Paris – Part 3: Passage 53 and Chanel

Today I wanted to share Part 3 of Paris with you all (Part 1 and Part 2 here). Before we did our shopping, Mr. Feather and I had lunch at an amazing restaurant called Passage 53, which serves French food with a Japanese touch. The restaurant was recently awarded its second Michelin star (may be about to get a third soon) and I would really recommend it for lunch – four courses were quite affordable too by Paris standards, I think less than 60 euro each per person). Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of all the food except for the dessert below – I am so happy when there’s lots of dessert at restaurants because I have a total sweet tooth.

Passage 53 is in the Passage des Panoramas which is the oldest covered passageway in Paris! There are tons of affordable and delicious looking dining options inside.

There are also a ton of really lovely, unique shops! I saw more than a few stamp shops, I thought this giant vintage suitcase with all these used stamps below was so cool:

There was also a very interesting doll shop that sold all kinds of doll parts including empty doll heads, eyes, hair, etc. Here are all the different eyes that you could buy to put in your doll – to be honest, while the shop was definitely cool I was a little scared. It seemed like somewhere Hannibal Lecter would shop (come closer, Clarice…).

After eating, Mr. Feather and I headed back to the Vendome area to do some shopping (we walked – it’s a very nice walk, around a mile or so). You know that I had a wonderful time at Hermes, but to be honest, the best shopping experience I had was at Chanel!

Chanel Rue Cambon flagship

After the crazy crowds at 24 Faubourg I was a little scared of visiting the Chanel flagship at Rue Cambon. It was indeed really crowded. But as soon as I walked in, it was such a great experience. A lovely sales associate immediately went up to us and asked if I was looking for anything special. I replied that I just wanted to walk around, and she said of course, would we mind if she walked us around the store and had some refreshments brought over as well?

After I got my green tea (hey, tea is 8 euros at Laduree – I take free whenever I can), we ended up in ready to wear, where they have racks and racks organized by your size. I was DYING! Everything was so gorgeous, I was well past my 8th iteration of “OMG, I love it, I love it, so pretty, DEAR LORD look at the PRICE, why didn’t I listen to my parents and study engineering so I could have started the next Facebook and thus could BUY THIS JACKET” when Mr. Feather began to yawn conspicuously and mutter worrisome sounding phrases such as, “fiscal responsibility” and “when are we going to see some cultural sights.” So I quickly moved onto shoes and accessories…where I eventually fell in love with these sweet shoes. They are not as jaw droppingly beautiful as a Lesage tweed jacket but hopefully they will be more durable…!

By the way – most luxury shops in Paris will deliver to your hotel, free of charge (not the case in other European cities I’ve found), and so I would definitely take advantage of this – it leaves you free to walk around and the bags appear nicely in your room at the end of the day! I have never had an issue with this.

I have been looking for the perfect pair of slightly cowboy + slightly Isabel Marant-ish plus totally comfortable boots in a particular tan shade for the longest time – I finally found them at Chanel! I would recommend these little boots very much, very stylish and comfortable.

Next to some oxford heels that came in the mail while I was gone..

Just leaving you all with a little totally unrelated anecdote. I love the camellia that Chanel includes on its packaging and when we came back, I was searching for it in my luggage. It turns out Mr. Feather stuck it on the fridge! I took a photo for you all and then noticed it was next to this obscure magnet from Lacock, Wiltshire. I got this magnet when I was once stuck in Bath, England for a long time for business related reasons (don’t ask). One weekend I was so bored that I decided to go on a Harry Potter England tour… even though I don’t even watch Harry Potter! Apparently Lacock is where some of the movies are filmed – since everybody was oohing and aahing I decided I might as well get a magnet!

Okay, I hope you all enjoyed Part 3 of Paris! Look out for Part 4 sometime soon 🙂