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Christmas just passed, but we still want to share with you some Christmas decor in a historic shopping mall in Paris. It takes time to make something of quality. In the case of La Samaritaine, it certainly did take its time. In June 2021, La Samaritaine, situated on rue de Rivoli, finally reopened after 16 years of renovation. The department store, closed since 2005 to meet the modern safety standards and for redevelopment purposes, was originally set to reopen in 2020. LVMH postponed the reopening, though, to face the pandemic that is happening even right now. ITS NAME Samaritaine is a reference to the Bible and corresponds to the sculptures installed on the original building. According to John's Gospel, Jesus met a Samaritan at the Jacob's Well and asked for water. The Samaritanian woman was surprised as Jews despise Samaritanians. They kept on talking until the Samaritan realised that Jesus was the Messiah. Then, more and more came to listen to him. ITS HISTORY Like many other buildings in France, the history of La Samaritaine dates back to a hundred years ago. In 1870, Ernest Cognacq first opened his business there. It was just a small shop, but over time, his business got bigger. In 1900, he was able to expand his shop to become a series of department store buildings. That is how La Samaritaine was developed and reached its prime in the 1960’s. Starting 1970, La Samaritaine faced a commercial struggle and eventually turned into offices. In 2001, the LVMH group saw the building’s potential and bought it. Originally, the group planned to close it for renovation in 2005 and expected the works to be done in 4 years. This temporary closure, however, took 16 years, largely because the French authorities thought the new design of the building did not harmonise with the surrounding buildings. There started the back and forth of various designs to meet the city’s visual requirements. Eventually in 2015, construction was allowed to begin. NOW – FIRST CHRISTMAS The Art Deco store is currently listed as a historical monument by the French Ministry of Culture. It covers over 70,000sqm and is designed to visualise the charm of Paris with its fashion, food, and art de vivre featuring a hotel, restaurants, concept stores, cafes, offices etc. Right now, just as the shopping centre has reopened, La Samaritaine is doing something exceptional to welcome its first Christmas. Advent calendar is something of a tradition in France, which is something the parents usually buy for their children for the countdown to Christmas. Throughout December, the mall is putting in place a giant Advent calendar under its historic glass roof, giving its shoppers a fun experience and the opportunities to win some fabulous gifts (days will be uncovered at 12:24pm). To shoppers, this is a chance to visit this historical building while trying their luck out. P.s. here is a fitness event organised by Hermès. Go check it out!

When people dub Paris “the city of art”, they are not joking. Here in the heart of Paris, squatting has eventually become an art thing. Yep, 59 Rivoli was originally an abandoned building back in 1989. It belonged to Crédit Lyonnais, but the French bank abandoned it. When finding accommodation in Paris was not an easy task (it still isn’t!!), unsurprisingly, this empty building attracted people to squat in … only they were artists. Illegal as they were, the local government had the open-mindedness to allow and support them. That’s how 59 Rivoli has become what it is today. CONVERTING TO A MUSEUM The building had already been empty for over 10 years. In 1999, a few artists decided to make their own workshops out of it. The idea was to make the workshops accessible to the public, to take art to the streets, because art should not only belong in fancy galleries or any Fine Arts institutions. Over time, more and more artists opened their workshops and some even lived in the building. In 2005, the Mairie de Paris decided to buy the building and convert it to a legal art museum. The building was closed for renovation for 3 years. In 2009, it finally reopened to the public, marking the beginning of the era of 59 Rivoli. Today Roaming around the 1st arrondissement of Paris, you may not notice the humble artistic icon. But when you step in, the multi-coloured spiral staircase and murals are certainly hard to miss. Nowadays, 30 artists have opened their workshops in this 6-story building. 20 of them are permanent residents; the rest get to exhibit their works for a period of 3 to 6 months. The best thing is that, for visitors like us, we get to see how works of art are made in the process. We can just go in, discover, and exchange with the artists. The entrance is free. 59 Rivoli is not a typical museum or gallery that you see on the streets, so it also offers you an atypical cultural experience. There, each and every space is decorated with paintings, sculptures, and graffiti etc. It is this playful vibe that you feel you are more relaxed and prone to express freely. If you think visiting an art museum is boring, visit this! P.s. if art is what you love, here is also our Impressionist day in the Musée d'Orsay :)

