Today we ventured a little farther from home, and took the Metro to Paris' largest department store, Galeries La Fayette. It's really three buildings on three corners of an intersection on Blvd. Haussmann. The largest building was for women's fashion, jewlry, cosmetics & perfumes, and children's clothing. The ground floor was spectacular, with each brand having its own boutique. There was a boutique for each brand of designer purse, and the most popular had long lines with a security person letting in 5 or 6 people at a time. Surprisingly, the longest line was at Longchamps, where most of the customers seemed to be from Asia. There were also long lines at Louis Vuitton and Chanel. On the rooftop of this building there was an observation deck and a restaurant. The views were okay, but unspectacular.

The second building was for men's clothing and also an interesting gourmet food store and spice market on the first floor (which would be the 2nd floor in the USA). The third building, which we did not visit, was for home furnishings and gifts.

The most spectacular aspect of Galeries La Fayette was the atrium design of the main building with it's gorgeous dome. On all but the ground floor, the shops were arranged only around the edges, allowing shoppers on the ground floor to have an unobstructed view of the dome. There is a photo of some of the dome and floors with this blog entry, and you can see more pics in "Photos".