Jean-Charles de Castelbajac designs the Christmas lighting for the facade of the BHV (Bazaar de l’Hotel de Ville) department store this year in Paris.

A funky neon-lit facade will be lit up on November 17, with the help of powerful vocals performed by 28-year-old, Arkansas-born Beth Ditto of the group Gossip.

Featuring a bold geometric pattern inspired by the Louvre Pyramid, this collection from Incase was designed and created for the November 2009 opening of the Apple Store, Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris, France.

Paris’s Michelin-starred restaurant, the Tour d’argent, is to sell 18,000 bottles of wine and spirits in an auction which is expected to raise about a million euros.

The d’Argent restaurant, which dates back to 1582, is cleaning out its 450,000-bottle wine cellar, considered one of the best in the world.

The restaurant is also selling some very old spirits, like three bottles of a Clos du Griffier Cognac from 1788, the year before the French Revolution.

This week, more than 400 exhibitors are in Paris, France for the 2009 Paris Chocolate Festival. The theme this year is opera.

The event kicked off last night with a chocolate fashion show where dresses are created by a combination of top fashion designers and chocolatiers.

Walking the runway wearing the chocolate fashions were models, actresses, television personalities and opera singers.

Printemps store Paris, the largest beauty department in the world, is about halfway through a $100 million renovation that it hopes to complete in 2010.

“Our vision is to make Printemps the best store in the world,” said Paolo de Cesare, the store’s president and chief executive.

For now, Printemps is under a giant tentwhile a team of 60 artisans bring the flagship’s 1883 façade back to its original Belle Epoque glory.

Prada is drawing inspiration from another of the world’s fashion capitals, to open a pop-up store in Paris.

The boutique, located at Place Beauvau 92, will be open for five months from today - and melds the Italian and French, inside and out.