Cycles Laurent in the 11th. We always stop in for a jersey. A great staff that is accepting of our mediocre French. The grandfather was a pro cyclist.

Seek out Ray Maker - a regular on the forum and publisher of the very popular tech blog http://www.dcrainmaker.com/

Ray's an American, but he and his wife are currently living in Paris.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

For running stuff at shockingly low prices and European branding, go to Decathlon. The one at Metro Madeleine is the easiest to get to and has better selection than some of the others. Here is a link to the website http://www.decathlon.fr/ to give you a sense of what they have - just don't get your heart set on anything in particular from the website: They are worse that Ikea for keeping the stock up to date.

One hint: They divide the store up by sport. Some of the most useful running stuff can be found in the soccer (compression tops and underwear), hiking (cold weather jackets), tennis (especially socks) and "musculation" (loose fitting technical shirts) sections. Also French sizing fits small (a North American Medium can be a French XL / TG. Especially with kids stuff, head openings can be strangely small). Most stuff at Decathlon is marked with both a variety of European and North American sizing systems.

The cycling stuff will be disappointing but for some fun distinctly Euro stuff, check out the "nutrition aisle" and the various lotions and embrocation. They also have a huge variety of cheap sunglasses.

As for bike shops, they tend to be very small and crowded. Cycles Laurent is the best of them but be prepared for them to tell you that they are out of stock of just about anything in normal sizes.

Enjoy the remainder of your stay.

John

Thanks everyone. DC Rainmaker does indeed have some good links. I'll check out Cycles Laurent - and Decathlon as well, that's a good call.

THIS was exactly what I was going to say

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"4 wheels move the body, 2 wheels move the soul"

If you are into classical/vintage stuff, you can't miss cycles Alex Singer in Levallois


http://www.cycles-alex-singer.fr/catalogue/course-prestige.html

Technically it is outside Paris, but only for a mere 200 meters :-)

^^^^^This. Cycles Laurent is everything you expect a French LBS to be. Decathlon is more of a big box sporting goods store (think Sports Authority or Dick's), though there is one by the same metro stop as CL.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Thanks All. Shopping was successful. Went to Cycles Laurent (which I used to live near and walk by all the time, but I had no bike then). Got a cap for my bro-in-law.
Was impressed by Decathlon - hadn't realized how much better it woudl be than GoSport.
Didn't make it Levallois. Wanted to make it to the running store up in the 17th but didn't make it there either.

For anyone who might be interested - since I was going to Paris from Asia, I had the opposite jet lag I normally would. I was waking up early every day. I'd go running before traffic started. This was awesome. Go anywhere, no crowds. Ran along the seine, ran under the Eiffel Tower, up Montmartre, and through damn near every neighborhood Paris has.
Really hope to do it some year in June when I can do that and have it be light, too.

I'm late to the party but 100% agree here. Great shop, great people.

A little hard to get to, but well worth it.