A SHjQEEJNG GUIDE TO PARIS AND LONDON FRANCES SHEAF ER WAX MAN / / €.* Ocpighffl .. COPYRIGHT DEPOSm SHOPPING GUIDE TO "PARIS and LONDON Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/shoppingguidetopOOwaxm "'^\\ fra^c? Copyright by Stereo-Travel Co. The luxury stores, jewelers and perfumers are to be found on Regent Street a to eFz- — a OJ a I QJU "£j "& x Ph ns O cc * ^ 03 5b ^ oS _co 02 2 P O o ^ Jh 3 O O kI .* o -t- 3 r- £ E3 o cu 0) ^ o CO CO O cS • " a Q co 7* O o O o ►» CO r^ 03 c5 SHOPPING IN LONDON 29 quently more expensive. About Ox- ford Circus, things are cheaper, ex- cept at Jay's, which is now consid- ered by " smart " English people as a little old-fashioned, but always re- liable. Londoners go there for ex- pensive dress blouses, and also for their mourning outfits. On Eegent Street are the Liberty stores, very pleasurable places to visit. The Lib- erty stuffs, both for dresses and for decorative use, are now much sought after, and with justice too, since their beauty of design and of texture is quite exceptional. These materials are not to be duplicated anywhere else. The Liberty smocked frocks are by this time a sort of dress in- 30 A SHOPPING GUIDE stitution, and very pretty and grace- ful they are too, for grown-ups as well as for children. There are of course in London, as also in Paris, certain dressmaking houses, whose names are as familiar to women interested in clothes as their own. Eedfern, for example, needs no introduction to an American woman. Many of the important French houses maintain branch stores in London. Every American man or woman expects to lay in a supply of good English gloves in London. These can safely be bought at any of the large stores, but Londoners themselves, particularly " oity men," patronize SHOPPING IN LONDON 31 the London Glove Company in Cheap- side. There long white gloves cost but four shillings, and gloves for ordinary street wear are as low as two and six. This shop, which is on the second floor, designated in Eng- land as the first, also sells satisfac- tory stockings. Walpole's is a good place to buy linens, as are also the two Irish socie- ties. The Cross leather goods are known to most Americans. English people think well of them, but they also buy from Drew & Sons in Picca- dilly Circus. There is a small estab- lishment in St. Paul's churchyard, kept by one Hassall, where men who know go for their brushes, just as 32 A SHOPPING GUIDE they buy their pipes, for which London is famous, at Loewe's in Haymarket, their hats at Heath's or Lincoln & Bennet's, and their sporting acces- sories at Gamage's. All England takes a sort of na- tional pride in the London co-opera- tive stores, which are Co-operative ., . , a, quite unique and pecu- liar to that big city. They were founded originally to force down the " high cost of living,' ' al- though their existence considerably antedates the now general agitation against this modern bugaboo. Ac- cording to their social positions and affiliations, English men and women belong to the Army and Navy, the SHOPPING IN LONDON 33 Junior Army and Navy, or the two Civil Service societies. Since these organizations exist solely to keep prices down, their stores do actually sell at a smaller profit than the big shops can afford to allow themselves. A trifling yearly subscription is de- manded of all would-be purchasers, who must, however, be vouched for by members or shareholders. This regulation, while it is no doubt wise, is irksome to the stranger who can- not consequently make purchases at any of the stores except through a member friend. When, however, they are accessible, these are good places to go for outdoor garments, polo coats, men's ulsters, etc. They also 34 A SHOPPING GUIDE sell very durable woolen underwear and stockings. The jewelry shops of London are attractive, though they have not the advantage of so elegant a setting as the Paris Rue de la Paix. Most English people seem to look upon the Goldsmiths ' & Silversmiths' Co. in Regent Street as the best of them all, though Hunt & Roskill and Wathers- ton & Sons have also their enthusias- tic clientele. Mappan & Webb's is always recommended by Londoners as a good place to buy plated things. Tiffany has a branch in London, as he has also in Paris, but American travelers, much as they may like to come upon the familiar home names SHOPPING IN LONDON 35 in the streets of a foreign city, really prefer to buy from the shops which are as essentially and obviously Eng- lish as the old Tower of London it- self. This shopping where the na- tives do affords one of the pleasures of foreign travel, and a chance for a by-no-means frivolous study of na- tional race differences. There is a peculiar satisfaction in knowing, if you have decided to invest in some of the famous English cutlery, that you can get what you want at Verinder's in Ludgate Hill, just as any well-in- formed Britisher would do. Eather unexpectedly, as it happens, the things that have to do with the feminine toilet can be had in great 36 A SHOPPING GUIDE variety in London, for English women take excellent care of their lovely complexions and their abundant hair. Makers of perfumery and hairdress- ers are innumerable in London. There are endless novelties in toilet creams, pastes, powders and all that, to be had from these people. False hair is well made in London, and also much worn, despite the n .. fact that there would Preparations seem to be not nearly so much need for it — even in a season when " rats " and " puffs " and " buns " are fashionable — among English women as among the more careless and less patient Americans. The confidential half-hour at bedtime ..,.'W.,///;"/.: ; •/-" f SHOPPING IN LONDON 37 over a glowing fire, with its " 120 brush strokes, ' ' is no invention of the novelist who writes of English coun- try life. It is an established institu- tion, like the afternoon tea, and the tiresome duty of " putting the hair to bed " is thereby made the occa- sion for an intimate little visit, which might with profit be imitated by women of other nations who envy the blooming English belles their luxuri- ant tresses. EimmePs, in Eegent Street, is a favorite English perfumery house. Others are found about the Burling- ton Arcade, which is London's Palais Royal, a fascinating place, but not re- garded as entirely convenable for a 38 A SHOPPING GUIDE woman to wander about in alone. Men go there to Martin's for sticks and gloves. Somewhat out of the crowded shop- ping quarter, and yet within walking distance is Tottenham Court Eoad, where are clustered many house fur- nishing