in france, the whole month of january is devoted to "les soldes," aka: huge sales in every store.
now, in america, shops have sales nearly every day, especially at meier & frank. it's part of our consumerist culture-- buy buy buy, it's on sale! spend spend spend, marked down! greenspan says blah blah about the economy, you need this, buy me, you deserve it, you're worth it, spend spend spend, junk junk junk.
not that the french aren't shoppers-- au contraire! shopping here is like a religious experience, and saturdays downtown are crazy with eager customers. but it doesn't seem like the french are quite as inundated with consuming as americans are. and when the french do go shopping, many times it's for something of quality that will actually last until next year's sale-- an expensive but wicked nice leather purse, classy lambswool scarves, that one pair of nice red leather gloves that makes your outfit pop! it's quality versus quantity, and i like it.
getting back to "les soldes." one thing that's cool: unlike in america where designer (re: expensive) brands are rarely on sale, here in france EVERYTHING is on sale. that crazy 400 euro pink calfskin leather jacket? on sale for 220. those lovely longchamp purses? 20 percent off. granted, these things go on sale only once a year (maybe again in july, not sure), and most of them are winter models the stores are moving out to make room for spring stuff, but for the shopper, it's heaven.