Our second morning in Paris we woke up with one mission: shopping at the Galeries Lafayette.
In the week leading up to the trip I had contacted several friends and family members for their best Paris recommendations. Both my dad and one of my favorite bloggers strongly urged me to spend a few hours at the Galeries Lafayette, Paris' luxury shopping mall.
This time of year the mall has unprecedented crowds out front staring in wonder at the Christmas windows. This year four of the windows were promoting the upcoming movie Beauty & the Beast.
The last of the Beauty & the Beast windows was an interactive one. It was a giant touch screen where you could wipe away the roses as they tried to cover the castle. I could have stood there all day!
The best part of touring the windows was watching all the teeny tiny Parisians and how excited they were. The beret! It kills me.
One window featured two large hour glasses and in a nearby tree, white owls. The owls were wearing pearls!
The window next to the owls had giant, swinging pocket watches.
There was also a children's room with dancing toys.
I particularly loved this window of the Christmas feast. In the center of the table was a stuffed animal wearing a sequin dress and drinking rose. It's like they knew I was coming.
What Christmas dinner would be complete without lobster? I must admit, it was fun to see a touch of New England cuisine in the window.
One of the windows towards the end of the row was a reenactment of The Nutcracker.
By the time we made it to the final window the crowd was four people deep.
After we saw all the windows, we headed inside. This was the very first display we saw:
The displays only got more grand, particularly the mall's Christmas tree. It sprouts up from the make up counters.
At the base of the tree is Santa's village, a train and lots of animal characters.
When you look up, the tree is six stories tall. It is magnificent.
Above the tippy top of the tree is the stunning stained glass ceiling. Talk about wow factor.
The Galeries Lafayette is seven floors and we visited every single one. Floor after floor you'll be tempted by the highly coveted collections of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and more.
I loved this feather display in the women's fashion section:
I laughed out loud at these mannequins in the lingerie section, or as they translated it on the sign "seduction fashion."
What display is complete without hot pink wigs?
I flipped when I saw this Kate Moss sweatshirt. It took all the self control I could muster not to buy it.
In the souvenir section there was an artist painting watercolors of the city. I walked up close to see his work and fell in love with painting he was finishing. He didn't speak English, but I was able to mime my way into telling him I wanted that piece. When he was done painting he helped me walk it over to the register. Now I have a piece of Paris on the wall in my home forever.
One of the coolest things about the Galeries Lafayette is the roof deck. You can walk out the doors of the seventh floor onto a wide open deck. The day we went it was gray outside so the view was less pretty, but you could still see quite far.
We could even see the Eiffel Tower!
Between the Christmas windows out front and the seven floors of browsing, we spent over two hours exploring the mall. Wanting to get the full luxury shopping experience, we decided to have lunch at the champagne and caviar bar, Kaspia. More on that tomorrow!
