PARIS 2e

"Infotainment? What the hell are you talking about?"


Paris Christmas Crap: Champs Elysées

DSC05406

The Champs Elysées is dubbed lovingly "the most beautiful avenue on Earth" by Parisians who probably wouldn't set a foot in its tourist traps and chain stores even if their life depended on it. But, oh joy, on Christmas time the entire park part of it turns into the most disgusting Christmas market you can find for miles.
To the sound of mass traffic coming to you from the avenue is added cheap Xmas music and the stench of a thousand saussage and soup joints as well as the usual suspicious looking Xmas craft shops that sell products that almost look like they got manufactured in some sweatshop in a far away land.
All these lovely things are set up inside rows of white painted wooden barracks that resemble some POW camps.

DSC05405

DSC05408
Let us eat our overpriced crêpes at this feeding stand facing the exhaust fumes of a thousand tourist busses.

DSC05409
You have to admire the effort here to communicate in English: "Here come visit all"...

DSC05413
And they hung Santa Clause along with his sleigh high up into the trees... for some reason

DSC05411
Maybe they'll do an effigy burning later on?

DSC05404
Oh yes, before I forget: This year's Xmas lights are really a feast for the eyes. Along with the usual strings of lights, some trees bear what appears to be hula hoops. I'm sure there is a deeper philosophical explication to this. But seriously I don't care. Looks cheap. But do not despair, because someone came along with the highly ingenious idea to couple the hula hoops with some shiny plastic bling hanging thigs that make it look like some magic Xmas pixie shat glitter into each tree.

DSC05416
There also seems to be a slide of some sorts, but at this point I had enough of my five seconds on the clogged walkway and decided to take the backstreet and avoid being stampeeded by a flock of saussage swinging tourists.

DSC05415
I'll rather finish with a couple of shots of the freshly renovated LeNôtre pavilion and its gracious stonework from another time.

DSC05414

Labels: , ,

0 Responses to “Paris Christmas Crap: Champs Elysées”

Post a Comment

    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
    I am Cedric, discoverer of things that would go unnoticed in the streets of Paris, historic haven of fashionistas and city of lights ('lights' as in 'enlightenment', not street lights).
    But seriously: I'm an expat from Luxembourg (the country, not the garden), living in the center of Paris (hence 'Paris 2nd arrondissement'), and currenlty studying architectural history...


    benettic3@gmail.com

Be-Facebook me!
Visit my architecture soap opera Beautiful Buildings Club.
Visit my foreign correspondents Snobby Foreign Correspondents.

Archives

Paris2e Guides

  • HIP - Paris.

    places to go and weird stories to know about the city of lights... Improve your brain's useless knowledge parts, impress your neighbors, raise the roof, and anoy your friends with these funny facts and places



  • FOODBUCKS - Paris.

    The not yet complete map of all the places I have had the joy (or disgust) to get food.



  • ART - Paris.

    Museums, galleries, hot spots, places of interest. And don't forget vernissage nights!

Main Departments





PARIS 2e: Mindboggling since 2006 * All rights reserved * Copyright Cedric Benetti 2010