What a terrific report. Brings back memories of my trip to Paris last year in early December. Looking forward to reading more! :-)

FF - i don't think that i would ever have thought about going to Paris at Christmas and staying in an apartment were it not for Fodors.

now after your TR, FF, I can't wait. I've even bookmarked your apartment as we've never stayed in the 7th, and i like to move round a bit to try out different areas.

looking forward to tomorrow.

I dont have time to continue with the story right now as it took me so long to try and figure out how to load my pictures.
Here's the link, I tried to put them in the order to go along with the story...hope it http://www.flickr.com/photos/2819947...32275954583/ks
btw, that is me standing by the trees I love in the Palais Royal garden.

nice pics, FF!

Up early this morning at 3am and takes til 4am before I realize my sister is awake too. After visiting for a few hours we fall back asleep. We live in different states so part of the enjoyment of this trip is just to spend time together.

The first time I was in Paris was with my two brothers and we did not do all this leche vitrine and practicing of le gouter and in general being a flaneur (one who strolls, following their footsteps where they may lead you). On that trip, in between reservations at fabulous restaurants, we did historical and cultural sightseeing-which for a first trip to Paris is probably the way it should be.

But this trip is just my sister and I and this is how it is unfolding and it suits us (we do manage to get in a few museums and cultural events later in the trip).

When we start the day for the second time, after petit dejeuner in the apt, we head via metro to Place de la Madeline and continue our leche vitrine (window licking).

The day is chilly but by the time we do ½ of Place de la Madeline we are no longer feeling the cold.
First stop is Laduree’s for some macarons-no long line this time. I think at this point I must mention Laudree a little more. For me it is just the most cheerful display of macarons and pastries. Their color choices and their displays in general just make me smile. I’m sure most of you are familiar with this shop, but I somehow missed it the first time in Paris-probably because I was with my brothers –see above agenda! When I found it on my second trip and thought why did I not know about this shop I had to do a little research. Here are the highlights of what I found:

The Ladurée story
It all began in 1862, when Louis Ernest Ladurée, created a bakery at 16 rue Royale in Paris.
The same year, the construction of the Garnier Opera began, making the area surrounding Place Madeleine into one of the most prestigious in Paris with its shops of French luxury goods.
Ten years later Laduree made the transformation from bakery to a pastry shop.
The decoration of the pastry shop was by Jules Cheret, a famous turn-of-the-century painter and poster artist. M Cheret sought inspiration from the painting techniques used for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the Garnier Opera.
The results were spectacular rooms with depth and relief to the ceilings ornamented with cherubic children.
The beginning of this century found Paris wrapped up in a frenzy of distraction and going out in public. Parisians flocked to the Universal Exposition. Women were also changing. They wanted to make new acquaintances. Literary salons and literature circles were outmoded.
Ernest Ladurée’s wife, Jeanne Souchard, daughter of a well-known hotelier in Rouen, France had the idea of mixing styles: the Parisian café and pastry shop which gave birth to one of the first tea salons in Paris. The “salon de thé” had a definite advantage over the cafés: they permitted ladies to gather in freedom. Jeanne Souchard succeeded in combining the turn-of-the-century trend to modernism with knowledge of the merits of a craft transmitted by her family.



And some 150 years later we too believe in this freedom to gather at Laduree; freedom to consume as many macaroons as we desire.
As an extension of this freedom and desire we decide to discover who has the best macarons in Paris. This of course means lots of sampling, which means we must walk a lot to counterbalance the sampling.

We start walking down Rue Saint Honore with the Hermes windows as our destination. I usually love their windows but not this time. The have a gold theme-all very opulent and over the top. We head inside the store because Hermes is like a current day Musee des Arts Decoratifs. We wander around the store looking at all the pretty things. Their stemware was exquisite. Yes, I believe if I had money to burn I would have to have a scarf or two and a set of that stemware-But I don’t… maybe next life time.

Back on the street we finish the other side of Place de la Madeline. We come to a courtyard of shops decorated with white and silver trees made from branches and twigs with little white sparkly lights. Even in the day it was stunning.

