A Paris Christmas

Christmas Tree, American Ambassador's
Residence

Chris and I have been enjoying ourselves wandering around Paris window shopping (for the most part) and admiring the holiday decorations.   Before his arrival, I had the opportunity with the American Women's Group to tour the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to France to see the beautiful Christmas tree in the grand central staircase of the lovely mansion just next door to the Elysée Palace.

The windows dressed by true French shopkeepers are often real works of art and many this Christmas lived up to those high expectations.  But the decorations at Galleries Lafayette simply outshone everything else.  The theme was polar bears (they've been very popular this year) and every part of the decoration of every window was made of white paper.  And the figures moved!  Inside, in that huge central atrium with the Beaux Arts stained glass dome, was a giant white paper tree to which white paper cable cars were ferrying polar bears back and forth from the balconies overlooking this astonishing sight.  Here's a collection of some of our photos:

The one to the left is a recreation of the dome inside the store but there are piles of white paper pencils piling up from the floor.





















Notice the bear on the right trying to scale the top of the cupboard.











This was about purses.  See the paper ones dangling from the balcony.
















And the giant Christmas tree itself.









 And Chris's grand finale photo montage.