Today marked the first day of the annual Soldes d’hiver, which starts on the second Wednesday of January and runs for 5 weeks. There are two of these sales periods per year, one in the Winter (hiver) and one in the summer (été). One of my friends who went to an academic program for a few weeks in Paris years ago told us that the only word she remembered was "soldes" because it was EVERYWHERE. And yes, yes it is.
After reading through various blogs, websites and the French Wikipedia article on it, I still don't totally understand how it works, but apparently it's a government regulated (!?!) sales period where stores put things on massive discounts. Basically everyone buys their wardrobe, home supplies, and everything else during these sales periods.
As we already bought everything before we moved here (due to the dollar being weak against the Euro, and well, that Paris one of the most expensive cities in the world so of course everything's going to be more expensive) I don't think we'll be partaking much in the festivities. Well that and I detest shopping. But for those who enjoy it, this is the time to shop in Paris.
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