establishments with substan- tial reputations. Maple is almost as celebrated as Waring & Gillow. Shoolbred is a house the English be- lieve in, though many other things than house furnishings can be bought there. The casual tourist will prob- ably not be especially interested in making purchases in this street, but a visit to the decorators may prove worth while, if only to learn how the SHOPPING IN LONDON 39 English go about the business of house furnishing. One thing is no- ticeable, and instructive too, and it is that — thanks perhaps to the far- reaching William Morris movement — cheap furnishings are not necessarily bad in England. Since the cottage system of housing was started there, the decorators have seen possibilities in unpretentious dwellings, and, while they can furnish a palace if they are called upon, they are not above turn- ing their ingenuity and their artistic skill to such a humble problem as a workingman's home. Tottenham Court Eoad is in the interesting and old-fashioned Brit- ish Museum quarter. All about here 40 A SHOPPING GUIDE are antique shops, old book shops, pic- ture dealers, even shops which brave- ly advertise that they Antique it j , * supply pedigrees and Book Shops coats of arms. It is a district with a flavor, and the leisurely traveler will enjoy browsing about its quiet streets. It bears a strong resemblance to certain old squares and streets of Boston and of Philadelphia, both cities which were influenced by the same British taste which built Berkley Square, and both sufficiently conservative to have left unspoiled here and there some of their architecture of pre-Eevolu- tionary days. Americans, both men and women, SHOPPING IN LONDON 41 who are shopping or sight- seeing in London — or both— are not long in ac- quiring the English afternoon tea habit. The British disposition of meal hours forces them to it. A wait of seven hours between lunch and din- ner, especially when one is actively going about, produces an insistent void that calls for something, if it is only tea and cakes. It is amazing how the national beverage of England does revive a flagging enthusiasm. The English of course know and ac- knowledge its stimulating effects. " Poor mother," they will tell you, " she's a bit down. She hasn't had her tea yet." And " mother " is not the only one who is saved from wilt- 42 A SHOPPING GUIDE ing before the day is done by a cup of tea. Many an American man, who would at home rather despise tea as an almost exclusively feminine drink, soon learns its comforting effects and is ever after willing to partake of it for its own sake, and not only at the urging of a debutante who pours at a friend's reception. Whatever the medical people may say of the insidi- ous, undermining influences of this brew of the East, so far neither the British complexion nor their nerves seem to have suffered very much from its copious use. And they do take it strong, too ! — always with milk, not cream, be it noticed, nor yet lemon, and accompanied by thin slices of SHOPPING IN LONDON 43 bread and butter and tea cake. It is not a bad little snack, and it costs very little. London is dotted with small cake shops where anyone can stop at the giving-ont point for the needed " pick-me-up." Of course there are expensive tea shops, which have a particularly smart patronage, like Bumpelmayer's, the same firm, whose Rue de Rivoli tea room in Paris is a fashionable rendezvous, during the season there. These people sell the most delectable French pastries and small cakes. Another fashionable tea room is Buszard's, which has an enduring renown for its wedding cake, a commodity visiting Amer- icans, unless they aspire to a London 44 A SHOPPING GUIDE wedding, will scarcely have need of acquiring. The question of eating in London is always rather serious. It is by no means either so entertaining or so easy to find there good, inexpensive restaurants, as it is in Paris. Above all is the traveler who arrives in Lon- don of a Sunday tried . T r with British culinary in London J and hospitable lim- itations. No one eats, apparently, on Sunday, except by previous appoint- ment. Even the railway lunch rooms are closed. One solution of the meal problem is the somewhat bald plan of arranging for everything at a hotel or boarding house. But that leaves SHOPPING IN LONDON 45 unexplored all the fascinating and gay life of the cafes and restaurants, an ever-entertaining element whether viewed by a critical onlooker or a jovial participator. London has some world-renowned hotels, places which, at certain seasons of the year, are the meeting places of wealth and royalty. These, according to his means, a tour- ist can visit. There is an interesting foreign quarter in Soho, where that great army of talent of all sorts, which makes London its headquarters, is wont to congregate. Some excellent French and Italian dinners are served there, but an alien must of course be guided by some resident artist or lit- 46 A SHOPPING GUIDE erary friend to the choicest of these retreats. No lady, obviously, could attempt such an expedition unaccom- panied by a man. Ladies can still go to the Trocadero, where it is well to engage a table in the gallery in ad- vance. The clientele is gay and amusing, but does not bear too close examination. Dinner is five shillings and seven and six, the difference be- ing not in the food, apparently, but in the flowers on the tables, a distinction which in France would be made in- stead in the quality of the wines served with the meal. SHOPPING IN PAEIS The amount of enjoyment a visiting American will get out of a stay in either London or English parig depends largely and French Stules on ^e ^dividual tem- perament. A rough classification always gives the mas- culine preference to London and the feminine to Paris, and a plausible ex- planation is usually found in the rela- tive shopping advantages of the two cities. But it is probable also that there still lingers in the male American's mind a little of the inherited British contempt for the 47 48 A SHOPPING GUIDE Latin man. No Englishman, and equally no American, would willingly set out to provide himself with a tight-fitting, braid-trimmed " cut- away " such as the well-dressed Frenchmen wear. As for the pointed French shoes and soft kid gloves, they are objects of ridicule and scorn. French masculinity finds its expres- sion in other ways than dress, but no hurried tourist has either the oppor- tunity or the perspicacity to discover it. Therefore the American turns to London for his styles, and while he may prefer his clothes of a looser fit