Champs-Élysées

Thursday, we went shopping on Paris’s most famous street: Champs-Élysées, la plus belle avenue du monde (The most beautiful avenue in the world). It is right between two famous monuments, the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde. Yet, it is known mostly for SHOPPING. Some of my new favorite French boutiques are promod, NAFNAF, Etam and ZARA. Everything is so chic and modern!

The avenue

They have car stores here too!

That is a fan. I still don't understand how it works. I put my hand through both of those holes and there are no rotating thingiez

There also were some familiar faces like H&M (bigger and better than American ones) and Banana Republic (this location is the first Banana Republic in France) and the most FAMOUS, POPULAR American store in Paris is…drumroll…Abercrombie and Fitch!

I know…BARF! I didn’t even like the store when I was in middle school, when it was cool to wear something from there. The store has just always rubbed me the wrong way, from the publicity the store has gotten for discriminating against its employees based on their looks to the darkness of the store which could only mean to me they were hiding the poor quality of their overpriced clothes.

So imagine my surprise when we come to this huge golden gate with a line of people waiting to get inside and my cousins tell me it’s NOT a tourist attraction but in fact, it is an ABERCROMBIE & FITCH store. I burst out laughing, thinking they were joking. They just looked at me, confused at my reaction.

So what did I do next? Yeah, I waited in that damn line. Which means a lot because I had just gone to Disneyland, where I decided anything with a line is no longer worth my time. But I had to know what the hype was about.

The nice gate and line of people

I figured since I waited in that line I might as well get all the perks out of it...including a picture with the models ;)

A more close up shot so you all can appreciate their...clothes

After entering the gate, there was a pretty path surrounded by trees to get to the store. At the front of the store, there was a little maze of bushes. A shirtless, perfectly built A&F model greets you at the golden doors that are twice your height. The inside reminded me of any A&F store you can find at the mall at home, but the air was crisper and the floors where shinier. When I walked to the middle of the store, you could see staircases and 6 different levels with glass banisters.

With the darkness, the pounding music playing, and the hot dancing models/salespeople (yeah, they were paid to dance), I could see why people wanted to go in here…they all thought it was a nightclub!!! Okay not really, but I really wish nightclubs (boites de nuit) were as clean and smelled as nice and had as many attractive people as this Abercrombie & Fitch store.

When we were done shopping, we had this lovely view to go home to: