Paris Discount: How I Got Louis Vuitton for Less!

Hey kittens have you met Penelope?!  My new Louis Vuitton Montaigne BB bag!  Shhhh… don’t tell her but I got her for less in Paris!  But Louie never goes on sale, how did I manage this?!  Click to see why LVs are discounted in Paris and how much I saved on my baby girl!

Let’s start with the basics Paris uses the currency of a euro (€).  €1 is equal to $1.13 today.  Below I have the prices for my bag in usd and euros.

€2080 comes out to $2,340.33…. which is $539.67 cheaper then the usd one!  Since Louie is headquartered in Paris the prices are actually less because there are no import, export and shipping added onto all of the prices!

Excited yet? Then there is the VAT (value added tax) which is the European taxes.  And guess what!?  You get to subtract that and get money back.  Use this refund calculator to see how much you will get back.  I plugged in €2080 and my VAT was €249.60 which is $280.91! Score!!

When you come back into the US you will need to declare your little girl Penelope.  Each person is allowed $800 per person or $1,600 per family, anything over that you need to declare.  At customs I only had to pay taxes on anything over the $800, for me roughly $1,200.  They asked for 3% so I only had to pay $30!  So that is a lot of numbers (gettin’ excited with all this math!) and you are just wondering how much I saved….DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

$790.58!!! Omg I made out like a banshee!

Ready to book your flight over the pond?!  There 8 Louis Vuitton’s so let me give you some tips to successfully bring your baby home:

1. Plan your game of attack!  Look online before to pick out the bag or couple of bags you want to see.

2. Is your bag in stock!?  Check which of the 8 stores your bag is at.  Note that sometimes the bag says it’s there but it’s not when you get there!  The bag I originally wanted wasn’t at the store… but then I found Penelope!

3. Be ready to wait in line… you aren’t the only one who had this idea.

4. Avoid the Galeries Lafayette like the plague.. that is where I got Penelope but it was nuts there! Saint Germain des Pres was my favorite location!

UPDATE!!

I just came back from Italy & got some more designer goodies for less! This time, prada! Because prada is from Italy, we were able to get a great deal! I got the cutest chunky rubber sandals that I had my eye on. Alex even made his first designer purchase and got this awesome crossbody bag! How cute is he?!

Can’t wait to see all of your trips to Europe to bring home your new baby girls!  Would love to hear your experiences with shopping for designer products abroad or if you have any questions in ze comments!

xoxo E