than do his English cousins, he would not consider that he was belittling himself if, at a pinch, he were obliged Copyright by Stereo Travel Co. The column at the Place Vendome marks the junc- tion of the two greatest shopping streets, the Rue de la Paix and the Rue St. Honore. Most of the shops retailing women's finery are here SHOPPING IN PARIS 49 to appear in a genuinely English' outfit. The American woman has not the same contempt for the English wom- an 's manner of dress that the Amer- ican man entertains for French styles, but she, being of a livelier imagina- tion, selects from England what suits her needs and then wisely waits for Paris to give her le dernier mot in the matter of feminine fashions. Nor is she alone in thus looking to the French capital for guidance. The English women do it themselves. They frankly admit the supremacy of French taste, and they acknowledge the shortcomings of their own. Speaking of English women's taste 50 A SHOPPING GUIDE in dress brings us to their renowned " tailor made." With these, as with men's garments, the cut Tailor-made ig gomewhat different Gowns from ours. English women do not call a suit a success unless it really fits their figures, and the unlovely results sometimes ar- rived at may therefore be less the tailor's fault than his model's. The English tailors do good work, and their stuffs are certainly of the best. The tweeds, serges and mixtures to be had in London, Edinburgh and Dublin cannot be surpassed in quality and durability. In Dublin can be found the cele- brated homespun made by the Irish SHOPPING IN PARIS 51 peasants, under the administration of the Irish Home Industries Associa- tion. No woven material wears like it, and it can be had now, thanks to the oversight of the society, in a large and excellent variety of colors, other than that peculiar British green by which an English tourist is recognized any- where on earth. It is this same so- ciety which has revived lace making in Ireland, thus providing for the im- provident poor a remunerative occu- pation, and incidentally starting a vogue for their pretty and serviceable laces which has continued now through a good many seasons. There was a time when French women would have scorned to wear so 52 A SHOPPING GUIDE rigid a garment as a tailor-made suit, and the short walking skirt was quite without the scope of their conception. English ideas have colored French fashions at least to the extent that all garments for outdoor use have been made serviceable rather than friv- olous. The contrast of an English woman and a French one at an after- noon tea may not be in favor of the English woman, but make the same comparison on a Swiss mountain ex- pedition and the English woman wins. She is, like her brother, essentially an outdoor person, and for her tramps and her games she dresses sensibly and appropriately. For walking a skirt is certainly SHOPPING IN PARIS 53 more suitable worn short rather than with a train that mnst be held up French fashion. Very reluctantly the French woman has come to concede this important point, and so the trot- tense is now to be had in France. It is the walking skirt shorn of its train. With the coming of the tailor-made to France came also the tailors to make them, and by a curious anomaly Eng- lish tailor-made suits may now be found in Paris of a more satisfactory style and cut than those of London. The prices are higher, but even at that less than at home, and these English tailors of Paris, thanks to their French women helpers, do contrive to give to even a plain walking suit a 54 A SHOPPING GUIDE certain French cachet, an arrange- ment of bnttons here, of braids there, an insert of Eastern embroidery, per- haps, or of good old lace, the little something which makes for distinc- tion in a garment, and which Amer- ican women are quick to recognize. Many good tailoring establishments are to be found in the Opera quarter, but it is well, of course, to be recom- mended to a house by some resident of Paris. The tourists ' agents usually keep a list of reliable firms for their patrons, and hotel and pension pro- prietors are generally prepared to supply such information to their guests. Better still is to be provided with a card from a friend who has SHOPPING IN PARIS 55 already tried a tailor or dressmaker. Americans have a way of passing on such information among each other which is very helpful to the tourist novice. Although Paris has for long held the reputation, and justly, of satisfy- ing every desire of the trans feminine heart, it is by Department Stores no means an eas 7 pl ace for the uninitiated to shop in. But then no city's shops make their special advantages ob- vious all at once, even in our own country. A good American bishop, during a stay in Paris, was asked by a caller at his hotel where his wife was. " She's gone," he said, 56 A SHOPPING GUIDE " to the Bon Marche — I believe for some darning cotton! " As the lady's shopping extravagances in Paris were causing the reverend gentleman some concern, he smiled incredulously as he gave this information. No doubt many other things than darning cotton were brought back from that partic- ular shopping expedition, yet it is a fact that the large balls of darning- cotton sold at the Bon Marche have a certain renown among frequent vis- itors to Paris, who as inevitably sup- ply themselves with this homely com- modity as with the needles of the Trois Quartiers. The Paris department stores are, like the small shops of London, a bit SHOPPING IN PARIS 57 disorderly to an American eye, and the desired article is not always easy to find. Many a disgusted American lady, after her first visit to the Bon Marche, will declare it " a much over- rated place.' ' A further acquaint- ance with its stock and its possibili- ties may give these hasty critics a better opinion of this dean of all de- partment stores, for it was the very first of these distinctly modern estab- lishments, and all later " empori- ums " and " store cities " owe their existence to the inspiration of one man, the great Boucicault, whose memory is revered by all the army of workers at the Bon Marche. Parisians consider its styles less 58 A SHOPPING GUIDE chic than those of some of the other big stores, but it has built up a repu- tation for reliability that is a guar- antee for everything sold there. Un- derclothing of all sorts, stockings, handkerchiefs and gloves are all good and cheap at the Bon Marche. They keep a really enormous variety of gloves at prices ranging from one franc fifty up. A good many people prefer French gloves to