“The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.”-Colette

One of our tricks that keeps us going and in good spirits is we never hesitate to find a place to sit-a café, a church, a bench-It really is a perfect way to refresh and soak in the ambiance of Paris.

We are now ready to sit, so being near Madeleine Church, that’s where we head. We go in and-

OMG-

There was a women’s choir practicing.

The sound was soul stirring.

We sit and just let the sound wash over us-quite a nice unexpected experience.

I had not been in this church before. There are some beautiful reliefs and statues. Also a collection of the sacred heart. In the Marais we saw some metal, Mexican style Day of the Dead sacred hearts and I think I will go back and pick one up to remind me of this experience.

Thourghly rested we head to Fauchons, that beautiful gourmet food and candy store that has pretty pretty pink and black packaging. We do not buy anything but it is a treat just to look.

Another one of our tricks to keep us out on the street for many hours is to know where all the good toilettes are.

Fauchons has a good one on the second floor in case you’re wondering.

Somewhere on Place de la Madeline there is an art nouveau bathroom but I have yet to find it, so if anyone knows where it is please tell.

We continue up rue Saint Honore and have lunch at a nice boulangerie-215-located at 215 Saint Honore. I had a tasty chicken salad on a skinny baguette, with a lemon tarte and water for 9.50 euro.

Ready to go again we hit a few more stores on rue Saint Honore. We stop in the ultra cool Colette, which is full of hip people and hip things, and maybe a little too hip for me.

Next is Fragonard where I buy a pillow cover that is done in the style of the vintage map tablecloths of the 1950s. It has the landmarks of Paris embroidered on it. It’s a perfect souvenir and compliments one I got at the Fragonard shop in the south of France. Also it is easy to pack, as it is just the cover not the pillow.

One of the things I have learned on this forum is the smartness of traveling light. Once you learn this you will be really happy when traveling. All it takes is realizing that you can wear the same thing multiple times because no one cares what you wear. Just be presentable, comfortable, and it helps to love what you wear so that you won’t get sick of it. In the past I have brought a fold up bag in my luggage but I did not do that this trip so anything I do buy has to be small and fit in my carry-on luggage-like the pillow cover or…I’m thinking jewelry is small and could fit too.

On this trip since I was staying in Paris for 19 days I wanted to focus on the experience of being in Paris and even though it may seem like all we are doing is shopping, for us it is not really shopping as much as it is just looking at all the beautiful things-
- the eye candy, the sights that make Paris, Paris.
Whether it be a window display, the architecture, or the lights- it’s all visible by just walking and looking.

Right about now it is once again time for Le gouter so we end up at the Starbucks near the Louvre
-sometimes the familiar is just easy.
So with a tall-non-fat-white-chocolate mocha-no whip I finish my lemon tart from lunch and get my second wind.

We cross Rue de Rivoli to the bookstore of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. This is a really great book/gift store. It has a lot of beautiful books on design. One of my favorite things, among many favorite things, is the bookstores in Paris, and this is one of the best.

When finished browsing the books we decide to go down to the Carousel Shops at the Louvre-we have never done this before as it looked like a mall when we peeked down there before-but it is cold and right here so we take the escalator down.

They have some nice Christmas decorations hanging from the ceiling.

There are the familiar chain stores here like L’Occitane and Fossil, nothing too exciting, but then it is here, in an English scarf and assessory store that we find the magic hat.

Thank you for the history of Laduree. Really interesting . I am loving your report and so agree with Colette about a true traveler.
Also please post any info about location of good toilletes you may have discovered. Good to have when spending the day just walking about the city

"Le gouter.-the break around 4:30 in the afternoon for something sweet."

Great report. You can never have too much Paris!

It so happens that at 4:30 p.m., we usually drink wine while in Paris, so I guess our group would call that "Le gout."

((H))

Oh you've left us hanging, can't wait to hear about the magic hat!

"Goutons voir si le vin est bon"

More please, FabFrance!

Love the report...I love Place de la Madeleine. Have to go to Maille for mustard every trip!

