One of the things I really hate about travelling is furnishing a new apartment when I don't know where to find stuff. You just arrived in the country, you're tired and/or jet lagged, you don't know the language, and you have to get your place livable in two days because classes or work start on the third day. What do you do?

Living in Paris can be a fun experience after you find an apartment and finally make it comfortable. As a newcomer to this history steeped city, I knew neither where to find what I needed nor what places were good quality. It's taken me two years to discover where to shop for household stuff. The places here are where I now go.

Hypermarchés are another great place to find things. The best comparison for Americans would be hypermarchés are like a Super Target or small Walmart. The selection, prices, and quality varies greatly from store to store.

Géant Casino and Paris Store
Géant Casino is located in the blue building at 113 place de Vénétie and Paris Store is across the street. Both have a decent selection of household items and food. Great place if you're in the 13e.

Place d'Italie
Easily found at the Place d'Italie metro stop, there is a Carrefour underneath that had a reasonable selection of many household things.

Carrefour Hypermarché
There is a really large Carrefour Hypermarché located on 1 avenue Général Sarrail in the 16e of Paris. This place is huge, has a large selection of foreign foods, and many household and personal items I've only found on Amazon. Most mornings there is an open air market nearby with decent prices and selection.

There is a store in Paris that is all about Teddy bears. L'Ours du Marais is full of all things teddy. Teddy bears from all over the world, many are unique or hand made. There are plates, figurines, clothes, and more. If you like bears, and especially if you love bears, you have to stop here at least once.

I've been looking and looking and I finally found a nice little art store here in Paris! The name is Loisirs et Création. The one I found is at Centre Commercial (Mall) Passy Plaza. The nearest metros are Line 6: Passy, Line 9: La Muette, and RER C: Boulainvilliers. They are the first place I've found that has Fimo, that means I can now get back into making prototypes for pewter casting! I don't have the equipment to do the pewter casting itself, but I can at least improve my skills by making prototypes. They also have fabric glue at a good price, which means I can attach the backlog of patches I have to my instrument case. There is also a nice variety of brushes, drawing supplies, painting supplies, beading supplies, fabric paints, etc. Admittedly, they aren't the largest of stores, but they have a fair amount of what most people need, especially me :) It's the closest thing to a Michaels that I've found in Paris. They have some other sites at C.C. (Centre Commercial) Crétail Soleil, C.C. Evry II in Evry, and C.C. Les Passages in Boulogne.