Astier de Villatte

 

Last night I needed a mood-elevator. Time to visit Astier de Villatte

For the annual viewing of their Christmas ornaments.

Paris tree ornaments

The first weeks of December I like to go hunting for Paris tree ornaments.

First stop, l'Arbre de Noël shop, the 2nd floor of Bon Marché

A huge space with big trees. Naturally Bear came along.

Looking for bears as usual. This is a rather nice one but its a clip-on. You can't hang it..

Fancy glass tassels at Bon Marché

They do have a good selection of sea creatures/coquillages my favorite.

A very tempting scallop...

I could paint scallops and eat them everyday.

Then over to le creme de la creme collection of tree ornaments at Astier de villatte, 173, rue St Honoré

Clever how they use a bare bones silver tree to show off their treasures.

In one small room upstairs in this ceramic shop, Pandora's box awaits. Bears and more bears.

Lovely painted glass balls/boules de noël en verre

White objects look well on a silver tree.

Angelina has white meringue boules de neige/snow balls. Are these for eating or hanging?

My concierge kindly let me help decorate our tree on Sunday. Bear was thrilled. Have you decorated your tree? I bought only a silvery bird at Astier. It clips on instead of hanging. C'est la vie. Still I got inspired and painted up a storm of tree ornament watercolors today you can hang year-round.

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Astier de Villatte Paris

Bunnies don't just show up at Easter in Paris. There are plenty to doll up the boughs of your Sapin/Christmas tree right now.

White cats, yellow birds, big hearts...you name it. Paris has them.

A bird feeder with a red Cardinal and a...white Cardinal?

A bronzy bear with your typical French champignons.
 

More bears for your tree. All of the above at Astier de Villatte on 173 rue Saint Honoré 75001.
 

Bon Point is famous for their invisible window displays - their tree has gone missing.
 

Lingerie queen Chantal Thomass' white feather tree has a few black feathers strewn hither and thither
 

Chocolatier Michel Cluizel hangs white chocolate snowmen on a rather bare bones tree spotted with snow. The weather in Paris by the way is quite balmy and sunny. No snow in sight so far.
 

Angelina appropriately has gold leaves on their tree. It's so easy to drop a few gold ducats here.
 

A slew of pine trees waiting to find a home. I thought it rather clever they come stuck into a chunk of log so they don't tip over.
 

Chef Charlotte says no. They only last for 10 days for lack of water.
 

A tiny tree with the lights already on it - no fuss, no muss.

Polar bears are everywhere in Paris.
 

Is this a polar bear rocking horse or what?
 

The dog sitting across from me on the train would make a nice rocking horse or something...
 

I forgot to show you this nice cat hair brush the other day.

George and Martha were painted while getting cat hair on an Empire settee as requested. This was a first (is it a settee?)