Galeries Lafayette and Printemps

Paris, like London, has some landmark department stores that are all decked for Christmas. While the decorations were fun and clever, the actual Christmas decor and gifts available for sale in Paris were incomparable to the items I saw in London. Galeries Lafayette has a stunning Belle Époque glass dome and every year they dangle giant Christmas decoration inside of it--this year was a large paper Christmas tree. Another store Printemps, across the street from Galeries Lafayette, has a smaller glass dome, but had a specific Christmas store, Boutique Noire, that had some okay Christmas presents and decorations. Overall, it was fun to see the erratic puppet-like polar bears swinging their arms in the display windows, catch a fashion inspired art show, and take in the beautiful Parisian skyline, which needed no additional decoration at all. 

Harrods

I don't exactly remember when I learned about Harrods years ago, but am very thankful I did. Harrods is a department store in London that is known for several things: its iconic flagship building, its range of products and goods at various price points, and its food hall. Its signature colors are green and gold, a great combination, which they brand very well with their famous shopper bags. When I was in London with Angela a couple of weeks ago, we spent some time walking all around the store, catching up, and having a good time. Since my last visit, they have added lots of new boutiques and small destinations including a Ladurée, a pizza restaurant, and Champagne Bar. In their gallery designated for 'millionaires', we saw some clever money safes disguised as a water bottle and a box of Pringles. It was a real pleasure visiting Harrods and picking up a couple of those shopper bags. I hope to visit again soon!

 

Aound London Town

This past week I was very lucky to be able to join my good friend Angela in London for a couple of days. It was a trip in the making you could say for years. Ever since I met Angela several years ago in New York, our many shared interests inevitably would culminate in a get-together overseas. I am sure that we'll have many more adventures to come.

In the series of blogs I'll be breaking down all the sites (mostly museums) about my trip, to share all the photos I took and all the  experiences I had within my short but very fulfilling trip. I'd also like to quickly say that I wish Blogger would enable me to share my photos in a photo gallery format, but it doesn't seem to be capable of doing that right now. So until then (if it ever does) I will have to continue to share my photos in long and expanded blog posts.

In this entry I wanted to post places and things I came across that I found really interesting, but I only was able to briefly encounter. London is a vast city with vast experiences, so I'm sure down the road I'll have to return to try to see more of things I didn't get time to see this past trip. 

Below are photos of Hyde Park, Paddington Station, which had a bronze sculpture of infamous Paddington Bear, Selfridges department store, Liberty department store, which my friend Samantha and her boyfriend Andrew took me to, Fortnum & Mason department store, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, other various public transport stations, and PAUL, which is my namesake boulangerie, scattered around several locations within the city and I love it so much and that I ate at it several times.

Stay tuned for many other posts and more fancy things from London!