No, Thank You.

A charity shop? It can't be! Oh, how quaint! How idyllic! We must go! We'll buy everything! Largely my thoughts when I read about the shop Merci, that consequently fuelled a manic run around Paris looking for it. Such a hype can't be damaging for the owners, though through their great attention, you'd want to buy everything regardless of your wonderfully selfless giving nature anyway.

A non-profit store that looks like it could rival the best concept stores in the world, I was hesitant to put even that label on it – as ma soeur Anna (Monopoly Houses) suggests, concept stores are often too open planned to hide from staff who look like you've walked in with a dick on your head, or too cool that you feel you couldn't buy something because who the fuck are you kidding buying a vinyl/blue suede shoes/coffee table book in Russian? Merci still has very minute elements of that – staff still think they're God's gift to retail, and you could walk around the home stuff telling yourself you saw those €3000 chairs for coppers in Ikea anyway.



But those little things will surface in any good shop in Paris, and this furniture shop come cafeteria come library come boutique goes far beyond any of them in giving the quite real feeling that this space and it's contents are what is completely necessary in the bohemian sophistication that so many shops and brand strive for – you want everything, you need everything, you want to drink in that modest but furtively chic tea room everyday, you want to read from that ceiling high book case that stole your eye on an optical trail of wonder and promise, you want to wander around that courtyard, the loft, more tables with teapots, cakes, books, bags, clothes rails!!!

Ah, serious consumer candy. With a new philosophy. And for an immediately good cause? Who's idea was this?



N.B. The old Fiat 500 that gets a make over every season. Too good.

Photos: Ventana Travel Blog; Tara Bradford; LuxeMode.