those made in England. They are more soft and flexible, and they usually fit the hand more smoothly. While they do not wear as well, they are cheap enough to make the balance even. Both men and women in France still wear the light-weight gloves, and even the re- SHOPPING IN PARIS 59 cent sporting craze has not induced French men to adopt the heavier Eng- lish walking gloves. The gloves at most of the large stores are to be depended on, but any- one who wishes a glove Bargain with a « marque," that Dai/ • « n in Paris 1S one of the wdl " known makes, can go to Perrin's, in the Avenne de l'Opera. This store has a sale every Friday when odd sizes are marked much be- low their usual sale price. Friday, in all the stores of Paris, is bargain day, and then many an occasion may be found for the looking. The French way of displaying table after table of coupons helps the shopper. Often 60 . A SHOPPING GUIDE lovely cut pieces of silks and of trim- mings are sold for almost nothing on a Friday — things which can later be combined into a French " creation." A bit of warning advice may be in- serted here for the American woman shopper who believes that all French styles must needs be extreme. The absolutely sensational things now and then launched by the big French dressmakers are nothing but adver- tisements, and they are never worn by French ladies, only by the con- spicuous Parisian beauties of doubt- ful reputation, who are hired to dis- play the novelties at some public function like the spring races at Auteuil or Longchamp. While it may . - -.-.- ,.- ^ . . Copyright by Stereo-Travel Co. The broad Avenue de l'Opera contains the largest department stores and jewelry shops. Here also are found oculists and photo-developing places SHOPPING IN PARIS 61 be a temptation to copy a startling gown or hat, it is really the part of wisdom to select instead the quieter modes, which are just as artistic and more appropriate, and which lead to no embarrassing ambiguity as to the social classification of a good-look- ing, well-dressed American woman. Neither does any lady in France wear yellow. That is a color preempted by the demi-mondaines , and allowed them. Nor is it safe to wear natural flowers despite their abundance and low cost. The young woman who has decided to buy her trousseau in Paris will be surprised to find the lesser priced gar- ments, even when elaborately hand 62 A SHOPPING GUIDE embroidered, made of a coarse cotton cloth quite unfamiliar to us. Only the very expensive things are made of the lawn and batiste we are accus- tomed to think of as French. The reason for this usage is purely eco- nomical. French laundries have an unpleasant way of washing with chemicals, which soon rot the delicate fabrics ; hence, the substitution of the stout cloth which stands the wear. No cheap machine-made garments are as good in France as those sold in America. The poor P rPYlclfb t, 7 . , . of France, unlike the Embroideries republican Americans, do not expect to dress like the rich, and the clothing made for them makes SHOPPING IN PARIS 63 no attempt to copy in less expensive materials the models of the wealthy and fashionable. It is these things, the luxuries, that cost in France rela- tively little. You can find a frilly, colored underskirt of good cut and pretty material for a song. Em- broidery is shamefully cheap. Occa- sionally very good blouses are sold at bargain prices. For twenty francs you can find a dress waist that at home might cost as many dollars. The department store known as the Galeries Lafayette is a good place to look for bargain blouses. This estab- lishment is reputed to have a patron- age among the Parisian women who prefer to dress conspicuously, but its 64 A SHOPPING GUIDE styles are no less good for that, and its prices are not too high. The lin- gerie there is often beautiful, and ready-made dresses are to be had in every sort of material and of every degree of elaboration. As the Parisians go to the Bon Marche for their substantial things and to the Louvre Magasins for dress materials, they go to Printemps for hat and dress trimmings. There is another large department store, in a somewhat out-of-the-way quarter, the Samaritaine, which the economical French woman will occasionally visit surreptitiously, for it is considered a trifle declasse to deal there. Its stock is large, however, and really good SHOPPING IN PARIS 65 clothes bargains can now and then be found there. Just across the street is a place to which men go for ready-made clothes, men who are not too particular as to the fit of their garments. It is La Belle Jardiniere, and it is the shop par excellence at which to buy servants' liveries, if by chance anyone visiting Paris has such a need. There are many other lesser de- partment stores in Paris, scarcely larger some of them than a single American store would be, but yet of- fering the usual assortment of things to wear and of articles for the home. The little Trois Quartiers, across the Boulevard from the Madeleine, sells 66 A SHOPPING GUIDE some lovely upholstering fabrics. But it is mainly patronized for its articles de Paris, or small novelties, toilet things, letter paper boxes, bags and the pretty trifles every woman looks for to take home from Paris. The American, going about Paris for the first time, is struck with the picturesque and ambig- Picturesque nong nameg of aU thege Names of Shops shops. Hardly one of them is given the name of its owner or its founder. Paris streets are full of such quaint titles as The Blue Dwarf, The Unbreakable Baby, The Fairy Finger, The Little Saint Thomas. There seems to be an instinctive shrinking in the French SHOPPING IN PARIS 67 mind from the sort of advertising publicity Americans are used to. A man may be a merchant prince, with a wonderful gift for organizing and conducting a huge business, and yet the world at large, which buys lav- ishly at his establishment, will never hear of him until he dies and leaves a magnificent collection of pictures to the Louvre. The most conspicuous evidence of French taste is to be seen in the hats of Paris. There is that about them which immediately dissatisfies the woman from elsewhere with her most costly headgear. They are not ex- orbitantly expensive, either. The lit- tle Eue St. Honore and the Avenue 68 A SHOPPING GUIDE de 1 'Opera are dotted with small mil- linery shops whose obliging sales- women will shower attentions upon you while you try on one after the other of their creations. Most of them speak English very prettily, and they are quite willing to make up your own materials for you