Christmas in Paris preview

I'm going to do a bigger post on all the decorations once they're up; many won't appear for another week or so.

But Bon Marche has put up all of its stuff, and I have to say it's the most elaborate window display I've ever seen.  They alternated fashion-themed windows with windows that are actually cute little stories about stars, having sound and animated and everything.  I wish I could take a good video but it's in French and so dark inside the little booths. 

Now there are even more lights up along the street, I'll take a picture of that sometime.

The life of stars

The rain from stars

Head in the stars

Lights from stars [I was going to translate this as "starlight" but the story is about how stars got their lights, their colors, etc, so I thought this was better.]

The alternating windows are pretty simple: designer dresses posed with pretty star decorations.

The stories are really cute for kids to look at.  A narrator talks gives a 2 or 3 minute speech about each of the themes - the stars are characters and he explains how they came to be, what they do, and how they came to look as they do.  There are little animations set up to go with the stories.  You can see that each of those black structures actually covers part of the sidewalk - they're like short hallways that you can walk through and look at the windows. 

I've taken 3 year old M twice already and she keeps wanting to go back. 

Notre Dame will set up lights and a big tree (like Rockefeller center), the Champs Elysees has lights and decorations all along it, and there will be a number of traditional Christmas markets.  I'll go exploring next weekend or the one after and take some pictures for you!