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Christmas is coming, so it’s already time to think about choosing gifts to delight your family and friends. In November, Paris enwraps herself in her glittering Yuletide finery as the Champs-Élysées bursts into illuminated splendour, Christmas markets spring up throughout the city, and department stores such as Printemps and shopping centres like the Beaugrenelle mall become more welcoming than ever. Come and stay at the Ouest Hotel for a Christmas shopping adventure and taste the enchanted atmosphere of Paris during this special holiday season!

The Champs Elysées Christmas Market

With their picturesque wooden chalets, alluring aromas of cinnamon, gingerbread and mulled wine, their traditional toys, handicrafts, local produce and artisan foodstuffs, and their delightful ambience, Christmas markets piquantly evoke our memories of childhood. The Christmas market on the Champs Elysées, which extends from the avenue’s roundabout to the Place de la Concorde, is one of the largest in Paris. Here, amidst the designer jewellery, handicrafts and local specialties you’ll find a wealth of gift ideas. An ice rink, rides, attractions and robots will delight children who, every night, can thrill to the flight of Santa's sleigh. Don’t miss, either, the Champs Elysées illuminations, which this year will cast their magical glow from November 19th, 2015 to January 7th, 2016. As last year, the luminous scenography has been entrusted to the lighting specialists, Blachère. The illuminations and colours, from gold to purple, magnify perspectives and produce a fairy halo about the Grande Roue, the Ferris wheel situated on the Place de la Concorde, as well as lend an aura of enchantment to the tall trees lining the most beautiful avenue in the world.

The Beaugrenelle Centre in its festive clothes

Not far away, in fact just a few steps from the Eiffel Tower and the Seine waterfront, the Beaugrenelle shopping centre awaits in all its architectural magnificence. Here, when you set out on your Christmas shopping spree, you’ll find the most prestigious brands, from Guerlain to Baccarat, as well as consumer brands such as Zara, H&M, Zadig et Voltaire and Claudie Pierlot.

But this stunning mall of curving metallic mesh and glass spreading its nonchalant curves along the Seine is an architectural work that is worth a visit in itself. A green roof of nearly 7000 m² is interspersed with skylights and terraces and boasts an array of changing colours in accordance with the seasons. The centre also has a cultural aspect, as each month contemporary artists exhibit their works here. 

You can take a break from shopping at the superb Pathé cinema multiplex and eat in one of the many restaurants the complex has to offer. Discover the Parisian Pub, halfway between a Parisian brasserie and an English public house, where veal stew is on the menu alongside fish and chips; or drop into the Panasia, where you’re invited on a culinary journey across the Far East to try iconic dishes of Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai and Indonesian cuisine.

Printemps celebrates 150 years

On March 20th, the Printemps department store celebrated its 150 anniversary with a glorious floral theme. Last winter, the department store invited Burberry to design its Christmas display windows and the theme was a little boy’s enchanted aerial journey from London to Paris. The theme of the 2015 Christmas windows is not yet known, but you can bet that it will be appropriately stunning in this auspicious anniversary year. You can look forward to a true modern fairy tale!

If you stay at the Ouest Hotel, situated near the Gare Saint-Lazare, you will be close to the department stores and can quickly and conveniently reach the Champs Elysées, the Eiffel Tower and the Beaugrenelle Centre. Ours is the ideal location from which to launch your Christmas buying spree. And, when you’re finished, we offer a warm welcome and plenty of relaxation.

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• Christmas market at Champs Elysées, Paris 8th - november 15th to january 4th 2016 - Metro line 1, 2 or 6, station Charles De Gaulle Etoile or RER line A, station Charles De Gaulle - Etoile
• Department store Printemps
• Department store Beaugrenelle
• Christmas lights, avenue des Champs-Elysées - from november 18th to january 6st 2016

~oOo~

Picture copyright holder: Tourist Office Paris - Photographer Daniel Thierry

 

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L'Ouest Hotel, an elegant 3-star hotel at Paris Saint-Lazare