Dans Un Jardin sells all those lovely aromatic things for your bath, bedroom and body. At their warehouse sales you can scoop up their products at great savings and you might be surprised that they offer men’s lines, some for baby and even special ones for pregnant women (calming ointment for breasts grabbed me but you may find comforting milk bath with meadowfoam oil, firming cream, Optimal-care stretch mark cream and soothing gel for legs) . They are clearing out their older packaging, some of their new lines that are overstocked and even boxed items (think ahead for the holidays). They also offer Lampes Bergere which are lamps that give off a perfumed fragrance as the bulb heats up. Men’s Decleor line offers up shaving cream and lotions – men, do you think you could live without Hydra Floral Anti-Pollution Flower Nectar Moisturizing Cream? In the kids Pois de Senteur line, besides the soaps, creams and detergent, there’s facecloths, bibs and blankets. This company usually holds its clearance sale at the end of May so you may want to check them out again then. You can be put on a mailing or e-mailing list to get an invitation.

Location: Bonaventure Exposition Hall, Level 200
Dates and Times: Sept 25, 8 am-7 pm; Sept 26, 8am-9 pm; Sept 27 10 am-5 pm
Tel: 800-363-3663 or 450-449-2121
www.dansunjardin.com 

It’s not only the department stores that give away free goody bags when you buy products. For one, Rhoda is a beauty products store which offers them as well. Women who want to save money on famous make beauty lines – Lancome, Biotherm, French Formula – and also polishes (OPI, Essie) and lipsticks, hair supplies (Sebastian, Paul Mitchell, KMS) and at least 15% off on designer fragrances, all come here. Ceramic irons, dryers, professional hair brushes (Jean Pierre), make-up applications and costume jewelry round out the merchandise.
The Lancome freebies have just arrived. This is the deal here: buy $35 worth of skin care products, makeup or perfume (hey that’s easy to do) and you get a FREE goody bag of Lancome samples. It includes: 2 makeup up bags, the outer one and a clear little one for your purse or the plane, trial size Bi-Facil eye makeup remover, High Resolution Serum which is an anti-aging product worn under your moisturizer, a mini mascara, Maqui Complet corrector (hides wrinkles), Quatro eye shadow and a full size lipstick.

Location: 5791 Victoria, Snowdon
Corner: Bourret
Tel: 514-737-5658
Hours: Mon-Thurs & Sat 10-5, Fri 9-5
www. rhodasbeauty.com

I’ve written about Gem Entrepot for its factory-priced deals on wrapping paper, bows, bags, ribbons and all that ilk, however this place has more to offer – gifts to be covered in all that gift wrapping. In a small showroom in the factory building, their new Fall collection of handbags, fashion accessories, muklucks (Canadian made boots), Oprah’s favorite lip gloss – Ballamania and more. Organizations that need to find hot items to sell to raise funds, usually find something here and even better, there’s a corporate dictum here that encourages helping fund-raising efforts.

Location: 4732 Thimens Ville St. Laurent
Tel: 514-830-6694
Extra open to the public dates: Sat Sept 27, 9-3; Sun Sept 28, 10-2
Regular hours: Mon-Thurs 10-3, Fri 10-12
www.gementrepot.com

Okay, it’s not Montreal but Montrealers love to go to Burlington to shop so we’re not so far off. This weekend I can give you another reason – The Burlington Book Festival celebrates the written word and you can, in different venues around town, catch authors reading from their work, book signings, panel discussions and interesting workshops. For the whole family there will be musical performances and family activities. Look in the listings for special events featuring literary luminaries (Alistair Macleod, Frederick Lane, John Elder Robison, Dorion Sagan) from around the world- or just around the corner (even me!). I will be on the panel on Saturday midday and signing my books Smart Shopping Montreal and Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia at 1:30 pm. Most of all this is FREE – including samples of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Locations: Lake & Performing Arts Center, Fletcher Free Library, Borders Books & Music and more
Dates: Fri, Sept 12-Sun Sept 14
Sandra’s times and locations: Panel, 11:30-12:30 ; Signing 1:30 pm IPNE booth  both will be in the Fletcher Room, Fletcher Free Library
www.burlingtonbookfestival.com

Each year, the weekend after Labor Day is the moment to wait for if you are looking for a deal on a sea, lake or white water kayak or a lake or white water canoe. Boutique de plein air Camp de Base sells off water crafts (at least 150) that were used for rentals at this annual sale, along with life jackets, paddles and more. Three quarters of the stock moves out that day, and the rest piddles along til it’s all gone.

