An invitation for a behind-the-scenes tour of Hermés with Kate (Mais Oui Paris)

Ali Baba's cave?! No, it's just one of the glittering window displays at Hermés.

Imagine, if you will, me sitting on bus 72 squinting at the screen of my iPhone to read the Twitter feed rather than looking out the window to admire the Eiffel Tower, the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre. Right about the time that the bus pulled away from Pont Neuf, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, re-read the following tweet and felt a pang of jealousy.

Kate Mai @maihem 12 Jan

Off to tour Hermes atelier. Not bad for a Thursday morning. Hoping for party favors!

What! How did Kate, an even "newbier" newbie to Paris than me, manage to get inside the hallowed doors of the Hermés workshop? For a few seconds, I felt like the kid who read a tweet from her friend Charlie saying that he had just found the last golden ticket to Willie Wonka's chocolate factory inside his Wonka Bar. Fortunately, it didn't take me long to snap out of it and realize that I would also get to have a glimpse inside the Hermés workshop because Kate's a fellow American expat blogger. Talk about good luck! Since I thought that some of you would enjoy reading about the unique special orders, like an Hermés apple carrier, that the artisans produce and seeing Kate's behind-the-scenes photos, I asked if I could link to her post. Being a warm-hearted native of Texas, she kindly agreed. So, click on over to Mais Oui Paris if you would like to join Kate on her tour of Hermés.

Other news: The Hermés Private Sale is January 18-21. Rather than write a post about my visit to the sale yesterday, here's the link for one that I wrote last June. The only difference between the two is that I spent about 40 minutes waiting in line to get into the sale and then another 30 minutes waiting for my turn to look at the scarves, which are now 175€ marked down from 292€.

Harnesses and saddles were some of the first items produced by Hermés.


  1. that window display is crazy gold, indeed, Ali Baba's harem.

    I hit the jackpot a year and a half ago when Hermes had a moving sale here in Chicago. There was sometimes a very short line to get inside, but more incredibly there was no additional browsing after making your purchase-you were asked to leave the store. Oh, well, okay, bye. They're very French that way.

  2. They kind of took that approach at the sale yesterday. In a change from the sale in June, they herded a group of about 25 people from the line into a small enclosed area to look at the scarves for a limited amount of time. Imagine people rushing, grabbing, trying on scarves, exchanging ones they didn't like with other customers while a guard counts down the minutes - 5, 4, 3 2 - before herding everyone to the counter where they exchange the scarves that the people want to purchase with a slip of paper that you give to the cashier when you're ready to leave.

    Time really is relative because it seemed to take forever when the groups in front of me were looking at scarves but it flew by when it was finally my turn.

  3. Do you get an orange box when you buy on sale? I don't think they give you the orange shopping bag, correct?

    1. Nope - they don't give you a box for the scarf or the orange shopping bag when you buy it on sale. Instead, you get a white shopping bag.

  4. My goodness, what beautiful things. Off to read Kate's blog now.

    1. They certainly are beautiful - I just can't imagine putting that shiny saddle on a horse!


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