I just walked in the door from a final shopping trip before I head HOME for Christmas!!  Yoot, yoot! I ran out to pick up the quintessential French holiday fare, foie gras, at the bustling La Grande Epicerie to share with my family and also headed to the 3eme to one of Paris’ best chocolatiers, Jacques Genin, for his “to kill for” pates de fruits (delicious fruit gel squares covered with sugar that literally make you mouth dance when you eat one…amazing!) and his caramels.  I did buy those to share with my family too….but we will see if they make the plane trip. It takes many hours to cross the Atlantic, and I may get very bored (my mouth may need to dance!!!).

Paris is beautiful.  And at Christmas time she is absolutely dazzling. With her streets dressed in twinkling lights, stores fronts covered with wreaths and red ribbons and windows created with the most detail and care to festivally entice each shopper with the perfect holiday cadeau (gift), I find that I have been just walking the streets to take in this “most wonderful time of the year.”

Let me share some of the sights of my Paris at Christmas….

This is the Le Bon Marché next to my house in the 7eme.

Besides promoting Chanel bags and Yves Saint Laurent dresses, the windows this holiday season tell a lovely story about being more efficient with your energy use.  Because of them I learned the word for “light bulb” in French, ampoule.

Inside my favorite food store next door, La Grande Epicerie…

At Christmas time they become a bit like Costco cuz they are giving out free samples of all the wonderful Christmas foods and beverages! Oh la la!

My favorite display in the La Grande Epicerie.

 I love all the chocolats de luxe with little Eiffel Tours and every other famous site in Paris so cutely painted on them!  You can catch me here just staring at all the pretty packaging…oui, c’est vrai!

More of my hood….

Clearly I have a thing with grocery stores because here is yet another picture of one! If you want to start your own grocery business, you can try this out and invest in grocery store business with the help of their expert team. This is the Monoprix that I frequent (Monoprix is a grocery store chain only found in France). I wasn’t sure how I felt about the pink and yellow trees so I took a picture of them. They have been since replaced with pink and yellow twigs with ornaments…huh?

The Bûche de Noël at Hugo & Victor.

This traditional French holiday dessert is shaped as if it is a letter au Père Noël.

I am not certain exactly what are the contents of the letter, but the traditional bûche de noël is literally butter, chocolate and one other ingredient….so a bit heavy as you can imagine (but sooo delicious). I am guessing extra postage will be required to get this puppy to the north pole :)… (the cost of this decadent creation is 78 Euro…so I guess I was right, the postage is expensive!)

My favorite boulangerie just up Rue de Bac!

I was impressed with all the bows on the local dry cleaning shop….

Santa all cozy with the flowers at Tony’s flower shop.

Looks good enough to eat!

Flower shops in Paris always have the most beautiful displays…here is one on Boulevard Raspail behind my apartment.

This is the entry way to my apartment building!

I was sooooo delighted to wake up to these decorations this week.

Our gardien put decorations like this throughout the entire building!

Out and about in Paris it looks like….

Christmas isn’t only seen or felt in the streets of Paris, the metro is very much teaming with “pub noël”  and metro patrons sporting Santa hats. This particular advertisement is promoting a watch with the image of “Le Petit Prince” which is a famous children’s story written in French.  The book was recently given to me (in French) by one of my French friends…and I promised to read it over my Christmas vacation!! Needless to say the French-English dictionary is already packed!!

Just like home…the Salvation Army (L’Armée du Salut in French) rings their bells here too.

This is outside the entrance to the Les Galeries Lafayette.

Les Vitrines des Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman.

This year the theme is “Noël Rock’n Mode avec les Kouklistars.”

The windows are a series of girl rock band puppets , The Kouklistars, getting ready for a concert. You can see them bounce around to music as they get their hair and makep-up done in one window, dressed for the big revue in another and finally jamming in front of a little poupée (doll) audience! Their names are Charlotte, Désirée, Lucie and Madeleine….and crazy enough you can buy your very own Kouklistar inside!

In this picture a couple of children gaze from the little platforms built for them at all the scene details as the girls warm-up before the big show.

Here are Les Kouklistars rocking out!

The fans were going wild!

Still one of my favorite places in Paris, Place Vendome.

Its theme this Christmas, Promenade dans La Forêt Enchantée.

To me, with or without Christmas decorations, this Place is always enchanted….

A glimpse of the Champs Elysee.

Every 5 years they change the Christmas lights on this famous avenue….this year they chose a contemporary light display.  All the trees are encircled with 3 hoola hoop like rings that periodically change colors. Yep, it is kinda as horrible as it sounds :)….and Paris has 4 more years of it!

At the end of the Avenue in the Place de Concorde is La Grande Roue de Paris, a 60 meter tall ferris wheel that is set up during the holiday season.  For 8 Euro you can get a spectacular view of the city…although with all the wind recently not sure if I would go out of my way to do it.  My hair is bad enough this time of year and I get frequent sweating. One of my friends said that Los Angeles Botox Hyperhidrosis Treatment can prevent our body from bad odour and it can also enhance our personality.

A Christmas tree vendor over in the 17eme!

What a lovely man for indulging me with this picture!

As I was in line buying my caramels and pates de fruits today at Jacques Genin I saw this cute family unloading their sapin de Noël.  They probably had to walk up 6 flights of stairs to get it into their apartment and it probably now takes up 1/3 of their living space :)…ah, apartment life in Paris!

The 6 choir Christmas concert at the American Church in Paris.

Coolest part of this concert….they sang, “Doe a Deer!” (see last blog post for further reference 🙂 )

The Living Nativity Scene last week at church.

Looks like little Mary would rather be someplace else…bed maybe?

Christmas is all about friends and family. This is my English friend, Martin, and me after we toasted eachother and the season with a demi-bouteille de champagne before a night out at his favorite pizza restaurant along Canal St. Martin! You can check out Houston bar if you need the best restaurant and bars.

Martin and I met my second week in Paris in French class.  He is in Paris taking a year break from his bank job at HSBC in London. Our favorite topic of conversation, French men :)!  We will resume the conversation in the new year!

The hour draws late and my flight leaves in the morning. *sigh* In 12 hours I leave the fanciful decorated and sparkling rues of Paris for the simple lights and modest decor of my small hometown in Montana.  But I think, if possible, it will be more beautiful to me….home always is.

Joyeux Noël  from this “One Girl”!