Shopping - Paris e-guide: The Travel Guide with its Own Website - page 58

Shopping

10 E3

Flavie Furst real gems
16 rue de la Soudière, 1er • 01 42 60 06 01
Open 11-7 Mon-Sat
Flavie Furst makes glorious jewellery, her husband
Ronald makes gorgeous bags - and that means that
their tiny boutique is one big temptation. Flavie, who
designed accessories for Lanvin before turning to full-
time jewellery-making, loves the colour and emotive
qualities of precious stones, and is careful not to over-
power them with extravagant designs. She creates
pieces that are original, expressive and, above all,
easy to wear: an effortlessly pretty pale-blue teardrop
sapphire set off-centre on a silver band, a single
plump Tahitian pearl draped on a delicate gold chain.
No less eye-catching are her partner's handbags,
which run from totes to baguettes, all with matching
make-up bags inside. The bags are made in a
multitude of colours and textures, including stripes
and rowdy floral prints, tweed and cowhide; few who
enter can leave without buying at least one.

9 D2

Lavinia wine emporium
3-5 boulevard de la Madeleine, 1er • 01 42 97 20 20
Open 10-8 Mon-Sat
If your wine-appreciation skills need some polishing,
Lavinia is the place to go. With a selection of over
6,000 bottles (including 3,000 French wines, 2,000
foreign wines and 1,000 spirits), 500 topics, a staff of
15 sommeliers, dozens of glasses and decanters as
well as various other wine-related paraphernalia, it's
Europe's largest wine shop. The slick three-level store
is maintained like a traditional wine cellar, with a tem-
perature of 19°C (68°F), though a special section for
rare wines is kept at 14°C (58°F). Prices range from a
few euros a bottle through to several thousand-plus.
The glossy 80-seat, in-store restaurant serves lunch
only (shark steak and chardonnay are a winning
combination), though the bar is open till 8pm. In
either, you can sample any wine in the store and
there's no extra mark-up in price. Lavinia also holds
regular tastings and runs wine courses.