Food, Fabulous, Festive Food

For those unable to get away for the holidays, this chocolate landscape by Patrick Roger can give you a taste of what those lucky enough to hit the slopes are enjoying in Gstaad or Chamonix.  And although it has gotten really cold and snow is forecast for this week, this is not what the streets of Paris look like at the moment.  But edible wonders do seem to be filling the shop windows this month.

 

The windows of Dolce & Gabbana on the rue du Faubourg St-Honoré don't give more than a nod to the clothes; it's all about the food.  These apparently represent most of the 13 desserts traditionally eaten in Provence at this season.  It's cold there too; they need the calories to keep warm, no doubt.

 

And if candied fruits aren't your thing, our old favorite chocolate is out in full force, including these chocolate-dipped apples sold at the Champs Elysées Christmas market.

 

The traditional Bûche de Noël isn't the only option anymore.  These contemporary versions are offered by Jean-Paul Hévin.

Ladurée has a boutique inside the über-hip concept store Colette and goes with a bright young pink and blue theme for the macarons there,

while at the mothership on rue Royale, things are a bit more fin de siècle.

 

Trying to decide which of Gerard Mulot's delectable pastries to take home can be a challenge.  One I'm willing to undertake of course, but a challenge nonetheless.

Of course the everyday wonders of non-famous patissiers' windows are still available, like this Carmen Miranda-like goodie,

and these too nod to the season.  I can assure you that these penguins waddling among the tartes citron and tartes au poire aren't available in summer.

These adorable little baking bears are only turning out fabric doughnuts, but I found them irresistible anyway.  Probably the only non-caloric window that's called to me recently though.

'Tis the Season

OK, I give up, it's the holiday season in Paris; there's no mistaking it.  The little red Merci car is bringing the Christmas tree home, and there are trees to be had on virtually every corner.  They're sold here in florists' shops, wrapped in plastic netting to make it easier to carry them up the six flights of narrow stairs to that elevatorless, though picturesque, garret. 

The merchants' associations for the various shopping streets provide more or less elaborate lighting displays, and the Champs Elysées is one big wonderland of lights.  The Grande Roue, a huge ferris wheel set up at Christmas and in the summer, marks the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe the Etoile, with a Christmas market set up between them in what seems to be hundreds of little temporary chalets along both sides of the broad avenue.

There are other festive decorations around as well of course, like the window of this flower shop on rue Vieille du Temple in the Marais,

 

 and the strings of lights and stars hanging from the ceiling in Merci.

The pig keeping watch over l'Avant Comptoir has been decked out in his Christmas trimming

and this gallery in St-Germain des Prés is spelling out its wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010.

Another gallery has taken the opportunity to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall with an exhibit of photos from Christmas 1961.

Not everyone is with the program however.  The inevitable discontented worker makes his presence known, even here.  Wait until Santa hears about this.