the address, and you'll see the stores in that area, including the Rue de Sevres store. Click on each store and the hours and address pop up.

Timely thread. Thanks, guys.

Thanks again. You are all so helpful. I will try to bring as much as possible, but having two elderly persons in the party, and having to walk from the metro station to the apartment, I really would like to have the minimum in the luggage.

The Franprix on rue de sevres is not too far from our apartment. We can just walk leisurely there in the afternoon and take the metro back.

Thank you!
Ellen

Okay, first the Sunday rule:

Food stores can be open 6 days a week. They must close one day, not necessarily Sunday, or they must close 2 half days, which is becoming more common.

As for the Arab or Asian grocers, they can be open 24/7 if they want, because any commerce with no employees can be open whenever it wants. These are supposedly "family" operations and everybody who works there is a member of the family ("I'm helping my uncle." Yeah, sure.). This is the same gimmick that was used by the clothing stores in the Marais before they were decreed to be one of the various 7-day "tourist" zones of the city.

The Franprix website might be the best one to use to find local supermarkets open on Sunday. Just start by typing a postal code in the store finder, like 75001 for the 1st arrondissement. This brings up a map showing all of the local Franprix stores. You can drag and pull it to show other parts of the city. When you click on the Franprix logos, they give the store days and hours. "Fermé le dimanche" means "closed on Sunday."

Thanks Kerouac

about the law - you say and i'm not doubting you that stores could be open on Sunday if they say close another day

Why would not the huge hypermarches not then open on Sundays and close say on Mondays - figuring they would boom on Sundays when folks have all day to shop?

Or is it the recalictrance of the unions that prevents this?

Or am i just wrong in my assumption that Sundays would be busier than Mondays

Interesting however that it's not Sunday they must close

My uneducated guess: it's part union, and part culturally ingrained. People are used to stores being closed Sundays, so they've adjusted, and may not shop on Sunday even if stores were open.

They are - the Carrefours, LeClerc's, Auchans of the French world however open on Sundays prior to Christmas

and i've been in the one near where i stay often and it booms on Sundays then - and i think it would not too

Family Sunday meals, once sacrosanct seem to be going the way of church going - nil. But my relatives some do express a need for Sunday to be a family day even though it rarely worksout that way it seems

There's a few reasons why the French don't shop on Sundays. First, they have a big meal in front of them on Sunday afternoon. The shopping has already made and now the cooking is started.

Second, to open a store on Sunday, it will find employees to work on Sunday. It's not easy to shift people around, finding some for each Sunday. The employer will have to add extra people (who will stay there forever and forever)but the return is very poor.

The Socialists pushed employees to leave earlier but the employers didn't replace these people. It was a noble thought but it didn't really work. The employers were happy being able to cut down their workforce. It's like the 35 hour workweek.

Blackduff

I think the reason French don't shop on Sunday is because the stores are closed.

Britain was that way once and now stores boom on Sundays

Here in U.S. workers beg to work on Sundays - at higher pay of course. My local supermarket every holiday (open 24 hours 364-5 days/yr except XMAS day) and Sundays the oldest in seniority workers are there - they demand to work on Sunday

would be the same in France IMO

what about restaurant workers - why are restaurants open under your explanation? Pizza deliveries? Cafes?

Sunday shopping is also more humane - Saturdays in hypermarches in France are insane IME.

You have to pay people who work on Sunday a lot more -- because it is SUNDAY.

Within a year or two, the laws in France will change, and hypermarkets will be open on Sunday. That is what Sarkozy wants.

(I am not against it, but it will seem less like France and less like Europe.)

Not everywhere in the US pays people more to work on Sunday. I am a manager of a large jewelry store in a mall in Atlanta, Georgia; when I make schedules, I try to rotate the Sunday shifts evenly among the staff, but they are paid the same hourly rate as any other day.

Barb - you illustrate the new for everyone to be unionized

As an aside, one of the reasons that the Lower East Side of Manhattan became a major retail destination was because being a primarily Jewish neighborhood at the time they were exempted from blue laws which closed all of the competition around the city on Sudays. So on Sundays the folks from all around the city came to the Lower East Side.