There's a periodical out of Paris called Purple that's a little off the beaten track but worth exploring. It's kind of like a combination between a magazine and a book, but they also used to have a cafe and a store. It's near Gare du Nord, the North Station. I had a rice-milk/lavender-tea combination that had little passion fruit seeds or something floating in it. They have impossible-to-find books by local artists and custom-made clothing by a local artist; it's basically like a little gallery. They'll have a photo show by someone you've never heard of from Singapore, and then they'll release all of these different periodicals called Purple. It's an interesting way to keep up with what's going on in the fringes of European art. The impact that they have on more traditional galleries and art circles is pretty profound. Everybody keeps their eye on Purple.

HAIRSHIRT
A couple of blocks away from Hôtel Costes there's a Helmut Lang store, which is really fun. And you can go down to Colette, which is Paris's most famous shop. Colette is really key, because it's a destination store. Virtually everyone I know goes to Paris to go to Colette. It kind of changed the face of what a store could be, simply by the approach that they use. Which is that stuff is laid out almost like at a museum. You walk by and look at it, and it's all for sale, but you kind of feel like you're in a gallery or museum. And they pull stuff from all over the world. There's a great cafe downstairs that has free Internet. And they sell books, records, shoes, watches, jewelry, and they have a makeup counter. Basically anything that you've seen in a magazine that's hip, new, and interesting, you're going to find at Colette. Even if you're not buying stuff, you can go there just for the experience of being there.