Paris Xmas Vitrines (repost)

I took this shot in October of Galeries Lafayette rather early Xmas tree. The rest of the Paris Xmas window photos are THANKS to Anne Corrons of MesVitrines NYC.
Please click on the photos to see more detail and immerse yourself in Paris vitrines!
MERCI ANNE!!! First off Galeries Lafayette Rockette bears... And their Mama Mia musical theme -
Do not ask me what this has to do with xmas puleeze. OTOH next door at Printemps the windows are truly magical.I have no idea what's going on here but j'adore!Clique and you tell me.

More mysteries...

MIAM!

Printemps does verte et rouge too

Let the soiree commence!

Chanel is sticking with a traditionally white snowy theme (of which there is plenty in Paris) and cutout doilies - tres femme blablabla

While Dior is thinking ahead and pushing post-Xmas cruise wear in their vitrines...hmmm

I'm all for Kenzo's Parisien biker yanking.

A slew of Parisien soiree-goers, perhaps over to...

Over to Repetto perhaps to get their dancing shoes?

So they can dance their way over to Jean-Paul Hevin for a portable Xmas tree of macarons non?!

BONJOUR MES VITRINES NYS-PARIS!

et merci encore!

Neige aux Framboises

The French seem to have an almost insane addiction to the color RED (Calling Dr. Gabriel Byrne SVP!) They refuse to leave the house without some smidge of red showing. They eat their meat raw/a point. There are endless examples I could pull up to prove my theorie. To boot they insist on eating RED desserts year round.

To hell with Locavores!
Where French pastry chefs come up with this endless supply of fraise et framboise is beyond me other than a jam jar...
But come up with it they must or their goose is cooked.
There can be no doubt about this since you see it every patisserie vitrine.
Add to that their addiction to quatre fruits rouges.

Right! It isn't enough to have ONE red fruit in your dessert.

You must have FOUR! (cerises, groseilles, framboises et fraises)

I admit to being fond of confiture de quatre fruits rouges (merci Bonne Maman)

Well RED being such a Christmasy color I thought I'd show you some RED Paris petit fours...

Gerard Mulot has a thing with RED desserts that cannot be denied...

Or maybe I'm the one with the RED problem seeing RED where ever I look...

One red fruit dessert I cannot live without is Paille Framboise. Two glossy layers of a palmier-like cookie 'sandwich' a thick layer of raspberry jam. Then topped off with tell-tale confectionary sugar that makes you look like you were just out in the snow or else eating a paille framboise. This thing is impossible to eat discretely.

It's a fairly traditional pastry so you'll have to look in at your 'local' corner patissierie to find it. I've yet to see it in the fancier Paris joints.

Really you can't go wrong at Boulangerie Rollot. They've won all kinds of prizes and competed with la creme de la creme at the concours Meilleure Patissierie de France - no mean accomplishment indeed. And it's awfully nice to be served your snowy paille by the pastry chef's wife...

48, rue Madame 75006

Do you have a favorite RED dessert in Paris?
~

BONJOUR NEIGE AUX FRAMBOISES!

PS Neige aux framboises is a dessert but since there's snow on the ground in Paris I thought I'd take a few liberties...

New York Xmas Animaux

Animals bearing gifts is always a welcome sight. Though this Bergdorfs Doberman looks like he might take a bite out of you if the gift box were not firmly wedged between his teeth...ahem I prefer a pugs bearing a diamond-studded mini pugs to the fierce Bergdorf hound. Racoons wearing pendents and pheasants decked in diamond bracelets are certainement easy on the eye... I LOVE Mes VitrinesNYC green reindeer spotted at Covent Garden in London. Rather more than this odd New York reindeer sporting a wild boar and a goose on his back - who knows what this means? I haven't a clue.

Saks Fifth Avenue saw fit to put a giant octopus tentacle in their Xmas windows. Go figure..?

Their clock-work elephant makes a tad more sense but not much.