Location: 173e Cartier, Pointe-Claire
corner: 2-20 Highway
Tel: 514-630-6717
Date and times: Sept 13th, 9-5, Sept 14th, 11-5
www.basecampmtl.com

Jean Coutu ‘s summer special of $.10 per 4×6″ prints is the best price I have seen in the city. Checking out all the fine print, I discovered that you have to order at least 60 prints and at most 99 (if you have more you can do a 2nd or 3rd order). It can be done online or in at the photo kiosks in the stores (it would take long at the machines if you are going to photo edit them). An employee told me that 8 p.m. until closing is a slower time for this.
Next deal is the one for a 4×6″ mini-album for only $2.99 . But please note that the photos cost $ .15 for this and you must order at least 25 and no more than 50. You can have a photo put on the cover or choose one of the 5 cover colors offered and have the month and year printed on them.
This is a great gift for about $8. Think ahead for gifts for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. It only takes 48 hours for them to arrive at your closest Jean Coutu store.
My hats off to the Jean Coutu photo dept. at a WI store. When I called to ask my many questions, the salesgirl patiently answered some, asked a manager for the ones she didn’t know, looked up things online and then became busy with customers and said she’d call me back. She did within about 15 minutes.
Two days later when I needed my album to take to an out-of-town relative who was in a hospital – and my e-mail message said the album would come in 72 hours not 48 – I called worriedly as I intended to take this gift to cheer up a sick person. This time, a clerk took my phone number, called somewhere, and called me right back. She determined that my order was on the truck and would be in the store at noon (making it withing the 48 hours suggested and not the 72 hours that my e-mailed told me). Hats off for great customer service.
The story does not end here yet. When I picked up the albums (one was made it in less than 48 hours!), both had their photos inserted wrong in the albums. I had manipulated all the vertical photos to be facing in one direction. For some reason, they came out facing heckle-peckle in any direction, so it is hard to look at the albums as you have to keep turning them.
I left a message for the photo manager to call me back. She called the company and called me right back to say they would try to redo them for me and if they couldn’t, I would receive a credit. Now that’s what I call great customer service.

Date of Sale: Until August 22

Unfortunately for them, Regent Bookshop is going to have to close their doors on July 31st. Fortunately for us, everything in the store is 75% off until then. It’s a second-hand bookstore so the prices to start with were good and now they’re great. All kinds of books on all kinds of subjects are there for the picking.

Location: 1855 Ste-Catherine West
Corner: St-Marc
Tel: 514-937-7617
Hours: Daily 12-9

This well entrenched musical emporium has been open for114 years and offers all your music needs. It has a huge selection of CD’s, sheet music, books, DVD’s, toys, video games and instruments to play the music on. They have just opened a new store in the the Ste-Dorothee Mega-Centre so are enticing you to come visit the new location – 3 for 2 on just about everything in the entire store (except pianos, video game consoles and special orders). On the first evening of the special, July 17th at 5 pm, there will be entertainment by France D’Amour, Florence K, Alfa Rococo, Michael and Anik Jean. Some of the profits from this sale will be donated to UNICEF.

Sale Location: Mega-Centre Ste-Dorothee
Corner: Highway 13
Phone: 450-719-2020
Dates: July 17th – July 20th
Hours: Mon-Fri 9-9, Sat & Sun 9-6
www.archambault.ca

I often get calls about where someone can have a party – for a shower, special birthday, anniversary or whatever. I have found a decently priced yummy restaurant that fits the bill for this. Pasta Tutti Giorni started out in DDO with 2 guys and some Italian family recipes. Eventually they joined up with partners that wanted to franchise their concept. It worked for awhile but a little over a month ago, those partners went bust and their stores had to be shut.

However all is not lost as the original location in DDO is still open and at lunchtime on the weekends they are open for private family celebrations. Imagine, you can get the whole restaurant to yourself for the afternoon. You can make up your own menu for your guests by selecting meals off of the menu. The restaurant will print it up for you to hand your guests at the table.

For under $20 per person, you can have soup or salad, main course, dessert and coffee. Our family favorites are anything that is covered with their rose sauce (we take it out by the litre) and their special recipe for eggplant timbale (not on the menu but available for parties – it’s like a tender eggplant lasagna). The restaurant is licensed if you want to add any drinks to the mix. They seat about 100. You can of course, dine there anytime – even if you aren’t having a party.

Location: 3343 Boul. des Sources, DDO
corner: Boul. Brunswick
contact: Peter Klaiman
Tel: 514-421-3266
www.ptg.ca

Sephora is here. Sephora is here. I have shopped at Sephora in the U.S. and wondered how come no one had thought of the idea before. The concept is to take all the possible brands of makeup and skin care products and put them all together in one store so you can shop and compare them side by side (instead of feeling awkward in the “battling booths” of the major department stores).

Salespeople are trained for a month in ALL of the brands so you don’t feel like you are going over to the enemy when you look at other names. You can mix it up and buy one brand of moisturizer another of shadow and still another one’s lipstick – and you can compare prices along the way. You can look for Philosophy’s Hope in a Jar moisturizer, Bliss, Makeup Forever, Bare Escentuals, and on and on and on…

Location: Fairview Pointe Claire, 6815 Rte Transcanadienne
corner: Boul. St-Jean
Tel: 514-630-6100
www.sephora.com

Other location: Promenades St-Bruno