These slices of toast with avocado, banana, and kiwi look yummy, right? They are! With some mascarpone, jam, slices of cheese, and above all some honey, that’s your healthy Sunday breakfast. We are using acacia and linden honeys to deliciously sweeten the toast. The subtle sweetness of acacia honey matches perfectly with light foods while linden honey is a bit minty, it gives an exceptional freshness to the fruits. But let’s go back to the topic: why honey crystallises? Well, all raw honeys crystallise, but some are faster than the others. As a result, over time, they all turn from their liquid/silky form to the solid/creamy form. However, processed honeys (unlike raw honeys) will not crystallise. Keep reading! RAW HONEY VS PROCESSED HONEY Rest assured, both are edible. Raw (unpasteurised) honeys are honeys extracted directly from the beehives. They are strained only to get rid of particles like beeswax and some natural pollutants. Most importantly, they are not processed, which is why they have the most nutrients in them. Processed honeys are pasteurised honeys that are heated to destroy sugar-tolerant yeasts and any pathogens. It’s safer to eat and it extends the shelf life of honey, but at the same time most of the enzymes, vitamins, and minerals will be lost during the heating process. WHY DOES HONEY CRYSTALLISE? Honey crystallisation is actually a natural phenomenon that proves that the honey is natural, raw honey turned by bees, without adding any other substances. As this process is a guarantee of naturalness, that’s the kind of pure honey you want. Honey is composed mainly of two sugars: fructose and glucose, with other substances like water, traces of pollen etc. The proportion of the two sugars are different with different types of honey. Then, some honeys contain more water than the others. The higher amount of glucose, the easier the honey will crystallise. Likewise, the fewer the water in the honey, the faster the crystallisation will take place. That is because the honey gets concentrated and forms crystals over time. This is why the crystallisation of honey happens and why some honeys, like lavender honey which has a high ratio of glucose and low water level, will get cloudy and creamy. Acacia honey, on the other hand, is rich in fructose. It can, thus, be classified as a liquid honey though it will eventually crystallise at a slow pace. REVERSING THE HONEY CRYSTALLISATION First of all, by keeping the honey in a warm place, you can delay the crystallisation process. But if it does get crystallised, the most non-harmful way to reverse the crystallised honey is to warm the jar in a bain-marie (water bath) at about 40 degrees (which is actually the temperature of a hive) until it becomes liquid again (which might take around 15 minutes). It takes a little patience, but this way you get to enjoy its smooth and silky texture again, without degrading its nutritional qualities. That’s it! If honey interests you, you can check out these two French honey brands: Hédène and Bleu Blanc Ruche. If you are a natural honey lover like Winnie the Pooh or want to have some authentic and nutritious honey toast, here are also some for you:

At Maison Evelyn, we love things organic and artisanal. Recently, we have added some new honeys (aka “liquid gold”) from Hédène, which are a perfect manifestation of what we represent. Before we start talking about them, if you ever wonder, the name of Hédène does imply implicitly what the French brand aims to achieve. When pronounced in French, the name Hédène is practically the same as Eden, the Garden in Genesis. The “H” is silenced in French, but it is added as a reference of hedonism. When we break the name down like this, it is actually pretty clear what they want - giving you something heavenly (and healthy of course) for your pleasure in life. HONEYS 100% FRENCH IN ORIGIN Coming from two beekeeping families, Cyril Marx and Alexis Ratouis, the two founders, have started their love adventure of bee honey ever since they were kids. The uniqueness of each type of honey (its palette of colours, flavours, and textures) is what fascinates them most. After graduating from an apiary school in Paris, they decided to create Hédène together, making honeys 100% French in origin with an accent on traceability. A MANIFESTATION OF REFINEMENT With their vast territories across different French regions, Hédène are able to offer a wide range of honeys through organic farming. From Tarn to Burgundy (passing through the Jura), their monofloral and polyfloral (wildflower) honeys represent the floral richness of France. To harvest this raw, natural organic food, the brand uses cold extraction and has its apiaries near the fields. They are confident enough in their traditional beekeeping know-how to have their honeys analysed and certified to guarantee authenticity and traceability. That is how Hédène have become a symbol of French excellence. Whether in liquid, creamy, or crystalline form, their organic honeys have such aromatic uniqueness that has even seduced the starred chefs in France to sublimate their dishes using their honeys as an ingredient. When you taste a spoon of one of the honeys, you will certainly feel like a journey to their French territories. That’s how exceptional the quality is.

