Shopping for dinner with a Parisian can be a day’s long proposition. Because they can, Parisians tend to have a place where they dependably go for any given item. There’s the boulangerie where they always buy baguettes (and the one where they never will), the cheese shop with the crottins they love, the fish vendor they can rely on and the wine cave with the salesperson they trust most. Odds are, they also have this one boutique where they buy white button down shirts and one for sandals every summer, and a place where they get their perfume, too. The same is true when it comes to shopping for art or craft supplies. There are the shops that specialize in paint and the ones that are go-tos for paper and others where the ribbons are just right. There’s a reason that many of these stores have endured for decades and in some cases centuries – because they have fallen into the decided paths of many–be they Pablo Picasso or Jean-Paul Gaultier. Here, a dozen art shops for painters, woodworkers and calligraphists, to put on your path in the City of Lights.

Paint & Oil Pastels

Magasin Sennelier

Lined in oak drawers, shelves and counters, with creaky wood floors, Magasin Sennelier’s original store, opposite the Louvre, blocks from the Ècole des Beaux Arts the d’Orsay and Rodin museums and just up the Seine from Charvin (below), has been undeniably a painter’s place for nearly 150 years. For any variety of paint—gouache to acrylic to oil pastel to watercolor—or canvas or brush required, Sennelier is the answer. The company, which was started by a chemist, Gustave Sennelier, is known for its constant innovation and for this reason has been a favorite of artists including Pablo Picasso, for whom Senellier created his own line of oil pastels. Other such Sennelier devotees have included Marc Chagall, Claude Monet, Amodeo Modigliani, and Salvador Dali. Today, Sennelier has three shops in Paris, making its selection ever-more accessible.
3 quai Voltaire, 75007

Charvin

The now-cliché colors of the French riviera—from the varied blues of the Mediterranean to purples of the lavender and yellows of the summer fields, have understandably held sway over countless painters over the years, but they have also inspired nearly 200 years of paint made by the Charvin family. Since 1830, Charvin has sold its proprietary line of paints – oils, acrylics and watercolors—to artists around the world. Now run by Bruno and Laurence Charvin, with a shop in Saint-Germain des Prés, just across the Seine from the Louvre, the company sells 210 oil colors and 110 acrylic, all made in France using the best pigments available. The company’s watercolors are of special note because they are air-dried as opposed to heated, which keeps their vivid and intense colors intact.
57 quai des Grands Augustins, 75006

La Maison du Pastel

Set in an old garage, accessed through a courtyard off rue Rambuteau, the Parisian boutique for La Maison du Pastel is only open on Thursday afternoons, from 2 pm to 6 pm; the rest of the week, owners Isabelle Roché and Margaret Zayer are in the country, making pastels. With beginnings in the 18th century, La Maison du Pastel has been in the Roché family since 1865. Much of its existence has been spent working directly with artists to fashion colors and pastels to fit their needs. But by 1999, the company was suffering and Isabelle left her work as an engineer to bring it back to life. She hired an American intern, an artist, Zayer, who eventually became Roché’s partner in the business, and who spends much of her time working to formulate new colors. Currently, La Maison produces more than 1600 colors richly hued pastels, releasing between 60 and 100 new ones each year.
20 rue Rambuteau, 75003

Woodworking & Marble

Produits d’Antan

To skip over this corner shop in the 11th, is to miss being transported to a different time altogether. Produits d’Antan has been a fixture of this now trendy neighborhood for 100 years and while the products on its shelves might not be a fit for everyone, perusing its multitudinous bottles of oils, lacquers, glues and tools, mostly intended to be used in maintaining wood and marble furniture and art, is a completely lovely (if perhaps a bit strange) way to spend some of an afternoon.
10 Rue Saint-Bernard, 75011

Paper

Mélodies Graphiques

In 1986, Eric de Tugny opened Mélodies Graphiques as a place to showcase his love of artfully-made paper and his incredible talent when it came to calligraphy. Thirty years later, he sold his shop to Giacomo and Hiromi Nottiani, who have carried it forth with the same attention to detail and care and have expanded into the space next door to offer stamps and sealing wax, and old papers. Hiromi, who studied under master calligrapher and typographer Claude Mediavilla, also teaches writing classes. The couple source handmade papers from Italy, France and Japan and sell pens made in Paris just for their store, as well as more than 100 different colors of ink and antique calligraphy nibs from the early 20th century. In addition to having a devoted following of writers, Mélodies Graphiques also often works with film designers.
10 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe, 75004

