It was love at first sight.

Choice restaurants, a chocolate cafe, a plush spa, no line for the Stairmaster at WAC, and galleries too numerous to pick a fave.

But, shopping, shopping, where art thou, shopping?

A true romance is only as good as its ending, and this one looks like it’s going to be a three-hanky tearjerker thanks to the opening this week of Ouest in — you guessed it — the West Loop.

Taking its cues from the painfully stylish French (hence the French spelling of the word west), the store is a study in impeccable taste. Gold-leaf wallpaper, a mosaic tile floor, and private velvet cabana-like dressing rooms.

The racks are filled with clothes by designers you’ve already fallen for, like Sonia Rykiel, Barbara Bui, Phillip Lim, and Rozae Nichols, as well as frocks by lesser-known French designers Stella Forest (girly tops and sweaters) and Nili Lotan (the classic white blouse) that you’ll be crushing on in no time.

With an on-site tailor and free delivery in the city, owners Kelly Bry and Courtney Plumb (as in Coco Plumb Jewelry) are well on their way to putting the neighborhood on the shopping map.

And that’s a step in the right direction.

Ouest, 1063 West Madison Street, at Aberdeen Street (312-421-2799).