after one of their models, doctoring your feath- ers if they are malade, and trans- forming your velvets and ribbons to an unrecognizable freshness. The French are the most painstak- ing workers conceivable, and any woman traveler who has time to take advantage of this trait may have a new wardrobe made from an old one at very little expense. A French SHOPPING IN PARIS 69 dressmaker never despises anything worn ; her imagination at once sets to work to figure out how the remnants can he utilized with a creditable re- sult. Dyeing is a thing they do superla- tively well in Paris. Give a French dyer a sample of any tint, no matter how subtle, and he will match it abso- lutely. This work, as well as dry cleaning, is very inexpensive in France — so cheap, in fact, that it is often substituted for the more ex- pensive and destructive laundering. It is, however, something of a shock to see pajamas and silk union suits displayed in a cleaning house win- dow. 70 A SHOPPING GUIDE The same national quality which makes the French careful cleaners makes them good mend- Cleaning erg also Any traveler and Mendmg who has apparently hopelessly torn a good dress or suit has only to stow it away in the bottom of a trunk until Paris is reached. Then he must ask where he can find an establishment where "one does the stoppage." There are hundreds of them in Paris, and their business is invisible mending. An American gentleman once arrived in Paris in despair because his frock coat had had a hole rubbed in one of the shoulder breadths by a peg in his steamer stateroom during an uncom- SHOPPING IN PARIS 71 monly rough, crossing. His tailor told him it would be useless to try to match the broadcloth. " But," he added encouragingly, ' ' we '11 have the hole stopped." This they did, so cleverly that it was impossible after- ward to find where it had been. Furs are of an unbelievable cheap- ness in Paris, and their remaking and renovating is another specialty of French workers. There are plenty of good small fur houses, whose ad- dresses can be had through the agencies. You may not recognize a fur under its French name even when the fur people think they are talking English. Skunk, for example, so fashionable last season, becomes 72 A SHOPPING GUIDE slcung in France, and with no inten- tion of Frenchifying the name, either. If a tourist has plenty of money to spend, then the place to shop in Paris is certainly the Place Vendome dis- trict, for that is the very heart of the fashion quarter, where styles are created and where everything orig- inal in Paris finds its birth, to be echoed and reechoed later throughout the fashionable world, until it is cheapened and overworked to its logical ending. The first veiled evening dress ap- peared in a Eue Castiglioni shop win- dow in Paris just before the Monte Carlo season in 1908. This pretty idea has been copied and adapted, and o § p 1 13 2 » ^ 08* § s ® C3 a 3 i I 2 S M ►» o •s •§ g ^ in "2 eg —i -^ SHOPPING IN PARIS 73 its end is not even yet. The present craze for Oriental embroideries and headings began in Paris in that same year. American dressmakers are using these trimmings lavishly now, four years after France introduced them. So, in a way, it is cheap to buy the expensive new things in France. They do not so soon lose their vogue. There is one shopping district in Paris, which few tourists ever see, or seeing, really under- stand ; yet it is very in- Model Shovs timately Parisian, and with a French shopping guide, or even a slight knowledge of the language, it may be visited profita- bly and entertainingly by the woman 74 A SHOPPING GUIDE looking for clothes suggestions. This is the small Eue de Provence and its adjacent streets, just a step from the more frequented and pretentious shopping territory. This narrow thoroughfare is given over to a pe- culiarly French set of second-hand shops. They are places where " model gowns " are sold, but models of a half season or so back. These are not dresses that have been worn, only those which have been displayed and tried on in the exclusive cou- turiers until all their freshness has gone, and the fashionable establish- ments that created them and which must keep well ahead of the styles, can no longer afford to give up room SHOPPING IN PARIS 75 to them. Ingenious Americans not infrequently go home wonderfully gowned, thanks to these little clearing houses, and the thoroughness of French cleaning and freshening methods. Despite French receptivity which admired and imitated the busi- ness sagacity of the An Artist Bon Marc ^» s founder, with Flowers Paris, like London, still clings to its exclusive small shops, those whose proprietors are all artists, each in his way; men and women who enter into the making of a gown or a hat with the same rare enthusiasm which creates a picture or a poem. The French have come de- 76 A SHOPPING GUIDE servedly by their artistic reputation. They love work for its own sake, and that trait is the secret of their com- mercial success. It is not that they do not appreciate the returns their work brings in. They are canny enough in their business dealings, but they love to work — above all, to create. In the heart of Paris there is a florist who is as much an artist as if he worked with paint instead of with flowers. He creates wonderful decorations for all sorts of functions, for dinners, for receptions, for wed- dings, arrangements that are given prizes at the annual flower shows of the Cours la Eeine. He was once asked by an admiring American why SHOPPING IN PARIS 77 lie did not go to New York and make his fortune. He shrugged his shoul- ders in disdain. " Why should I go to New York to make money? " he asked. " I have money enough here; and there, you are so rich, and so ex- travagant! Perhaps you would not like my work, if you saw it there, and then I should have only cares and troubles. No, I stay in my own coun- try, where they know me, and under- stand me, and where I make enough for my needs.' ' That certainly was the artist who spoke, although com- mercially he is called a florist. Did ever the born business man admit that he " made enough for his needs "? 