Bargain-Hunting for Designer Fashion at La Vallée Village:
Tuesday was shopping day for us and the plan was to head for one of the shopping outlets in Paris. We’ve heard a lot about Chic Outlet’s La Vallée Village and thought that it was time for us to check out the bargains for designer fashion at this Paris outlet. Although the sales season was just a couple of weeks away, privilege members of La Vallée Village, of which yours truly was one, were being seduced by extra discounts of 30% to 50% if we went shopping this week and on top of that, we were offered half-price travel on their Shopping Express. So with all the incentives, who could resist the temptation to shop.
Getting to La Vallée Village
If you are visiting Paris, the easiest way to get to La Vallée Village is by their Shopping Express. Ticket sales for the Shopping Express are handled by ParisCityVision and you can book the transport online here or from the ParisCityVision office at 2 rue des Pyramides, Paris 75001. The Shopping Express ticket also gives you an extra 10% discount at three shops of your choice.
There are two departures and return trips each day. The big black La Vallée Village bus departs from 2 rue des Pyramides at 09:30 and 12:30 each day, and the return trip to Paris departs from La Vallée at 14:30 and 17:00. The trip takes between 45 minutes and an hour, depending on traffic.
Designer Shopping at La Vallée
The grounds of La Vallée are smaller than what I had anticipated, but there are some 120 designer boutiques to explore here. We first called into the Visitor Center to collect our discount pass and then went straight for the shops. Ferragamo was the first shop where I was hoping to find some shoes, but I thought the shop here was not as good as Ferragamo at Castel Romano in Rome. Kenzo was another shop where I was looking forward to finding some colourful Kenzo fashionwear, but I was quite disappointed not to find anything interesting. Apart from some jeans and bits and pieces, there weren’t anything exceptional or tempting. A look into a few other shops and I was still empty handed, but my luck picked up when I got to TODS. Here I found a nice pair of sandals for €154. At Marithé + François Girbaud I found a pair of very nice shorts for €50.
Tony was much luckier – He found a nice pair of boots, a pair of shoes and a nice woven top at the Armani outlet. He also bought a nice jacket at Marithé + François Girbaud. With our privilege discount card, we got good bargains on our purchases and on top of this, because our purchases were more than €175 we qualified for VAT refunds.
Hunting Down Bargains
Compared to Castel Romano and the Noventa Outlet in Venice in Italy, we thought that we had to work harder to find bargain items at La Vallée Village. At Castel Romano in Rome, we are always able to find last year’s fashion at 30 to 50% discount, with the much older fashions at higher discounted rates. At La Vallée, we didn’t see many of the more recent fashions, at least not in what we were looking for. There were certainly bargains to be found, but we were very selective with our purchases so we had to work harder. If you really want to hunt down bargains, you need to allow time there.
We caught the 5 pm Shopping Express bus back to Paris and due to peak hour traffic jams it did take us slightly over an hour to get back. The Shopping Express drops you back at the ParisCityVision office at rue des Pyramides.
You can book your La Vallée Village Shopping Express Here.
See more La Vallée Village photos Here.
Address:
La Vallée Village
3, cours de la Garonne
77700 Serris
France
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