After visiting the Opera, we went to take a look at the nearby Galleries Lafayette.
There are a few buildings that adjoin each other that are part of the store. You need to find the correct one but when you do this is what you see.
It's all very impressive when you look up.
However when you look around instead of up, it is just another souped up department store with the main floor area covered with counters selling perfume. There must be a huge markup on what is already a very expensive product.
The following day we went to Bon Marche on the Left Bank.
Again, there are several buildings and you need to find the right one. We happened to go into the food hall which was quite impressive with the huge range of expensive food available. Think Harrods not Food Lion, Acme, Tesco, Woolies or Publix.
We did go to the main building with the interesting architecture.
What a surprise, perfume counters again.
Some of the roofs are quite spectacular. Fortunately they don't seem to get hail in Paris.
You see this sign in every Metro station. Occasionally some has posted a 'sexist' sign on them.
Somehow I get the sense that what was special about these two buildings has been lost. The counters on the ground floor have too much shine and glitter and overwhelm the ceilings. They don't compliment them.
If I had to go to just one of them I would pick Bon Marche.
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