78 A SHOPPING GUIDE Good jewelry in Paris is costly enough, but very artistic. The jew- elers of the Eue de la Paix are all artists in their tastes and their ideas. Their work is exhibited each year at the Salons. In one of the fine shops of that glittering street may be seen, in a beautifully lighted inner room, as fine a private collection of small jade ornaments as there is in existence. The collection was made for his own pleasure by one of the members of the firm, who is also an amateur of old mounts. Such tendencies must inevi- tably tell on the modern work done by this house. The cheap Parisian jewelry shares with the good the dis- tinction of attractive settings. The SHOPPING IN PARIS 79 little shops of the Bue de Eivoli ar- cade are an unfailing pleasure to look at, even though their inexpensive wares are but imitations of the costly products in the nearby quarter. What Paris has to offer a masculine shopper is, of course, little as com- pared with its feminine finery. Still, there are seasoned globe-trotters who always buy their shirts on the Grands Boulevards, the variety of materials being excellent, they maintain. There is one pretentious establishment in the Eue de la Paix which makes all sorts of men's things to order. " To be sure, you get stung,' ' once re- marked an American who had patron- ized the place, " but you've ties no 80 A SHOPPING GUIDE one can duplicate and shirts of stuffs you never see anywhere else." So if that is what anyone wants, Paris can provide it. It is well to be wary of stuffs in France. The best woolens used for suits and dresses there French , , , .. , , q. jr are acknowledged to be either Scotch or Eng- lish. Silks, of course, are good; though the French say they are less good than they used to be. Linens are very cheap, and so are the pretty lawns and batistes of French make. Trimmings, too, of all sorts, are Parisian specialties. Laces being made by the peasants, who have not yet learned to rate their hand work SHOPPING IN PARIS 81 at Arts and Crafts prices, are very reasonable. Although shopping in Paris is an exhilarating and highly entertaining part of all tourists' The duties, it is quite as fa- Gastronome in Paris tiguing as an y arduous study of cathedrals could be. Therefore it is invariably associated in the traveling mind with another pleasurable occupation, that of eating. Everyone expects to have an opportunity, while in Paris, to sample some genuinely French cook- ing, and most people do. Whether they ever taste the best depends on their opportunities, and somewhat on their understanding of what sorts of 82 A SHOPPING GUIDE eating houses are open to travelers in the French capital. Enough has been written on this all-engrossing subject by American and English people who have become converts to French culinary tastes and standards for each traveler to make some sort of an intelligent se- lection for himself. Most of the es- tablishments whose reputations date, not merely from a preceding genera- tion, but from some centuries back — like Frederic's, for example — are known to every visitor to Paris. A duck dinner there is always included in the schedule of things to be done in Paris, just as a filet of sole luncheon must be checked off at Marguery's. SHOPPING IN PARIS 83 The larger, more modern and more pretentious restaurants of the Opera and Madeleine quarters are for tout le monde. Anyone can go to them for any meal, except a woman, or women alone, which is perhaps trying to a group of independent Americans, es- pecially feminine wage earners, who have gayly gone about saving money for a European trip in the complete st confidence that the whole world is theirs and that they can go anywhere they choose abroad as at home. In general they can, not because the Feministe movement is sufficiently far along on the Continent to give them their " rights,' ' nor yet because either the Latin, the Teuton or the 84 A SHOPPING GUIDE Slav is naturally chivalrous, but sim- ply because they are Americans. To that little-comprehend- The Woman , ed race mueh ig for . and the (j a f£ given, because of its fabulous wealth and known eccentricities. If the Amer- ican woman traveler wishes to take advantage of a sort of contemptuous French tolerance, she may go to the large cafes of an evening, unescorted. Some of the more daring young women art students in Paris do it, and by so doing only succeed in con- firming the suspicion that the morals of all art students are none of the best. It would be utterly impossible to convince a French man, or for that SHOPPING IN PARIS 85 matter a French woman, that any young woman who would visit a cafe at night, without a husband or a brother to protect her, had been prop- erly brought up. Such a thing is never done by a French woman of good family ; therefore, the rule is in- exorable, that no woman of breeding of any race would do it. Generally speaking, it scarcely pays to run counter to national prejudices so strong as is this one. There are some fairly inconspicu- ous restaurants, serving good meals, where women can and often do go, in groups for luncheon. The Duvals sat- isfy many people, but they are dull and not very interesting. The Bras- 86 A SHOPPING GUIDE serie Universelle, in the Avenue de 1 'Opera, has more real French " color." This establishment is fa- mous for the number, variety and cheapness of its hors d'oeuvres. It is extremely popular with French busi- ness men who are within reach at noon. As most French people lunch promptly at twelve o 'clock, that is the crowded time there. Shoppers who can wait for lunch until one will have a more comfortable time and receive better service. There is a small restaurant in the Eue Saint Honore, now known as Voisin's, which, though it is fre- quented at night by theatrical people, is quiet enough at the lunch hour. It SHOPPING IN PARIS 87 is not cheap, but the cooking is of the first order. A specialty of the house is a pancake, or crepe, served in burn- ing rum. This delicacy is not only spectacular, but very good. During the spring and summer, it is quite worth while to break a shop- ping day by driving out Some Paris , „ . T ,, . . „ ,, to one of the attractive Cafes restaurants in the Bois de Boulogne. There are several of them, and none is overcrowded at noon. Of them all the Pre-Catelan and Armenonville are the most fash- ionable and consequently the most expensive. The small Cascade res- taurant is less conspicuous, and the cooking is almost equally good. 88 A SHOPPING GUIDE The Hermitage, at the very end of the Seine boat line, and not far from the famous Longehamp race track, is a beautiful and restful place to lunch. It is not apt to be overrun with patronage, even at night, for its prices are high. The American woman tourist who has already, or has acquired in Eng- land, the afternoon tea The Invasion haMt? may com f rtably of the Tea Habit feel that she is doin 3 absolutely the correct thing by continuing to indulge it in France, for the afternoon tea now uni- versally replaces the little