Traditionalists would never eat an ice cream bûche. I am not a traditionalist.

This makes me sad to miss Christmas in Paris. Have a wonderful time "four".

I love the shop windows - especially the chocolate shops and patisseries at Christmas. I think I could go for an ice cream buche.

We are spending a few days in Charleston, South Carolina right before Christmas. It will be fun but not Paris.

@weekender and starrs - one of these days! ( I will miss Chanel but will definitely be wearing some of my "memories")!

denisea, we have family in South Carolina who love the holidays there! I'm sure you will enjoy.

kerouac, good to know. The family has voted "Traditional," so DD (the French-speaker) has now been relieved of grocery duty to procure the Bûche de Noël somewhere in the 6th on our afternoon arrival.

New question: what are thoughts on Musee Jacquemart-Andre? I am looking at possible inclement weather options, just in case. It would be a near-impossible sell for the "children" (they can go ice skating, just not at Hotel de Ville? ), but might DH and I might enjoy a wander through the lifestyle of the rich and famous?

Every single patisserie in Paris will be displaying at least a half dozen different bûches (often more) in the window, of varying sizes and flavors.

André-Jacquemart is one of my favourite museums. On top of the dispalys, the house is grandiose. There is a restaurant there too but I've never eaten there.
The times I went there there were not many visitors, as it seems to be off the beaten tracks and avoided by the hordes of tourists.

I went on my last trip. It is fabulous! The cafe was very busy but looked like it would be very good.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...de_France.html

I was actually standing in line, waiting, on my previous Christmas trip, when I decided joining Belinda to watch the sun set from the rooftop of Terrass was a better offer. :-)

Another house museum, recommended by Cimbrone and others = Musee Nissim de Camondo
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...de_France.html

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/le...-museum-paris/

Kerouac, do you know what that dome structure that is going up where the Grand Roue used to be is for? Maybe ice skating? Will there be ice skating in the Grand Palais again?

I will try to investigate.

One more question K, how do you take videos of the windows without all the street reflections?

I tried early in the morning before it was completely daylight. The windows start around 8 am even though the official sound effects are not turned on until 9 am. I can't use the official window music anyway because there is far too much traffic noise. Anyway, on my first attempt, I had to throw out about 80% of what I recorded because it got light much too quickly. So I returned a day or two later as it got dark, even though that means fighting the crowds and kicking the children out of the way (just kidding). When it is dark, you can get pretty good shots if you can zoom in a bit, but there will always be a few reflections anyway. As I'm sure you saw in my videos, you still have to put up with a big M metro sign reflection and the C&A logo from across the street. But basically, if you get sufficiently interesting shots of what is happening in the windows, people tend to forgive you for most of the reflections.

If truth be told, my most successful boulevard Haussmann video was Galeries Lafayette in 2013 with more than 37,500 views. It apparently went a bit viral, mostly in Japan.


These new videos have been seen by very few people, and as usual, Galeries Lafayette still has more views than Printemps even though Printemps is far better this year.

I agree. I decided I’m ok with the reflections. It’s an accurate perspective of the scene.

And right now it’s actually snowing!

❄️☃️