Contemporary and trendy shops

Some museums boast highly-contemporary shops designed like a second exhibition area

Some museums boast highly-contemporary shops designed like a second exhibition area to extend the length of a visit and offer a sales area with a striking decor.

Librairie Walther König & Cahiers d'Art - Palais de Tokyo

The ultra trendy Palais de Tokyo, mentor of the contemporary artistic avant-garde, close to the Eiffel Tower, asked the artist and graffiti artist André, the creator of the character of Monsieur A., to devise the contents and the form of the amazing Librairie Walther König & Cahiers d'Art. The conception of the shop was inspired by a petrol station in the suburbs of Stockholm. Encircled by refrigerated glass windows with integrated pink lights, the sales area displays all types of rare objects and limited editions. The space is also regularly used for special events and transformed by guest designers who transpose their world for a time into an ephemeral shop.

Librairie Walther König & Cahiers d'Art - Palais de Tokyo13 avenue du Président-Wilson, Paris 16thMore info

LabStore

In another register, Le Laboratoire has opened near to the secular Palais du Louvre; it is an experimental venue at the crossroads of science and contemporary creation with a bookshop, LabStore, a kind of vessel of the future for design and the latest innovations. A veritable bubble in white, the shop invites visitors to discover a variety of prototypes that have been devised and created by participants at the venue, and which it is possible to test or buy. Among the most astonishing, the Whiff is a process which enables you to eat by inhalation, whilst the Bel-Air is a filter which enables plants to filter the air. These unique objects are signed by designer Mathieu Lehanneur, and scientist and founder of this unique place in Paris, David Edwards.

LabStore4 rue du Bouloi, Paris 1stMore info

Boutique du Centre Pompidou

The mezzanines of the Centre Pompidou, a dynamic Parisian cultural institution, houses an original shop, with a grey concrete floor and minimalist windows. The shop offers 3,000 types of objects around five themes: living, savouring, charming, communicating, getting around and playing. Eggcups, seats, cameras, jewellery, sweets, spinning tops … catch the eye. Striking for the selection and display of objects, it offers design classics through to the latest in contemporary creation.

Boutique du Centre PompidouPlace Georges Pompidou, Paris 4eMore info

107 Rivoli - Les Arts Décoratifs

Still on the subject of design, the 107 Rivoli is the sales area of the Musée des Arts décoratifs, close to the Tuileries, in the centre of the capital. Specializing in specific areas of the decorative arts, fashion and design, the shop (in three spaces and 300 m²) offers enthusiasts and connoisseurs a fine and rare selection of books, accessories, stationary, tableware, toys … inspired by the past or present. For more up to date shopping, the shop also invites celebrities and designers to suggest a selection of ephemeral and ultra-specialist objects for the duration of an exhibition or an event.

107 Rivoli - Les Arts Décoratifs107 rue de Rivoli, Paris 1stMore info

Shop of the Opéra de Paris - Palais Garnier

Newly inaugurated, the shop of the Opéra is a gem of a place situated within the prestigious Palais Garnier. A reference for discovering talents and trends in Europe, the gallery specializes in the operatic and choreographic arts and is divided into four areas: multimedia library, Art for children, Memory and Performance, and linked to the artistic programme of the famous institution. Educational games, designer objects, books, technological or even signature and showcase objects already make this a cult address for the latest in museum shopping !

Boutique de l’Opéra de Paris - Palais GarnierRue Halévy, Paris 9thMore info

The bookshop-shop of the Musée du quai Branly

The bookshop-shop of the Musée du quai Branly, situated on the Seine quayside near to the Eiffel Tower, offers a 170 m² original sales area devoted to art from outside Europe. This unique place acclaimed by the general public and professionals, offers a variety of ethnic objects while advocating the values of fair trade, with for example A-Typik and its Colombian jewellery, whose profits go to the reconstruction of schools in Colombia.

Librairie-boutique du musée du quai Branly37 quai Jacques Chirac, Paris 7thMore info