Paris for men

A guide to some of the most stylish places to shop in the City of Light

Le Bleus might have it in their own backyard, but most experts believe a team called the All Blacks has the next rugby World Cup all but sewn up.

Whatever the results are on the field, there can be no doubting the sixth rugby World Cup in France starting September 7 will produce a mountain of highlights off the field too. The kind of highlights that everyone can enjoy and the live spectacles will be spread throughout France for a full month.

It will be a perfect time to plan a trip there.

And for the guys that prefer a chic party to sporting action, Paris Fashion Week will also be on at around the same time, although many of these events will be far harder to get access to.

Whether it be a post match, post shop, or post…just about anything: Could there be a better way to spend an afternoon than lazing away by the Champs Elysees? Some champers, a coffee perhaps? Check the ladies – check them checking you back. You’ll see young style queens sit down at the coffee houses around this area – girls who look like Giselle, Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell. And occasionally you might actually see the real deal walk out of a shop – especially if they’re chasing publicity.

But usually it matters not as Men’s Style found out on a recent trip to Paris when a backpacker sat close by – she would not have been out of place on any ramp in the world. Under those street side awnings the world of style meets and greets – just the way Napoleon had planned it.

And Paris is easier now than it was for non-French speakers. As the vehicles rumble along the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe, many comment on the traffic snarls but to those coming in from the Middle East, surely it’s orderly?

Either way, I don’t care when I’m in Paris, whether I’m around Parisians or tourists abandoning their city for the beach and country retreats when the weather is good. Paris is as good as any location in the world.

Parisians aren’t rude or dismissive either – that stuff usually has to be provoked. They’re generally friendly and helpful and, of course, ooze style.

There’s a lot to see, of course, or you could simply do nothing. It is defined by so many monuments that define it, although there’s much more to it. The Louvre, the Seine and its many bridges, Notre Dame Cathedral, Montmartre, the Latin Quarter and the Opera House.

But it’s the general comfort from the sandstone buildings, their shuttered and iron lacework balconies, the bookstores and patisseries, the sidewalk tables of the bars, bistros and restaurants, which are synonymous with the city.

On the Seine, the dark hulks of coal barges pushed slowly beneath the low-level bridges – only in Paris could that look good.
A five-day Metro pass is money well spent.

It helps to get around when something like a “white night” happens. In Paris at a time like that no-one is supposed to sleep, you simply party all night. This isn’t just for the Ibiza-type crowd - we’re talking mums, dads and the kids.

When you’re not partying, a meal somewhere near the shadow of the Eiffel Tower – as the clock flashes on the hour. Food to die for and scenery to boot.

Yes, everyone smokes too much for the taste of most nowadays. There’s lots of drink, the smell of garlic everywhere. Conversation is loud and alive.

Conversation at the Louvre is always buzzing, regardless of what time of day it is, especially since the release of the book the Da Vinci Code. The exterior of Louvre has a glass pyramid which sits atop it, which President Francois Mitterrand erected as a legacy to the French people.

Queues at these attractions are always daunting, worse if you take on the Eiffel Tower.

But with all the must-dos out of the way, let’s get to the point of the story – the fact that all of this style, particularly when it comes to shopping in Paris, is not solely geared to women.

Aside from the rugby, if you’re into sport like many of us, Paris has a fair bit to offer: Le Mans, the legendary 24-hour piece of petrol head paradise, and some of the greatest footballers in the world are French and there’s always a game on somewhere. Moreover, The Prix De Lard De Triomph rates as one of the top five horse races in the world. And few tennis venues are as rich in history as Roland Garros, which hosts one of the four Grand Slams.

But what guidebooks don’t usually point out is there is tremendous shopping for men. Indeed, men may be better able to justify their purchases since much of what Paris offers is the essentials: the shoes, shirts, the (Hermes) ties etc.

A good method of planning a way around the city is to head to a bookshop and purchase a repertoire of the city’s streets, organised on the basis of Paris’s 20 “arrondissements,” or districts.

You could start with the fashionable rue Marbeuf (8th) and one renowned establishment that is extra special - Berluti shoemakers, at No 26. Founded in 1895, Berluti is a shoemaker to the very rich: John F. Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis and Andy Warhol bought shoes made by Berluti, where bespoke orders start at US$8000.

Take a look through the elegant windows – you just might decide you’re ready to pay US$1000 for ready-to-wear models. These

“basic” shoes will not, alas, be made from the leather Olga Berluti, who is one of the only female bespoke shoemakers on the planet, reportedly exposes to moonlight to gain a special patina. Still, this is luxury at its best.

Good shoe shops are everywhere in Paris. For Frenchmen the name J. M. Weston has the same cachet as Church’s does to Englishmen. Founded by Eugene Blanchard in 1927, the signature Weston product is its moccasins, a variant on the American loafer, costing about US$630. Weston has seven shops in Paris, including those at 1-3 Boulevard de la Madeleine (1st) and 49 Rue de Rennes (6th).

If you find Weston’s prices a little steep, there

is, as many Frenchmen have found, an alternative. These are the shoes, again particularly moccasins, found at Finsbury that cost less than $400. Two of the most accessible Finsbury shops are 112 bis rue de Rennes (6th) and 22 Avenue de L’Opera (1st).

Rue Marbeuf (8th) is also tailored to more affordable tastes. The Alain Figaret shop at No.14 sells fantastic ties and shirts with different types of collars and fine materials, like Egyptian cotton.

Moreover, every guidebook lists the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps as department stores catering for men, but they often miss Madelios, 23 Boulevard de la Madeleine (8th) and Old England, corner of Boulevard des Capuchines and rue Scribe (9th).

Madelios is noted for its ties, which during its January and June sales are quite irresistible.

Old England, mean time, was founded in 1867 with the professed aim of selling top-end English goods to Paris customers. It’s the best of Jermyn and Bond streets transported to Paris, with the same sense of tradition and much the same cost for shirts, ties, cashmere sweaters and shoes from such London favourites as Hilditch & Key and Edward Green.

Not far away, at 36 Bis Avenue de L’Opera (2nd), is a very different shop, one that is a mecca for rugby tragics. This is Quinze, named after the No. 15 once worn on the jersey of the great French rugby fullback Serge Blanco. The man was one of the most brilliant fullbacks every to hold a rugby ball and he also happens to own the shop. As expected, Quinze stocks rugby jerseys (Canterbury and Gant), but also carries a wide range of good quality men’s casual wear and accessories. And, on occasion, the great man is there, serving in the shop.

Should you decide to upgrade your luggage from some of those suitcases you buy in the souq? At Lancel, 8 Place de L’Opera (9th); just about every conceivable item of luggage is available, from a slim portfolio to a steamer trunk. Not far away is Kindel, 33 avenue de L’Opera (2nd), which has a splendid range of the hand-crafted products for which Laguiole, a town located in the Aubrac mountains of the Aveyron in south-central France, is famous.