Le Bon Marché is believed to be the very first department store. It caught our eye because Seattle had a local department store chain with the same name before it was absorbed into the Macy's collective.
The thing that struck me about the one in Paris is that it was very much like the department stores of my youth, where you could buy just about anything there. For example, the basement had a huge bookstore just like Seattle's Bon had back in the days of yore. Lauren found a substantial collection of knitting yarn on the top floor. Great store.