I'll take Ralph Laurens Rugby giant swan anyday.

Offspring Dylan of Dylan's Candy loves fishing penquins and who can blame her? Especially when the fish are Swedish and not on the endangered list!

Roasting marshmellows over an open fire of candy corn looks like fun.

There is a plethora of bears in New York Xmas windows...

With good reason - the well-dressed bear is an essential.

Cashmere scarf + woodsy red-checked hat makes the New York bear de super classe.
I got it from BEAR'S mouth and who would know better?

BONJOUR NEW YORK ANIMAUX!
 

Extreme Gingerbread Addiction (EGA)

Like clockwork, every December I suffer from a severe case of Extreme Gingerbread Addiction (EGA)

It hit big time last week and I was ready to attack anything with the word 'Gingerbread' in sight. Fortunately I restrained myself from wolfing down 'gingerbread' dog biscuits at the Grand Central Xmas Fair.

Nor did I wolf down Whole Foods PC/natural/zero/trans fat 'Folk' gingerbread cookies. Would you?

Whole Foods has a DIY gingerbread 'chalet' too. Who cares. I like my gingerbread to be men and unadulterated.

I noticed Whole Foods' mistletoe nearby.

'Not for human consumption'

Is someone expecting ET to show up? Is Santa an ET..?

I am not fond of French Pain d'Epice de Dijon either. This is a kind of soft honey bread/cake that is such a distant relative of gingerbread it hardly bears being in same category in my humble opinion.

A newish pastry chain in New York, La Financiere, fancies itself to be very Frenchie since they offer macarons. They admonished me for taking this picture, so perhaps they really ARE French? These look like standard issue gingerbread that could well be left over from last year and outsourced to boot. I was not impressed.

Union Square Farmers Market can be depended upon for the old fashioned ginger cookie.

And they had the 'brokens' on sale. These were not half-bad though a true ginger cookie should be break-your-teeth-hard and these were not sadly :( Tant pis.

Breezy Orchard Farms had practically life-sized gingerbread at the outrageous price of $5 bucks. I did not have the nerve to fork over the dough, but I did give them a gentle squeeze and they were sufficiently rock hard. No brokens or on sale yet malheureusement

You can get a perfectly good cup of hot apple cider for a mere $2 at the Breezy Hill stand along with apples up the whazoo etc.

Chocolate 'gingerbread' men on a stick from NUNU in Brooklyn. Lately ANYTHING at all from Brooklyn is hot hot hot.

I looked for a possible substitute like a gingerbread men tree ornament but was not lucky at Union Square.

Eleni NYC does have gingerbread taxis if you're so inclined to contemporary shapes. My gingerbread history goes way back - to the days when I stood side-by-side with my mom baking. I helped cut out and decorate gingerbread cookies to go on our tree. Adding the strings was another favorite task. In addition I ate all broken, damaged gingerbread (when no one was looking of course) so they could be spared embarrassment on the tree. You can understand why my gingerbread addiction is longstanding.

One year Anita of Desserts First sent me a tin of gingerbread and I sent her a watercolor in deep gratitude. If any PBers gets the urge to follow her example do not resist!

Photo courtesy of Sarabeth

I did find the gingerbread of my dreams last week. Hard as a rock and full of intense gingery flavor like the kind my mother made. At Sarabeth's Bakery! I didn't have my camera with me, but I found this picture on Sarabeth's blog. It turns out her utterly divine and quite spare icing is WHITE CHOCOLATE! Who knew? I wonder if the cookie recipe is in her fab cookbook? The icing recipe is on her blog so stop by. I'm not allowed to DYI my own gingerbread. I'm not safe around raw gingerbread dough - I will eat it without thinking twice. Would you? 

New Yorkers are out there running around like maniacs shopping till they drop. I am contemplating running back to Sarabeth's for more True Gingerbread.

Should I?

It only comes once a year.

You tell me :)

BONJOUR EXTREME GINGERBREAD LOVERS!