Absolutely, and the choice, if not the quality, has been going down — the buying team seems to have changed. Even a few years ago it was possible to get these special items of meat, but now they’re out of reach. If you want more reasonably-priced meat items that are just as good, the big boucherie on Place Maubert is a good choice.
As for Lafayette, there used to be a time (when it was in the other building, across the boulevard) when it was a happy mess of hard-to-find items from many regions and countries. Searching took a long time but it was rewarding. They had literally everything but never all at the same time. Now that it has gone the gentrified way, it is an orderly and somewhat boring place with crazy price tags.
When it comes to exceptional food supermarkets, hidden gem Les Galeries Gourmandes (run by Auchan but pretty autonomous apparently), in the basement of Le Palais des Congrès in Porte Maillot, has retained a status that La Grande Epicerie and Lafayette have lost, functioning as a normal neighborhood supermarket with plenty of international products and gourmet items. The place clearly caters to the Neuilly crowd, who evidently would like to keep it a secret, and the advantage of its location is that the upper-middle classes in Western Paris always want to get their money’s worth, so the prices are not so mind-blowing.
However, considering the construction mess that the Porte Maillot is at the moment, and the fact that they’re in a basement and absolutely not discernable from outside the building — you have to know they’re there —, Les Galeries Gourmandes are likely to remain a well-kept secret. Sometimes I happen to be in the neighborhood and I shop there for some pain d’épices or some rare condiment, and I always smile when I wait at the cash counter for there’s inevitably some Neuilly kids with blown-dried hair piling up the caviar, foie gras, champagne, and Italian antipasti in their shopping bags. It’s also a pretty quiet place, and pleasant to shop at.
The only things I buy at La Grande Epicerie and Galeries Lafayette Gourmet are wine, and for that, both the selection and the prices are very good. In contrast, some of the wine prices at Galeries Gourmandes that Carmenere mentions are ridiculous, and not in the good sense.
Grande Epicerie and Lafayette Gourmet can be useful if you need a one-stop shopping location before catching a train or plane.
Actually, there is an hidden gem just behind place de la Madeleine. It’s Cooperative Latte Cisternino 37, rue Godot de Mauroy, 75009. It’s doesn’t look like much, it’s Italian not French but is well worth a visit as it offers a very interesting selection of Italian cheese, charcuterie (cut paper thin the Italian way) and fresh pasta at very reasonable prices. Everything is imported directly from Italy once or twice a week.
Additionally, there is a market on the corner of place de la Madeleine and boulevard Malesherbes on Tuesdays and Fridays mornings.
You’d only stop at Galeries Gourmandes for wine if you lived in Neuilly. I’d never recommend the place for wine. Otherwise, the food prices are much better than in the centre-ville.
