Pourquoi ne pas faire les soldes à Paris?

A couple of months ago, I travelled to Paris for a shopping treat. I arrived filled with the hope of acquiring some wonderful spring and summer items. How wrong I was. What I had inadvertently failed to factor into the equation were the remaining Christmas layers that had shifted me from the French size 40 (a 10) to 42 (a 12). To my horror, I discovered that a great many of my favourite shops did not in fact store anything above a 40. Was this fashion gone mad? Had the French all suddenly decided to starve their children and cause social isolation of their fatter citizens by letting them go naked?

So began my investigation into the strange case of the disappearing 42. As it turns out, in Paris, the mysterious 42 has rarely been stored in those shops. When it is, it sells out quickly. The truth is that French women on the whole stick to their adolescent sizes far more than the British. I was about to describe them as pre-pubescent in a fit of pique at their ability to maintain their figures, but I think both you and I know that’s just not true. The truth of the matter is that they stick to their size religiously. None of this talk of finding your ‘happy weight’, French women are happy when they’re at the weight they started at when they were 20.

What also never ceases to amaze me is how much more regimented their outfits are. In the most complimentary of ways, their ensembles are colour-coded, always accessorized and far more classic than the eccentric tendency the Brits harbour. Of course some women go for the boho-chic look and also manage that beautifully (some less successfully) but far more importance is attached, especially in the workplace, to simple and predictable elegance.

So it was I left Paris a little disheartened at missing out on some of the more alternative collections but somewhat more demure with my clean cut white suit and stilettos. It’s funny, I almost wouldn’t have had the gall to try something quite that elegant but in Paris, such elegance is a requisite.