Gifts, Souvenir shopping in Europe
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Uhranus
This sassy little shop delivers the goods for those seeking must-have accessories for their bodies (funky sunglasses and Diesel watches) and their abodes (retro-style lamps, vases and quirky furnishings). Other cool gift items for your hard-to-please friends back home include a range of giggle-worthy old-style Berlin postcards. The name, by the way, is a play on the German words for ‘watch’ (Uhr) and the planet Uranus.
reviewed
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Uhranus
This sassy little shop delivers the goods for those seeking must-have accessories for their bodies (funky sunglasses and Diesel watches) and their abodes (retro-style lamps, vases and quirky furnishings). Other cool gift items for your hard-to-please friends back home include a range of giggle-worthy old-style Berlin postcards. The name, by the way, is a play on the German words for ‘watch’ (Uhr) and the planet Uranus.
reviewed
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Ave Maria
In a neighbourhood of sex shops, dönerias (doner kebab outlets) and Turkish grocers, Ave Maria is a shrine to all things mother-of-god. Find frankincense, myrrh, smiling Madonnas, Jesus T-shirts, pope candles and all manner of rosaries and crucifixes. Gregorian chants enhance the browsing experience, not just for the faithful but also for pagans in search of kitsch-cool knick-knacks.
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Compendia
Compendia’s owners are madly enthusiastic about games – board or any other kind – and they’ll look for the rarest of things if you ask them to. The shop is excellent for gifts you can enjoy with your mates – backgammon, chess, Scrabble, solitaire and more fringe interests such as Mexican Train Domino, which claims to be the world’s fastest game, Carrom (popular in South Asia) and Go. Look out for the Escher jigsaws and if you’re Greenwich Park–bound, pick up a Frisbee, a kite, some juggling balls or even a diabolo.
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2 Mille & 1 Nuits
The large ‘2001 Nights’ shop at the end of a courtyard just off rue des Francs Bourgeois has colourful gifts and decorative items with an Oriental (read: ‘Arabian Nights’) slant. Some of the stuff for sale – a silver cup with a handle made from antelope horn, for example – is just this side of kitsch, but it’s all good fun.
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O.K.
Given Berliners’ talent for recycling, it’s only fitting that this perky shop stocks everyday items from around the world, mostly made from simple, colourful materials in developing nations. Moroccan tyres are repurposed as ashtrays, colourful Thai rice sacks become handy shopping bags and most products show that there’s plenty of life in leftovers.
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CSAO Boutique & Gallery
This wonderful shop and gallery, owned and operated by the charitable Compagnie du Sénégal et de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CSAO; Senegal and West Africa Company), distributes the work of African craftspeople and artists. Many of the colourful fabrics and weavings are exquisite. Included are items handmade from recycled handbags, aluminium cans and tomato-paste tins.
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Herrlich
Next time you’re looking for a gift for ‘Him,’ peruse the racks of this fun store stocked with carefully culled men’s delights. From retro alarm clocks to futuristic espresso machines – even a walking stick with hidden whisky flask – it’s all here without a single sock or tie in sight.
reviewed
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Ausberlin
'Made in Berlin' is the motto of this low-key store where you can pick up the latest BPitch or Ostgut CD, witty Kotty D'Azur t-shirts by Muschi Kreuzberg, a Bar 25 pillow and all sorts of other hot-label mementoes designed right here in this fair city.
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Luxus International
There’s no shortage of creative spirits in Berlin, but not many of them can afford their own store. In comes Luxus International, a unique concept store that rents them a shelf or two to display their original designs: T-shirts, tote bags, ashtrays, lamps, candles, mugs etc. You never know what you’ll find, but you can bet it’s a Berlin original.
reviewed
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Mondos Arts
Cult and kitsch seem to be the GDR’s strongest survivors at this funky little shop, named after Mondos, a GDR-era brand of condoms. It’s fun to have a look even if you didn’t grow up drinking Red October beer, falling asleep to the Sandmännchen (Little Sandman) TV show or listening to rock by The Puhdys.
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VEB Orange
Viva retro! With its selection of the most beautiful things from the ‘60s and the ‘70s, this place will remind you of how colourful, plastic and fun home decor once used to be. VEB Orange sells all kinds of orange furnishings, accessories, lamps and fashions, much of it reflecting that often irresistibly campy GDR design.
reviewed
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Arty Globe
The unique fisheye-view drawings of various areas of London (and other cities, including New York, Paris and Berlin) by architect Hartwig Braun are works of art and appear on the shopping bags, placemats, notebooks, coasters, mugs and jigsaws available in this tiny shop. They make excellent gifts.
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Die Imaginäre Manufaktur
Blind and sight-impaired artisans have been hand-making traditional brooms and brushes in this retro minifactory-cum-store for over a century. These days products also include ceramics, wicker goods and wooden toys, although the Berlin bear brush is still a perennial bestseller (and unusual gift).
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Le Boudoir et sa Philosophie
Like a 19th-century powder room bursting at the seams, this kitschy boudoir’s philosophy is one of parlour games, floral prints and silky nightgowns. Overflowing with all sorts of things from soaps to carnival masks, it’s great for finding that esoteric, nonfunctional gift.
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Über Store
Anja Kantowsky's hanky-sized store is like Forrest's famous box of chocolates: you never know what you gonna get. That's because she changes her complete assortment of offbeat knick-knacks roughly every three months. Each selection has a theme, such as Seduction, Home and Wanderlust.
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Boutique Paris-Musées
This boutique stocks museum reproductions, especially of art and sculpture on exhibit at museums run by the City of Paris, such as the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
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Intershop 2000
For a memento from an extinct country, make a beeline for this unusual container store selling everyday products made in the GDR. Items to choose from include hen-shaped plastic egg cups, Interflug airline refreshing towels, and flags and pins.
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Boîtes à Musique Anna Joliet
This wonderful shop at the northern end of the Jardin du Palais Royal specialises in music boxes, new and old, from Switzerland.
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Atelier d’Autrefois
This treasure chest of a shop stocks exquisite music boxes – both new and antique – and will repair any that are ailing. It’s a shop that will attract both collectors and souvenir hunters.
reviewed
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