Celebrating its seventh birthday this month, Little Paris is Crouch End’s favourite treasure trove for vintage French homewares and carefully sourced new Parisian designs with interior designer-owner Nicolas Peponnet at the helm.
Having taken over from former owner Helene at the start of 2015, Peponnet has introduced his own stamp to Little Paris, while retaining that essential vintage Gallic charm that the Crouch End crowd have grown to know and love.
USP
The staff are French through and through and bring their design nous to the stock, be it furniture, home fragrance, clothing or jewellery. Parisian chic permeates throughout and Peponnet travels to visit dealers in France once a month, bringing back the best of French vintage and antique furniture in his van.
What’s the look?
As an interior designer Peponnet has worked on interiors for several of London’s hottest new restaurant openings, including the re-imagined traditional Paris bistro Blanchette in Soho. In keeping with that location’s old time French vibe, Little Paris’s furniture and home accessories stock tends covers three main strands: Napoleonic, late-19th century and 20th century industrial.
Best for
French scented candles, but not the ones that are stocked in every department store – Durance are from the perfume capital of France, Grasse, while the Bougies la Francaise brand is based in the west of France. Otherwise, pieces of small French furniture are the big hitter here. Think marble bistro tables, ornate vintage mirrors, and Champagne coupes modelled on Marie Antoinette’s breast (“They are very flat,” says Peponnet). You can shop a selection of items at Pocket High Street.
Who shops there?
During the week Little Paris welcomes Crouch End’s style cognoscenti, as well as such north London stalwarts as X Men actors James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult (not together), Channel 4 news journalist Jon Snow, and Emma Watson. At the weekends London’s French diaspora flock from far and wide to snap up a nostalgic feel of home.
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