Christmas begins at Galeries Lafayette today. The lights covering the front of the building will go on at 17:30, and all of the Christmas windows will be unveiled. Eight snow cannons on the roofs of the 3 Galeries Lafayette stores will make it snow on boulevard Haussmann every day until Christmas.

The BHV will start Christmas on 10 November with a Scandinavian theme, and the front of the building is supposed to be covered with ice and (fake) fur.

Printemps starts Christmas on 12 November. They have built a snow labyrinth on the roof (9th floor) of the home store with 30 tons of ice. The 100 meters of ice tunnels exit into an igloo which will be a photo studio. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that's where Père Noël is hiding out.

The Bon Marché starts Christmas on 17 November, with store windows showing magnificent dinner parties highlighted with Swarovski crystal.

As for the illumination of the Champs Elysées, which is using totally different lights this year (I've been watching them install them since the end of September!), they will be turned on 26 November.

This probably won't work for tourists, but Printemps is proposing gift boxes made out of ice this year, which are guaranteed to last for several hours or indefinitely in your freezer. Printemps will ingeniously seal your goodies inside for 26€.

(I just thought I'd post something a little lighter rather than just being the harbinger of strike news.)

Thanks for letting us know this Kerouac. I will be in Paris on the 19th November for a week and then return again for the night of the 6th December.

I was wondering if Christmas lights and shop windows would be happening that week and I am very pleased to hear that I will also get to see the lights on the Champs Elysees.

I love Christmas!!!

Kerouca

Thank you for such a lovely post, I've never been in Paris at Christmas time, but you have just made it all come alive for reading your post! Oh how I wish I could see Galeries Lafayette with the Christmas windows * sigh*

Aw well, looking forward to the spring when I will be once again visiting beautiful Paris

Kerouac, my apologies I spelt your name wrong in the last previous post

Thanks, Kerouac. I'm sending this thread to my daughter, who will be meeting us in Paris for Christmas.

Anselm

Wonderful post, Kerouac -- thanks so much! We are now even more excited about being in Paris in early December.

I wish I could see that. When I was in Paris last November, the stores were putting their decorations up but I had to go home before they were all done. Sometime I would love to see it.

Thanks Kerouac! Now I am really counting the days before we will be leaving for a short December visit to Paris!

I would love to be in Paris to see the beautiful decorations! Maybe someone who is lucky enough to be there/live there will be so kind to take some photos of the shop windows etc. to share with us here?

Thanks! I will be there December 6. Will the ice skating rink in front of the Hotel De Ville be opened?

This is why I love Paris! I could never see any store in my home town doing anything like this (I'm sure there are bylaws of some sort). I was there last year for my first ever views of the windows, I can see why kids (of all ages) enjoy them so much.

Oh, I'm so excited! I've wanted to visit Paris around Christmas for so long just to see the decorations. I'm finally doing it this year (November 29-December 5).

Thanks for the info, kerouac. I'll plan on checking all of it out.

Here is a web site that lists a lot of the Christmas events around Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/2dzc75
So far I think this information is only available in French, because clicking on the English flag doesn't bring up the same page. But you don't really need to know French to get an idea of what's on offer, and one useful thing is the list of the Christmas markets (marchés de Noel).

I'd also like to add my thanks to kerouac for the post! Ah...I wish I could make it to Paris this December. I've never been there in December before Christmas, always after.

I was in Paris in 2000 for Christmas and had an absolutely lovely time. Our hotel even put tiny decorated potted trees in our rooms. Magical.

Paris is wonderful around the holidays.

I was there a few years back from mid DEc. till the 30th.

I had Xmas Eve dining at Violon d'Ingres and Christmas Day at Les Ambassadeurs in Hotel Crillon.

I had a taxi driver drive me around one evening to see all the decorations...pretty spectacular.

Thank you, kerouac,for this information, as I WILL be in Paris during the Christmas holidays. I have been wondering about where to have Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner. Gracejoan3 mentions two restaurants that I will check out, but should I start a separate thread for more suggestions? ZZ

A lot of restaurants have very fancy (and obviously expensive) set meals for Christmas eve. Some people love this sort of thing (I wouldn't, because I like to eat at my own rhythm and leave when I want to -- in such a setting, it is not possible.). If you want to do something special without being a restaurant prisoner, I'm pretty sure you can do it at one of the Flo restaurants (www.flobrasseries.com) -- my personal favorites are the original Flo and Terminus Nord, right across from Gare du Nord. But they are all quite similar, and a lot of people like La Coupole, Bofinger or Le Vaudeville. For a more budget minded meal (but you can still order as much wine and/or champagne as you want to increase the price), you can go to one of the popular chain restaurants like Hippopotamus (steakhouse), or Chez Clément, Taverne de Maître Kanter, Bistro Romain, etc. Really, there is no lack of restaurants in Paris. If you are an early diner (7pm) you wouldn't even need reservations. After 8:30pm on Christmas eve, they would be indispensable. (I mean the normal chains, not the Flo restaurants -- the Flo chain would definitely need reservations that evening.)

I don't think that Christmas day is a problem for eating. Most of the French will be eating at home, so any restaurant that is open in Paris will be for tourists.

topping

Thanks for the info.