One of the reasons that we love living in Paris more than other French cities (and we did live in one or two) is its museums. After all, home to lots of world-known art pieces, Paris was dubbed the “City of Art”. On the right bank of the Seine, there is the Louvre for the ancient Greek or Roman or Renaissance art lovers out there. Next to the museum, there is also The Centre Pompidou, the largest museum for modern and contemporary art in Europe. On the left bank, there is the Musée d'Orsay, offering the world's largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces. Having visited the first two, we finally indulged ourselves in a day of visit to the Orsay museum! THE MUSEUM WAS A RAILWAY STATION The building that is housing the Musée d'Orsay was originally Gare d'Orsay, a railway station that was constructed from 1898 to 1900 to allow the coming of the foreign visitors and delegations to the 1900 Paris Exhibition. A few decades later, the station was then transformed into today’s museum based on the decision of the French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. It is why the museum has some degree of resemblance to a train station. In December 1986, then-president François Mitterrand officially inaugurated the opening of the Musée d'Orsay. It’s named after the adjacent quay: the Quai d'Orsay which was named in honour of Charles Boucher d'Orsay, one of the merchants who had it built. ITS COLLECTIONS OF IMPRESSIONISM & POST-IMPRESSIONISM The Musée d'Orsay exhibits and preserves over 1000 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, making up the largest impressionist collection in the world. Some major paintings include: Autoportrait by Vincent van Gogh Bal du moulin de la Galette by Auguste Renoir L'Absinthe by Edgar Degas Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet The Magpie by Claude Monet All of them are incredibly beautiful, but Starry Night Over the Rhône has left a particular impression. It is the blue that strikes me most. You can’t really understand how beautiful the blue is in a photo. The different shades of blue that van Gogh applied make a staggeringly beautiful contradiction to the yellow that represents the sparkling night sky and the lighting from the urban area. When I looked closer, I could see the heavy, thick brushstrokes that van Gogh used to give the painting layers upon layers, standing the starry night out on a flat canvas. A true beauty, isn’t it? Some paintings have to be seen in person, but if you can’t, here are some of the highlights that we hope to share with you. Enjoy! P.s. here is an article about the Gothic style that might just interest you :)

If you have any long-term skin problems, including eczema or any allergies, try Saint-Corentin! At least, this is how the founder, Corentin, helped alleviate his partner’s eczema. She had been unable to find a showering or cleansing product that would not make her skin itchy. Feeling for her, Corentin decided to find the right formula that could create his own organic soaps. ORGANIC SOAPS TO TREAT ECZEMA Having been taught to love and respect nature by his grandparents, Corentin has always been interested in plants. Seeing that his partner, who had eczema problems, struggled to find any shower gel that was not aggressive to her skin, he decided to leave his job and took part in a certified soap-making training to learn everything about soap. With a lot of experiments and patience (from her), Corentin was finally able to find a formula that makes soaps and shampoos that are suitable for all skin types. WHAT’S IN THE SOAPS? This’s how Saint-Corentin, a French brand specialised in handmade natural soaps, shampoos, and cosmetics, was created. The foundation of their products is vegetable fats. To activate saponification, the brand uses demineralised water and soda. Then, some mineral products (clays) and plants (plant powder or essential oils) are added to take care of our skin and health. What’s more? All of their soaps are made through the cold saponification process, so the beneficial and natural properties of the oils can be preserved. Good right? NATURAL & ORGANIC All that just to tell you Saint-Corentin’s products are natural and organic. The brand has even obtained the label from Nature & Progrès, an association that has been advocating organic agriculture since 1964. As a local artisanal soap maker, Saint-Corentin have certainly proven how generous nature is and know what plants are beneficial to us. P.S. Saint-Corentin’s soaps have a natural herbal fragrance and the effects are immediate. My skin won’t feel dry and tight now after bath, which is exactly what the brand has promised. P.P.S. Saint-Corentin is a symbol of a little French town called Quimper, where Corentin the founder has based his workshop. Legend has it that Saint-Corentin left part of a fish at the edge of his fountain one day. When he returned the next day, he found the fish to be intact and alive. Since then, he ate only a part of that fish and waited for it to grow back. So Corentin (apart from sharing the same name) borrowed the saint’s name for his company to remind us of the fact that nature always gives us what we need.