French gouter by which all French people, men, women and children, were wont SHOPPING IN PARIS 89 to break the long wait from a twelve o'clock lunch until an eight o'clock dinner. The French society lady would stop in the midst of her shop- ping or calling at one of the innumer- able patisseries where are sold such delectable tiny tarts, eclairs and petit fours. One or two of these cakes with a glass of Madeira constituted the gouter. Now, these same ladies, who aspire to follow the latest dictates of fashion, go instead to one of the many tea rooms which have sprung up here and there in the popular quarters, and they drink strong Eng- lish tea and eat plum cake with a great air of satisfaction. It is a question if many of them really like 90 A SHOPPING GUIDE the English drink. The French have always regarded any brew as a tisane, only good for medicinal pur- poses: bnt it is considered chic to drink tea in the late afternoon, so the demand for it has become so universal that all the patisseries and most of the cafes serve it. It is apparent, however, that the French do not all comprehend the significance of the in- novation, as one may gather from a sign conspicuously displayed in a cafe near the Opera which reads " a 4 heures five o'clock tea/' A long time ago, an English book store on the Eue de Rivoli, in order to accommodate its patrons, set up two tea tables behind a screen at the Copyright by Stereo- Travel Co. Antiques and objects of art, books and stationery — these are the main commodities on the Rue Rivoli; but there are some dainty handkerchief and lin- gerie shops, and the Redfern establishment is here SHOPPING IN PARIS 91 back of the shop. Little by little their patronage grew and presently a full- fledged tea room was established in an entresol upstairs — the first in Paris. That was the beginning of the revo- lutionary movement. It did not take long for other enterprising shop- keepers to realize that the large Eng- lish-speaking colony in Paris would patronize attractive tea rooms, if any were provided for their use. So the establishments have grown and multi- plied, and with them the institution of afternoon tea drinking as well. Some of the tea shops, like Colom- bin's, make no pretense at changing their interior arrangements or dec- orations to suit the new business. 92 A SHOPPING GUIDE This is just a bake shop, but it is one of the most fashionable tea rooms in Paris. During the spring season, from four o'clock to five, the narrow Eue Cambon is so crowded with car- riages and automobiles that traffic is interfered with; and yet the tea served at Colombin's is of a very non- descript variety. It might be any- thing almost — steeped straw, even — but the cakes are delicious. The original Paris tea room is near by. It has changed its name and its decoration, but it still maintains its reading-room and its general English air. The Lipton tea rooms are much more decorated, but no more ex- pensive. They are in the Boulevard SHOPPING IN PARIS 93 Haussmann. At Eumpelmayer 's, in the Eue de Eivoli, one sees perhaps the best dressed assemblage, except it may be that which gathers at the fashionable Hotel Eitz at tea time. Eumpelmayer 's seems to be as much a favorite place of gouter for French men of high society as for women, and it is quite the usual thing to see a well-dressed man enjoying alone there his cup of tea and plate of cakes. Many of the smaller tea rooms now serve light lunches of eggs, ham, buns, muffins and tea or chocolate. There are still others which serve a table d'hote lunch at a prix fixe, and a good substantial price it generally is; but then these meals are invariably ex- 94 A SHOPPING GUIDE cellent and daintily served, two quali- fications which may recommend them to a jaded Parisian appetite of the sort which " digest no more without Vichy.' ' Naturally, with competition in the tea-room field, it has been necessary for some of these shops Hot Cakes to spe cialize in order to and Hot Apple Pie draw a Particular pat- ronage. So it tran- spires that there is one small shop not far from the Bon Marche, where the homesick American may eat Lady Baltimore cake, the real article. An English tea house near Colombin's advertises hot cakes and hot apple pie. There is another shop in the SHOPPING IN PARIS 95 Opera quarter whose specialty is American ice-cream soda served at a counter where one sits, American fashion, on a high stool. It is curious to observe how very uncomfortable this method of taking refreshments — so natural and appropriate in the hurry and bustle of an American city — can seem, transplanted thus into an- other setting, where any repast, even the simplest, is treated with respect. But these familiar eatables are not after all what the tourist, unless he happens to tire of dishes whose names he cannot read and whose ingredients he cannot detect, has crossed the ocean to get. Nor do they in any way ex- press the race preferences of the 96 A SHOPPING GUIDE French. They are as obviously for- eign to their setting as are the small French and Italian restaurants of the American cities, places diligently sought out by the would-be Bohemian in much the same spirit which has prompted the French to adopt the afternoon tea. Not every woman tourist knows that lingerie is just as cheap at Brussels, and often quite as pretty, as at Paris. In this particular at least Brussels lives up to her nick- name of " Little Paris." There are some excellent dressmaking establish- ments, too, at Brussels, and the women of nearby countries are quite as apt to go there for their gowns as to SHOPPING IN PARIS 97 Paris. Laces everyone expects to get at Brussels, but it is not always at the shops that the best bargains are found. Many of the pension proprie- tors have affiliations with the con- vents, where most of the lace-making is done, and they will gladly help their guests to find the veil or robe they are looking for, thereby saving some part, at least, of the middleman's profit. There are some of the cities of Switzerland where wonderful em- broidery is to be found, Values in i aborioU8ly worked b Other J y Countries the nuns * n does not pay, however, to buy anything made up in Switzerland, for 98 A SHOPPING GUIDE the taste in dress of the native workers is more German than French. Swiss silks are good and substantial, and at Zurich can be bought an ex- cellent quality of silk and lisle stock- ings for as little as forty cents a pair. In general, however, the tourist will find little in Switzerland to carry away but the carved wood souvenirs of the several towns he has