Paris Calendrier de l'Advent

While you all are tearing your hair out over which canned pumpkin filling to buy for Thanksgiving, Parisians are searching madly for the right Advent calendar to buy while they last in the month of November. When I bought that print at the map fair I had a potential ADVENT LETTER FOR NOVEMBER in mind. Time to do a bit of research...

You don't have to go far to find them. In the metro posters of 24 days of beer no less?!

The old fashioned Advent cards are aplenty. I think they're printed in Germany but I could be wrong. Quelle ordinaire.

Louvre's Carousel shopping mall is a good place to hunt. L'Occitane always has nice ones though usually with a more Provençal theme.

A charming Advent from COMTESS DU BARRY, though i wish it was filled with their tins of foie gras instead of chocolate.

PATISSERIE FREDERIC CASSEL OF FONTAINEBLEAU has two calendars on offer, both filled with his devine chocolate. Red seems the preferred color for these containers of  24-days of goodies. More on Fontainebleau later...

At the NATURE store in the Louvre  24 days of seedlings and DIY terrarium plantings. Most unusual

Along with French chocolatiers the cosmetic industry goes wild with designing Advent boxes. This one from JO MALONE goes for a mere 350€

Mini chocolate bars from MAXIM'S.

A reindeerish theme at upscale MAISON DU CHOCOLAT. Most of the time the contents are not as thrilling as the container IMHO.

I expected le LOUVRE to have their own calendar. They did not sadly. More mini chocolate bars from LE CHOCOLAT DES FRANÇAIS.

On to my November letter Advent design. I cleverly thought I'd use 'my' house (if only it were. I'm in a tiny 20 meter maid's room at the top in the back. Not complaining at all mind you!) but this building is honestly not very interesting to look at and has way more than the required 24 windows to draw :((

I picked out an old 17th century engraving instead. But it was way too complicated to draw!

Monthly tearing of hair time.

Right under my nose...watercolors of the Louvre I've done without a moan or complaint.

What's more, when I pulled out the give-away Louvre guide there was the perfect window fillers!

Ta Da! Your November Advent letter is in the mail as of yesterday! You will have to cut open the windows yourself I'm afraid. (And perhaps flatten out the crease under a pile of books for several months...ahem). Still I must say I'm rather pleased with the end result. What do you think?

Today is the 1st day of the 3-day SALON DU IMPERIAL CHOCOLAT AU CHATEAU DE FONTAINEBLEAU and I am going toute sweet. Complete report to follow. If you're in Paris you should go too. It will be an elegant affair with the top chocolatiers onsite .Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast. If you'd like to receive Parisbreakfast watercolors, letters 💌 and maps in your mailbox 📮, look in my Etsy shop. 

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