The arcades of the Palais-Royal are one of the most beautiful places to shop in Paris — a serene, colonnaded 18th-century gallery wrapped around formal gardens, lined with jewel-box boutiques: heritage perfumers, antique dealers, niche designers, and the original Didier Ludot vintage couture. It's shopping as a stroll through history, far from the crowds of the grands boulevards. Even with no intention to buy, the arcades are among the loveliest quiet corners in the city.
The historic colonnaded shopping arcades surrounding the Palais-Royal gardens in the 1st — boutiques, perfumers, antique and vintage dealers, and design shops in an 18th-century setting.
An afternoon under the colonnades. Shopping the way Paris used to do it.
Go for the setting as much as the shops — the gardens and colonnades are the experience.
Look for the heritage perfumers and the vintage-couture dealers.
A calm, beautiful antidote to busy Paris shopping.