Shopping in Paris: Find high style at lower prices

PARIS — Dominique Abouaf has a passion for fashion, and it's in full cry this morning as she glides about her boutique selecting the perfect scarf for one woman's jacket and a wide belt to go over another's dressy blouse and assuring a third that certainement, madame, those pants are supposed to be snug.

When one woman's sweater shows what the customer considers a little too much decolletage, Abouaf makes a quick adjustment at the shoulders that reduces the visible cleavage by 50 percent. "There," she says, with a Gallic lift of her eyebrow. "It is perfect!"

And it is.

A steady trickle of women, nearly all Parisians, wanders through the door of Nina Lee, Abouaf's small shop on the Rue d'Alesia, to examine the clothing, some designed by her, some by others.

When my wife, Susan, and I decided to visit Paris to celebrate a special birthday, I did some Internet and telephone homework to find the best shopping areas. I've been coming to Paris for more than 40 years, and while I can go blindfolded to the city's only fly-fishing shop (La Maison de la Mouche on Ile St. Louis), I was a bit shaky about where to look for women's fashions.

But all sources agreed that two great places to go were Rue d'Alesia, just off Avenue de General LeClerc, and Rue St. Placide, two blocks from Boulevard Montparnasse.

Stores in these areas offer high style at much lower prices than the big-name shops. Rue d'Alesia is lined with dozens of small boutiques, shoe stores and specialty shops where women can buy wonderfully stylish clothing and accessories for a tenth to a quarter of what they'd pay at the more famous designers.

Many of the storefronts advertise "Stock Grande Marques," famous-name designer seconds or leftovers from last year's line at big discounts.

Getting to these shopping districts from anywhere in Paris is a simple matter of buying a ticket (about $2 each way, less with multi day passes) and riding on the Metro, Paris' wonderfully efficient subway. Get off at the Alesia station for Rue d'Alesia and the Montparnasse-Bienvenue for Rue St. Placide.

Abouaf created Nina Lee as her nom de mode from her mother's first name and the last name of an American soldier who was one of her mother's old boyfriends. While she sees some Americans in her store, more of the foreigners who come to Rue d'Alesia are well-heeled South Americans and Russians, with a sprinkling from other European countries.

After my stint as a bearer on Susan's fashion safaris, even a couture-challenged slug like me could appreciate the nuances that make Parisian women look so stylish. Most have much less money than their American counterparts, so they make a small wardrobe go a long way with accessories like a chic scarf or great boots.

Oh, and about those boots — worn often with sexy patterned stockings showing between the boot top and the skirt or shorts. My wife calls Paris "the city of beautiful legs," probably the result of the women walking so much.

On a visit to Rue St. Placide, Susan found a great outfit at Elaine Souchon, a store featuring styles by Lauren Vidal, one of the big names in pret-a-porter, or ready to wear.

Like Nina Lee, the salespeople in Elaine Souchon weren't there just for a paycheck. To them, fashion is an exuberant participant sport, and making a purchase involved lots of laughter, trying on half the clothes in the store, and back-and-forth chatter in halting French on my part and halting English on theirs.

By the way, don't overlook the malls that have sprung up around French cities in the last couple of decades. We spent a night at the Mercure Hotel near Orly Airport after a flight to Italy was canceled because of a brief baggage handler's strike. I had a hankering for mussels, and a hotel clerk said that there was a Leon's of Bruxelles restaurant in the nearby Belle Epine Shopping Mall, so we rode over on the hotel shuttle.

The mall was amazing. One shop was selling astronomically priced stuff from Kenzo, Versace and Dolce & Gabanna just a few doors away from Etam, the French equivalent of Target. There were dozens of other shops, large and small, that ran the gamut of prices in between, many staffed by clerks who had at least a basic command of English.

Americans who worry about a hostile reception because of geopolitical squabbles should put those fears aside: The French like Americans. They are very friendly, and if you make an effort to speak a few words in their language, they go out of their way to help you.

My advice to women who'd like to shop in Paris is don't be intimidated by a lack of language skills or the metro. A French-English dictionary, hand gestures and helpful salespeople will solve the former problem, and the Paris subway is one of safest and most convenient in the world (although you need to be wary of pickpockets, especially in the summer crowds).

Buy a metro ticket, read your subway map and make shopping an adventure. You'll certainly come home with something that you won't see on anyone else.