Paris window shopping at Christmas

During the holidays, Parisians love to give gifts of chocolates and special candies. Joelle and I did a bit of window shopping last night to see what the big names had on offer this year. The big names on and around Place de la Madeleine were packed with shoppers. The most fashionable names (to foreigners, at least) include Hediard and Fauchon. Superior quality is just around the corner at La Maison du Chocolat where the lines ran outside. La Maison even had a friendly person managing the flow and offering free chocolate! Who says the French aren't friendly?

Thanks to Americablog readers for the the holiday gift! We won't be breaking the bank at any of the posh stores listed here though we are now planning our Christmas Eve dinner, which will be tonight. (I guess that makes it a Christmas Eve, Eve dinner.) We bought our 7 euro ballet tickets last night so we'll be at the Opera Garnier for Christmas Eve. Our special dinner will be fresh fish (to be decided when we see what is available later today), snow peas and our favorite Roederer sparkling wine from California that a friend kindly brought over from California. Since it's a Franco-American product (like the two of us) we love toasting with it on special occasions, including at our wedding here in France a few years ago.

More window gazing, after the jump.