Three streets make the triangle: Avenue Montaigne, Avenue George V and the Champs-Élysées, all in the 8th arrondissement, and the whole of it is a short walk if you do not stop. Avenue Montaigne, the spine of it, runs 615 metres and is 33 metres wide. In the early 18th century it was the Allée des Veuves, the widows’ alley, and it took the name of Michel de Montaigne on 13 July 1850.
What turned a renamed lane into a fashion address was 1913, when the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées opened at no. 15 and the Plaza Athénée at nos. 23 to 27. The houses followed the audience. Marlene Dietrich took an apartment at no. 12 and died there in 1992. That tells you what sort of street it had become by then.
Walk it in door order.
Louis Vuitton
The one door on this list that shuts on a Sunday. Worth knowing if the weekend is all you have.
Louis Vuitton: 22 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. +33 9 77 40 40 77, open 10:00 to 19:30, closed Sundays, louisvuitton.com
Harry Winston
Jewellery, by appointment in practice, three doors before Dior.
Harry Winston: 29 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 47 20 03 09, harrywinston.com
Dior
This is not a boutique. It is the townhouse where the house was founded in 1946, and it still contains the historic ateliers. It also contains a restaurant, Monsieur Dior, a café and a patisserie called Le Jardin, all three directed by the chef Yannick Alléno. You can eat inside the building the New Look came out of.
Dior: 30 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 57 96 19 47, dior.com
Valentino
Across from Dior, and a shorter queue.
Valentino: 35 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, boutiques.valentino.com
Givenchy
One of the few in the triangle that opens on a Sunday afternoon.
Givenchy: 36 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 44 43 99 90, open Sundays 13:00 to 19:00, givenchy.com
Loro Piana
Cashmere and vicuña rather than silhouette. The one stop on the walk where nobody will look at the label.
Loro Piana: 38 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, loropiana.com
Chanel
Open on Sundays from 11:00.
Chanel: 51 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. +33 1 87 21 50 33, chanel.com
Celine
Next door to Chanel. The top of the avenue goes quickly.
Celine: 53 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 82 82 21 22, celine.com
Bulgari
Turn down George V for the Roman house.
Bulgari: 40 avenue George V, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 49 52 99 99, bulgari.com
Related: The Dior Institut spa, Paris
Two rules decide whether the afternoon works. The first is Sunday: the maisons keep their own hours and they do not agree, so Chanel and Givenchy will be open when Louis Vuitton is not. The second is the détaxe. A traveller resident outside the European Union can reclaim French VAT, but the minimum is 100 euros including tax spent in one shop on one day, and purchases in different shops or on different days cannot be added together. Consolidating a morning’s spending into one maison is worth real money; spreading it across four is not.
If the shopping is done and the light is going, the three-star tables are a few streets away, two of them inside the triangle itself. For the museum rather than the shop, La Galerie Dior at 11 rue François Ier opens daily except Tuesdays, 11:00 to 19:00, last entry 17:30, at 16 euros full price and 12 euros reduced. And for the same walk in another capital, there is the top ten luxury shops in London, or luxury shopping in Madrid if you would rather pay less for the coffee.