Fair warning for a long post! I wanted to contribute to this thread, especially since it was so helpful in navigating the Hermes chase in Paris. I hope anyone who reads this post finds it helpful!
- - - - -
DH and I were in Paris for a week in late October. When planning our itinerary, I purposely left one day strictly for an Hermes shopping day. From reading past posts, it seems on average that most people are able to obtain an appointment with FSH through the online system after 3-4 attempts. Unfortunately, we were unlucky and unable to grab an appointment (husband's phone had SIX attempts, and I had five). On a side note, I was able to use two different phone numbers (so I had ten attempts technically) and neither of us had any purchase history in Paris.
I wasn't going to leave Paris without stopping by Hermes, so we decided to hit up each store, starting with Sevres. We get there right when the store opened, and were probably 15-20th in line. I was sure we missed the opportunity of making an appointment, but lo and behold, I got the last appointment for the rest of the day! It was very possible they were handing out more appointments than usual because the following day was a national holiday, and many stores, including Hermes, were closed. The hostess registered my name and phone and told us that we would receive a text message when an SA was available. The hostess also let us know that we had about a two hour limit to come to the store from when the text message was sent. We decided to enjoy our time around the city, and received a text about three hours after we had left Sevres.
We arrived at Sevres and waited about another hour until my name was finally called. The SA I was paired with was absolutely lovely and we connected easily. I told her what I wanted and she left for about ten minutes before asking me to follow her into a private room. There she revealed to me a beautiful Picotin 18 in etoupe with GHW. I said yes(!!) and the SA helped me pick out a few accessories and a wallet for my DH. We left Sevres with our purchases and a very happy, happy memory of Paris.
- - - - -
Some things I learned/ extra bits:
-Make an attempt to learn a little French and make your presence known (politely). I literally said hello to anyone I saw, and even said bye to those same people as we left. I've read that the service at Sevres can be cold, and fortunately did not experience any of that ourselves. In fact, Sevres probably had some of the nicest service we had throughout our entire stay!
-On that note, be patient. During my wait at Sevres, I saw many clients become impatient and begin to badger the hostess asking about their appointment/ wait time. I don't know how to quite explain it, but I got the feeling that the hostess was able to communicate this with the SAs...
-Even if you made an appointment in the morning, you might not be the priority. The reason I say this is because during my time with the SA, she had mentioned she was able to see me because one of her regular clients had been late to the appointment. It may be possible that the appointments made in the morning are just walk-in appointments that they wedge in between their regulars and VIPs. Even though her client was late, I felt that my SA would have to see that client over any of the other waiting people if they had arrived (I mean that the SA wouldn't interrupt my time, but whoever was next would've been bumped again?).
-At Sevres, I only saw a Jypsiere offered. My assumption is that most clients were told no B/K/C (some clients literally got called by the hostess, met with the SA at the hostess's desk, asked one question, and left the store immediately).
My only regret is that I never got to visit FSH (or George V). Once I scheduled the appointment with Sevres, I wanted to respect their time and not jump to another store.
Sorry I couldn't provide any insight for those trying to buy the elusive B/K/C at FSH. But, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!!
