In Paris, the most popular Christmas lights are those decorating the Champs Elysées; but they are just the icing on the cake. The streets and the big shops in all the shopping areas, notably the department stores such as Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, in the Boulevard Haussmann area, vie with each other to produce the most elaborate Christmas decorations and Christmas windows.
Big stores and stores selling up-market French luxury goods such as fashionwear or perfume and cosmetics can be guaranteed to put on particularly lavish and impressive window displays ; however bargain hunters should not expect to find a lot of really good buys, as winter sales in France cannot start before the first week of January.