Papier Plus

Located directly across the street from Mélodies Graphiques, in a bizarrely paper-dense corner of the Marais, Papier Plus is an entirely different take on a paper shop. Modern and meticulous, here, the selection surrounds brightly colored and beautifully weighted cloth-bound notebooks and photo albums, stationery, and pens all designed and made especially for the shop, which is owned by an ex-book publisher.
9 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe, 75004

Thread, Yarn, & Fabric

Maison Sajou

In 2005 Frédérique Crestin-Billet, fresh off a career in publishing, resuscitated an old French trademark, Maison Sajou, which had been dormant for over a century. The company had been known for its little booklets of embroidery and cross-stitch patterns and inspired by this, Crestin-Billet created an entire line, primarily based in vintage designs, including thousands of colors of embroidery and sewing threads made by the last French thread manufacturer, Ets Toulemonde in the north of France and a line of scissors inspired by those once made the country’s finest cutlery producers, in the shape of the Eiffel tower, a rabbit and various birds. Her Paris shop closed amidst the pandemic, but Maison Sajou has taken up a small residence in a corner of the second floor at Bon Marché. Her flagship store is in Versailles.
Bon Marché Rive Gauche, 38 rue de Sèvres, 75006

Marché Saint-Pierre

Spanning five floors and more than 25,000 square feet, Marché Saint-Pierre, near Sacré-Coeur, is an emporium of fabric vendors, dealing in everything from toiles to linens to silks to velvet upholstery fabrics. There’s a hustle to this place, with sometimes-brusque salespeople, armed with long scissors and meter sticks, matched by good deals. Spend some time in the largest shop, Tissu Dreyfus, if for nothing else but to spot the wildly outfitted mannequins throughout.
2 rue Charles Nodier, 75018

La Droguerie

Paris’s best craft shop is in an old butcher’s shop in Les Halles, its history made evident in the white-tiled walls and the hooks from which now hang skeins of yarn. Over the last 4o-plus years, family-run La Droguerie has expanded in all manners of craft, from knitting, to jewelry-making to sewing, now with more than 10,000 items. At the core of its offerings are its yarns, dyed at the company’s own factory in Mallièvre in France’s Loire region. With the ability to produce its own colors in varying quantities, La Droguerie’s selection evolves every season. To go with its signature yarns, is a massive collection of buttons, often made with the project kits for which the store is so well-known in mind. And although La Droguerie now has 10 shops across France and four in Japan, it still has a boutique vibe and offers private lessons to shoppers who so desire.
9 et 11 rue du Jour, 75001

Ribbons & Such

Ultramod

Directly across from one another, on Rue de Choiseul, just at the entrance to Passage Choiseul, the city’s longest arcade, sit the two storefronts for Ultramod, the oldest haberdashery in Paris. Since 1890, Ultramod has dealt in hats, along with all sorts of silk ribbons, buttons, tassels, embroidery thread and on, which line the walls, floor to very high ceiling. Currently owned by Anne-Christine and Jean-François Morin, many of Ultramod’s notions are antiques, dating back to the 1940s, sourced from factories that went out of business during the second World War, making them irreplaceable. This has long been a wonderland for Paris’s fashion set—from Givenchy to Lanvin. The hats are sold on one side of the street, the rest in the mercerie on the other.
4 rue de Choiseul, 75002

Mokuba

With beginnings in Tokyo in the late ’60s, Mokuba has had this modern boutique in Paris for more than thirty years. The company’s founder, Shoichi Watanabe, was a maker of silk ribbons and his daughter, Keiko, has carried on his legacy of making and sourcing at a very high level. Here, spools wound with ribbon and lace in myriad textures and styles from a variety of materials are displayed in tall glass cases as if in a museum. Just a short walk from the new Bourse de Commerce museum, Mokuba is a necessary stop.
18 rue Montmartre, 75001

Ets Légeron

A legend amongst fashion houses, like Dior and Chanel, Bruno Légeron represents the fourth generation to run this two-story silk flower and feather atelier in the 2nd arrondissement. Here, every flower is cut (using old metal punches), shaped, dyed and constructed by a small team of women that have worked with Légeron for years. In fact, one of their sons is slated to take over the reins when Légeron (eventually) retires. Visits by appointment only.
20 Rue des Petits Champs, 75002