“According to the official Paris tourism office, nearly 350 artisan shops dot the various arrondissements.”

From fashion to fine food items, Paris is one of the world’s great shopping cities. While big-name brands like Galeries Lafayette and the luxury boutiques lining the Champs Élysées may get the most marquee attention, many shoppers come to find one-of-a-kind treasures crafted in the city’s small artisan ateliers and workshops. According to the official Paris tourism office, nearly 350 artisan shops dot the various arrondissements, carrying on the city’s love of craftsmanship, creativity, and stellar quality.

Here are five shops to add to your itinerary next time you’re in the City of Light, where you can find singular souvenirs from upcycling twists on apparel to heritage-inspired jewelry.

Atelier Gaëlle Constantini

“Porter le passé jusqu’au présent pour embellir le future” or “bringing the past into the present to beautify the future”: that’s the mission behind Atelier Gaëlle Constantini, a woman-run apparel brand with three stores throughout Paris. 

Rather than follow Paris’ standard fashion cycle of new trends and constantly-debuting collections, Gaëlle Constantini instead takes existing garments and donations of old linens and fabrics and recycles them into new, stylish pieces. Raised in a family with ties to the fashion industry and a deep appreciation for timeless and enduring pieces, her approach values personal expression, longevity, and quality while also taking fashion’s environmental impact into consideration. 

All items are handmade in France at workshops that train unemployed workers in new skills and empower them to work in a new profession. A member of several environmental organizations, including Positive Planet, Gaëlle Constantini’s upcycling operation has saved an estimated  4,505,000 liters of water and 12 tonnes of carbon compared to traditional processes.

Le Baigneur

From soaps and shampoos to hair oils, artisan soap maker Le Baigneur’s creations bring a little reminder of your Paris trip into your hygiene routine. Handmade using a cold process method to save energy on heating and preserve the nutritional qualities of the ingredients, the soaps and cosmetics use ingredients sourced from around France or the European Union. These range from honey hailing from Ile-de-France to lavender and rosemary essential oils from Provence, as well as rapeseed, sunflower, olive, and hazelnut vegetable oils.

While the brand doesn’t have an official organic certification, it’s meticulous in its sourcing and keeps its products free of GMOs, synthetic colors and perfumes, paraffins, parabens, and other artificial additives. The packaging, which includes cute glass bottles and adorable soap boxes and wrapping in shades of spearmint green and navy blue, also hails from France and is completely plastic-free and recyclable.

You can order Le Baigneur’s wares online, which include hand and body soaps, solid shampoos, and body oils, as well as find them at stores throughout Paris like La Trésorerie.

Calligrane

Shakespeare and Company, the streets and neighborhoods that inspired talent like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, book stalls along the Seine; Paris has long called for lovers of literature. If the city’s rich literary history moves you to write your own odes, head to Calligrane for your stationery and papercraft needs.

Founded in Cannes in 1979 and now with a shop at 6 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe, just steps from Notre Dame, this store derives its name from a combination of the French words for calligraphy (calligraphie) and pattern (filigrane). 

Along with offering paper products for everyday use, they also showcase how the humble page can be used for other creative purposes. Writers can choose from notebooks and sheets of paper handcrafted using heritage techniques from all over the world, like Japanese satogami or recycled cotton pages from India. 

For the paper art or “papeterie d’art” focus, Calligrane collaborated with artists to create unique paper art pieces and collections to display and sell, bringing new life to scraps of paper that may otherwise have been discarded. Greeting cards, paper jewelry, decor… paper truly shows off its versatility here.

Chic Alors!

Since making a splash in 2009 with its debut collection of Aztec-inspired pieces, designer Héloïse Mialhe’s independent jewelry brand Chic Alors! has gone on to partner with many famous fashion brands, from the likes of Brittany Ferries to Des Petits Hauts. All pieces, which use recycled metals, ethically-sourced and traceable gold, and artisan resins and glasswork from Jura and Italy, come together by hand in the Paris workshop. 

The brand’s designs honor traditional French craftsmanship by collaborating with artisans from across the country, many of whom hold the prestigious EPV (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant) certification, a distinction awarded by the French government to individuals and businesses that possess exceptional craftsmanship or uphold heritage manufacturing skills. Pieces are sold in shops and boutiques around Paris, as well as online, where you’ll find the full line-up of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, and brooches.

La Bacante Ceramics

After moving from Madrid to Paris in her early twenties, artist África Aguiar Lería turned to clay to explore and render that soul-searching time of life in physical form. Now, it’s her livelihood, as she sells slow-crafted ceramics made in her little studio, La Bacante.

Her intentionally rough-hewn, elemental work ranges from sculptural statements, decor pieces, and ceremonial items to functional finds like cups, jugs, bowls, and tableware. A word at the bottom of each piece makes the intention behind its creation, and Lería works with various classical ceramics techniques, like Japanese kurinuki. Made slowly and deliberately, each piece is truly one of a kind; a bridge connecting users and admirers to simple, joyful moments that are often forgotten in the busy pace of modern life.