visited. Italy, too, is a land for souvenir- hunters, although it has its practical modern offerings as well, for Northern Italy is fast gaining rank as an in- dustrial country. Milan and Turin are both thriving cities, each selling much the same commodities as one finds elsewhere in Europe. Italian SHOPPING IN PARIS 99 women are entirely Paris influenced in the matter of dress, but the men, curiously enough, look more Ameri- can than any other Europeans, per- haps because many of them have been to America for longer or shorter periods and they prefer the loose American sack suit and the sensible shoes to the braid-trimmed suits and pointed toes of the Parisian dandy, or the rough tweed of the English- men. Florence, they say, has some good, cheap dressmakers, but it would re- quire a residence there of some length to profit by that advantage. In a city with so many historic monuments and such wonderful galleries, it really 100 A SHOPPING GUIDE would scarcely pay to stop sight-see- ing to visit a dressmaker. Every tourist goes to the market stalls to buy the pretty, braided hats. They make good and inexpensive presents, and they trim up nicely for summer wear, being graceful and made in delicate colorings. Then, too, the Florentine cheap gloves are a com- fort — the kid is so soft; and though they do not wear very long, at twenty cents the pair anyone can afford an ample supply. A dozen fresh white kid gloves for two dollars and a half is not a purchase one can make every- where. There is one bit of shopping which the tourist will do well not to neglect, SHOPPING IN PARIS 101 no matter where lie travels. That is the particular edible product of each city he visits, for there Edible . , . ,, n 1 n , . 7 ., , is not one m the whole Specializes of Europe but has its specialite. You can begin with Devonshire cream, if you are coming from England. You would be sorry to miss that delectable stuff. At some future time, too, you will be glad to remember that you have tasted Southdown mutton. France is especially rich in culinary specialties. In some districts they are but trifles, like the macaroons of Amiens and the Sucre d'orge of Tours. Again, it may be a succulent sausage or a savory cheese for which 102 A SHOPPING GUIDE a city or a department is noted. If you should spend a Sunday at Trou- ville you must eat good pont Veveque, made near by. Drink cider in Nor- mandy and Brittany and champagne in the Champagne country. When you are in the Lorraine, you must sample the delicious Bar-le-Duc pre- serves made there, and so on. In Switzerland, sweet chocolate is a national product and a definite article of diet — very often on moun- tain climbs a meal! The little land of pleasure has also won a consider- able renown through its goat cheeses and some of its breads and cakes. You can find out for the asking what the people of each country like best to SHOPPING IN PARIS 103 eat, and you will arrive at a shade more local color perhaps by sampling it. A word now abont the actual busi- ness of buying in Europe. Ameri- cans have for so long been fed on the belief that everything in Europe is so very much cheaper than it is at home that the tourist on his first trip over is apt to feel himself robbed at every turn, if he is obliged to part with more money on his travels than he had counted upon. Europe was once cheap to travel in, but the trav- elers themselves, and the easier methods of getting about, have " changed all that." The novice will not find traveling cheap, not because 104 A SHOPPING GUIDE he is being robbed, but because his very inexperience obliges him to travel where and in the way that others do — the others who have set the scale of prices asked and tips ex- pected. The unspoiled districts, as yet not uncomfortably affected by the universal l i higher cost of living, ' ' are only for the initiated. The newcomer to Europe, there- fore, may go on his way grumbling, giving tips often as ridiculously small as large, through his ignorance of the language and of the money values ; wondering all the while at the dissatisfaction he leaves in his trail, and finally dismissing the matter by summing up the inhabitants of all SHOPPING IN PARIS 105 Europe as a " pack of thieves,' ' an accusation both untrue and unmerited. Another source of national misun- derstanding lies in the fact that the average traveling foreign American is suspicious Commercial . Politeness of forei ^ n commercial politeness. He con- strues it to mean only one thing, an- other trap to catch his careful sav- ings. Americans are genial but sel- dom urbane, and they approach a business transaction in quite another manner than that required at a social function. Not so the European, above all the Latin. His manners are born with him, and he can never shake them off. The ready " par- 106 A SHOPPING GUIDE don " of the Frenchman does not change its inflection, no matter where it is used, in the street, in a shop, in a drawing-room; and he conld no more reduce the business of buying and selling to the curt, impersonal basis of the American than he could change his accent. The Latin is by instinct suave and ingratiating, and he does not consider his politeness wasted on a customer, even if he does not make a sale. Shopping in France and Italy, therefore, takes on quite a gala air. It is really impossible to be brusque with a smiling French saleswoman who enthusiastically enumerates your good points as ac- cented by the garment she wishes to SHOPPING IN PARIS 107 sell you. There are American women who are " fussed " by so much atten- tion, and who find the " Bon jour " on entering and leaving a store only annoying and superfluous. It is wise, however, to fall into the Latin habits when one is dealing with Latins. The little courtesies cost nothing and they help to oil the machinery of inter- national intercourse. Another somewhat misunderstood phase of foreign buying is that which is called bargaining. In the East it is still the legitimate way of getting what you want, but in the large cities of Europe the prix fixe is coming more and more to be the universal rule. Certainly no one would think 108 A SHOPPING GUIDE of bargaining in a department store. To readjust successfully a given price, the dealings must be between proprietor and buyer, and, except in very small establishments, such a con- dition is impossible. Consequently the tourist will do well to feel his way before he attempts the un-American pastime of juggling with the price of an article offered him for sale. JUL 9 W2 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 231 550 6 •