Winter sales in France began this week. This is a big deal in France, especially in Paris.

Just as Parisians travel to other cities to shop, there’s an expectation that foreign tourists are in town especially for the winter sales.
At the beginning the the winter sales, the Paris Convention and Tourism Bureau erected a tent –a cute Bedouin touch, unfortunately in the midst of an Arctic cold wave– in my neighborhood, adjacent to a busy métro stop.
solde1
This is an initiative called Shopping By Paris. (It’s called “Soldes By Paris” in French.) Inside the tent, bright-eyed young people offer shopping advice. They have guides and maps and even paper shopping bags (that come in handy to hold the guides and maps).
There are no shortage of stores in Paris, especially in my neighborhood, where many stores are open on Sunday afternoon. Shoppers’ greatest challenge is to figure out which stores to visit: so many stores, so little time! No worry, the Soldes by Paris team has thought through this dilemma. They’ve come up with a series of walking tours. The itineraries are supposed to be thematic (one “classic”, another “trendy”, and so on).
solde2