A taste of shopping on a champagne budget

By DENISE McNABB

Fashion icons Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Sonia Rykiel, Cartier, Chanel, Christian Lacroix - their names conjure costs that are alien to a scribe's budget.

Dare to venture inside? Don't be silly - they would see through your bank balance immediately.

Shopping at the designer level - and even below - in Paris can be bank-draining. Intimidating, too, even if all you want to do is look and dream.

But there is a way: a shopping tour. Parisienne Irene Adamian is the woman behind Shopping Plus, a personalised service that, just for a moment, allows you to morph into another world, sashaying, for instance, through Sonia Rykiel's salon on boulevard Saint Germain where a studded white rabbit handbag will set you back €595 ($1232.50) and a furry purple and flame coat - the type that Naomi Campbell would float into - a mere €916 ($1896). Platinum only here please.

The polite doorman at the entrance of La Grande Epicerie de Paris is adamant: "No photos please." We are on rue de Sevres on the trendy Left Bank at the start of our tour. This is no ordinary grocer. Initially it is hard to get past the cake counter with its pink, green, cream and caramel macaroons at €4.52 ($9.33) a kilo and a tart swamped in grapes, raspberries, fanned apple slices, figs, etc.

My favourite is the fish stand in the middle of the store that stands over a discreet drain. A swordfish is centrepiece with a lemon pierced through its snout. Around it, fat St Jacques scallops, salted cod and rainbow-coloured fish are neatly stacked, their tails uniformly lined up.

Suitably salivated, we move around the corner to rue du Bac, an obvious favourite of the well off.

At Blanc D'Ivoire we spot a fur hottie cover for €133 ($276.52), crazy-coloured knives and forks at Diners en Ville at 27 rue de Varenne, and even a pair of New Zealand-made Bobux baby shoes in one tiny linen shop.

Back on boulevard Saint Germain, at 196, the sweet fragrance of rose and citrus soaps waft from Fragonard Parfumeur. Its perfumes, eaux de toilette, creams, soaps, voile and linen come from the French Riviera.

For home interiors, Flamant is more our price range. Of the two, the one at 8 rue de l'Abbaye, around the corner from the famous Deux Magots cafe, is a sort of French version of Freedom. The way wares are displayed makes you think again about your boring stack of plates on the sideboard back home. Place two square plates on top of each other at angles to make a pretty star.

A day's shopping tour that starts at the markets and includes a cooking workshop, lunch, an afternoon immersion in the fashion and jewellery boutiques and a swan around the antique and objets d'art shops costs €183.20 ($379), meals included. If time is on your side negotiate a shorter, cheaper stint by emailing ireneadamian@minitel.net.

And after the tour, hop on the Metro to Chaussee-d'Antin-La Fayette to explore the famous Galeries Lafayette department store. If you are lucky you might catch one of its regular fashion shows.

* Denise McNabb travelled to France as a guest of Cathay Pacific Airways and Maison de la France.

Official French Government Tourist Office site