soldes

If there is one word you need to know in French it is soldes. Which translates to sales. SALES! SALES! SALES! Everything goes on sale the first wednesday of January (and again in June/July). All the clothing stores are marked down heavily and each week in January they drop even lower. The first week of the sale items are 25%-30% off, week two 40% off, week three 50% and week four 70% off. If you go during the first day or first weekend you have first pick of everything....but if you wait long enough you can score a reaaally good deal. Because of la crise (economic crisis), most of the items were 30-70% off the first week! SCORE!

I went to Zara to find a good winter coat and it took me 2 hours to nudge my way through the crowds, yank articles aggressively from the racks, wait in line for the cabines d'essayage (dressing rooms), try on the clothes, wait in line for the caisses (registers) and finally leave. It was hectic but it was definitely a real French experience. Upon leaving I wanted to caputre a video of the madness:

If you notice towards the end you can hear a security guard saying: Madame! Madame! I soon found out that you are not allowed to take videos inside the store. I played the dumb American card and said I had no idea (I really did have no idea) and that I was sorry and that I wouldn't do it again.