Wonderful report -- thanks for sharing

Very enjoyable report. Thank you.

I'm so enjoying your report. We're heading to Paris for four months starting at the beginning of February and it's exactly this type of leisurely browsing I'm looking forward to. Thanks so much for posting.

<i>One of the things I have learned on this forum is the smartness of traveling light. Once you learn this you will be really happy when traveling. All it takes is realizing that you can wear the same thing multiple times because no one cares what you wear. Just be presentable, comfortable, and it helps to love what you wear so that you won’t get sick of it. </i>

If anything deserves to be quoted in a Fodor's guide book, or written in fire at the top of every Forum page, that does!

Your reflections of Paris are absolutely wonderful!

Wow, thanks everyone for reading and commenting –I feel welcomed into the club.

Maitaitom- ha-ha-we save that for a little later, the aperitif hour, but usually it was Pastis to warm us, it did the trick especially when we forgot to add the water.
I have been following your most recent trip to Dordogne. My first trip to France started there. I love that area. I haven’t made it back yet, but your report and St Cirq’s many entertaining reports keeps reminding me of what a great area that is.

St Cirq your report was one of the first I read on this board and I quickly became addicted. So glad it looks like you will be keeping your home and I look forward to more of your stories.

denisea-love Maille mustard too, but this trip I did not bring any home-what was I thinking?

To continue…
Today the sun is shining bright and after breakfast in the apt we head to the street market that is held on Wednesdays on President Wilson Ave. It is in the 16th arrondissement just a quick stroll over the Seine from our apt.
The market being on the center divider at times feels a little claustrophobic, but the food is so beautiful we get over that.

When buying some fruit we have a conversation with an elegantly dressed woman~wonder what her story is. I imagine her living in one of the magnificent apts in this posh arrondissement.

When standing in line getting our yummy banana & chocolate crepe we talk to a girl from the Philippines who has been staying with a friend for 6 weeks and was not sure exactly how much longer she would be staying in Paris, while her friend is at work her job is to go to the market.

A very nice market, with nice food, and very friendly people. We will be back next Wednesday.

We fill our bag with cheeses, vegetables, roasted chicken, baguette and some fruit ,head back across the Seine to the 7th and take a side tour to 29 Ave Rapp.

Wow, what a spectacular work of art-an art nouveau building that was designed at the turn of the century ( 1901) by French architect Jules Lavirotte.
How fabulous would it be to live here?
At the very top is an outdoor garden that looks too fabulous for words, and if I lived here I think I would be fabulous too.
Ok, got a little carried away, but I really love this building...and a girl can dream can't she.

We walk a little further and around the corner to Square Rapp.
The buildings are not as fabulous as 29 Ave Rapp but we still manage to spend ½ hr here looking at all the detail. On the back wall is an immense scroll grid that appears 3 dimensional.

Ave Rapp is near the Champ de Mars. Across from 29 Ave Rapp there is a great little neighborhood wine bar, Le Sancerre; local crowd with friendly servers. I have been here a few times on different trips but have never eaten here, only drank the wine so can’t vouch for the food.

We finally leave Ave Rapp and stop by the corner pharmacy to buy Voltaren gel-it is my lucky day, the pharmacist actually understands what I am asking for. I was clued in about this cream on this forum. It’s an anti-inflammatory crème and quite effective on your aches.

Back in the apt we have a fantastic lunch of all our market food.

After a rest we take the bus to the Bon Marche to see what their Christmas decorations look like.

Understated glamour would be my description.

The streets surrounding Bon Marche have lights and stars strung across them. I love this-turns the night into a festive atmosphere.

We then head up rue du Dragon and stop a nice card shop- Edition Cartes D’Art at # 9. Next is Lilli’s, where they sell brownies, which seems to be the latest fad in Paris. I get a citron loaf and a chocolat chaud.

We sit on a bench at Pont des Arts enjoying our goodies, watching the river and Paris before us.

I've added new photos
http://www.flickr.com//photos/28199474@N04/show/

lovely photos, FF.

Love your photos-thanks for sharing

Wonderful shots!