Sylvie Aubry’s Les Fées

Sylvie Aubry creates the sumptuous floral arrangements in the Hôtel Crillon and the Hôtel Meurice, and her artful florist shop-art gallery-interior decor boutique Les Fées d’Herbe became a popular institution on Rue Faidherbe. But after 11 years in the 11th arrondissement, Aubry decided the time had come to relocate to the upper echelons of the northern Marais district. Preserving the eclectic spirit of her original boutique, Sylvie’s new venture, its name shortened to just Les Fées, has grown to fill the new, more spacious premises where she has upped the emphasis on home decor and created a veritable cabinet de curiositéscombining animal, vegetable and mineral discoveries. Stuffed pheasants perch amid glass candlesticks, dragonflies flutter across hand-painted porcelain plates and live goldfish swim around bulbous flower vases that double as aquariums. Aubry continues her work at the Crillon and the Meurice, so don’t be surprised to find seasonal blooms or the odd rare orchid scattered around the shop. Les Fées caters to all budgets, offering everything from one-off designer pieces, such as L’Emperleur’s exquisite glass-bead chandeliers, to colorful melamine plates decorated with fish and butterfly prints. Downstairs in the cellar you’ll find signature-striped, Catalan canvas Toiles du Soleil fabrics, which are produced in the Languedoc region and were originally used to make espadrilles. The bold sunshine stripes, whose traditional colors have been cleverly updated by decorator Françoise Quinta and her designer husband Henri, have lately become a coveted interior design component. Here they are used for table linens, cushions, deck chairs and trays, and also sold by the meter haberdashery-style.

19 rue Charlot, 3rd, Métro: Arts et Métiers. 01.43.70.14.76

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