Shopping in style: Galeries Lafayette and Printemps

Today we went back to the Opera Garnier for a guided tour, since Kevin hadn't yet seen the inside.  I won't bore you all with too many more photos of the Opera house, but the guided tour did provide some insights that the self-guided tour did not.  Such as this entrance hall ceiling, where Charles Garnier "signed" his work by hiding the words "1861-1875 Jean-Louis Charles Garnier, Architect" in the ornate plasterwork.

Apparently Garnier wasn't the only one who liked to put his own stamp on things.  Remember this Marc Chagall ceiling in the auditorium?

Well, by the time he designed the ceiling, Chagall was well into his 70's so he didn't actually paint the whole ceiling himself.  But he did paint this part, a self-portrait.  Sneaky, no?

Okay, enough about the Palais Garnier.  For lunch, we decided to walk over to the 10-story flagship store of the Galeries Lafayette, a French department store chain.  As we crossed the street, we saw these people perched on the roof.

We went inside and made a beeline for the terrace.  We weren't the only ones up there, either.  Everyone else was sitting down eating lunch and ignoring the spectacular view.

From this height you could see so much more of the detail on the facade of the opera house across the street.

The terrace restaurant was bustling, of course.  But after looking at the menu prices, we realized why people were enjoying brown-bag lunches on the astroturf instead.

Since we had not thought ahead to bring a picnic, and we weren't willing to spend a bazillion dollars on lunch with a view, we headed downstairs to the tourist-packed cafeteria instead.

We had a decent, but still overpriced, meal of two salads and two diet cokes.  Not horrible, but not fantastic either.  The tricolor terrine with the salmon salad was pretty to look at though.

After lunch we did a little exploring of the shopping galleries.  The space is huge.  Want contemporary fashions?  Head to level 2.  Want Children's or Maternity?  Try floor 5.  "Designer Fashion" is on level 1, while "Seduction Fashion" (whatever that is...lingerie maybe?) is on the third floor.

Looking down, you'll see the cosmetics, fragrance, and jewelry kiosks.

Looking up, you'll see the gorgeous art nouveau ceiling, added to the building in 1912.

As we left the building, we saw this chalk artist creating a tribute to Salvador Dalí.  He certainly got the crazy eyes and moustache right.

For comparison, we walked over to another Paris shopping institution: the Printemps department store.

The displays and merchandise inside could hardly compete with the turn-of-the-century elegance of Galleries Lafayette.  To me, it looked pretty much like any department store anywhere back home.

Except, of course, for the Ladurée kiosk inside.  Actually, I'm kind of glad we don't have this temptation in clothing stores back in the states!