If you were good at painting, would you rather use your talent to create your own artworks or reproduce those from the previous masters, like those of Caravaggio, Vincent van Gogh or Pablo Picasso? It seems not to be a question for them - the copyists. Every year, students, amateurs, and professionals come to the Louvre in France to copy famous paintings. Some are there to learn; some are there to work. In France, there are only a few of these professions who make a living by copying paintings, and they are doing it legally. A CRAFT HARDER THAN BEING AN ORIGINAL ARTIST The Louvre welcomes these copyists, but they have to first show that they are up to the standard. That means providing supporting documents and a portfolio before obtaining a permit. To some extent, being a professional copyist might even possess bigger artistic talents than the past painting masters. Because to be a professional copyist, first and foremost, you need to be able to recreate paintings of every style (Renaissance, Impressionism, Contemporary, you name it). Not to mention the fact that they’d want their creations to be as faithful as possible, meaning the pigments that were used for the original paintings have to be the same as the recreated ones. This isn’t an easy job at all. Not only do they have to figure out the pigments used, they also have to work with materials that are equivalent to those of the time. With the evolution of technology, old materials can be quite hard to come by. Without doubt, it’s a much harder profession than creating their own masterpieces. PREPARATION IS KEY To make the copies as original as possible, they need as much information as possible about the paintings they reproduce. From knowing the components of the paintings to studying closely the artworks, they need everything there is in order to find out the right colours. That means also going to the museums to study the art pieces in person. Luckily, in France, they are welcome by the museums as long as they file a request to paint directly in front of the original. It’s there they spend most of the time observing the smallest details, taking notes, sketching, and drawing on canvases. HOW TO SEPARATE THE COPIES FROM THE ORIGINALS? For those who don’t have the patience, it can be an excruciating process. For these copyists, every recreation is a puzzle that they enjoy solving. Once they know how to make their works as original as possible, the inevitable question is how to make them not original. After all, they can’t create a truly identical one to confuse the public. For starters, the size will never be identical to the original ones. They will also mark in the back of the painting that it is a copy and will never imitate the signature of the original painter. If it is created at the Louvre, a stamp from the museum will also cover the piece (but remains only visible under X-ray). These criteria separate them from the forgers, whose intention is to create 100% art pieces to trick people. So many restrictions and so much hard work, all that just to reproduce a famous painting? It’s all worth it! After spending hundreds of hours trying to recreate a masterpiece, you learn naturally the use of colours, light, brushstrokes. It can be the Eden for some who want to master the art of painting. Or for some, copying is an exceptional challenge that they enjoy very much. Although technology can help them find out the colours used in the original paintings, the painting methods and the brushstrokes used remain a mystery. They still need to try and try and try to find out the most appropriate way to recreate a perfect art piece. To them, it’s like cooking a meal with only the list of ingredients but without the resume. But it is this mystery that renders their job unconventional and fun. P.s. wanna read about our day in the Musée d'Orsay or learn about the largest artistic squat in Paris too? Click the links!

As the art centre in Europe, Paris never lacks any cultural allure to visitors of the world. But as opposed to the indoor, perfectly lit museums, there is also a place that is outdoor, a bit dark, and less crowded (not in the sense of living humans anyway). Covering 43 hectares, Père-Lachaise is certainly a unique place to visit. As the largest cemetery in Paris and the most visited necropolis in the world, it does have its historical appeal housing 70,000 tombs. Travelling through its maze of stones, you will stumble upon some notable figures like Frédéric Chopin, Jacques-Louis David, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde etc. And if you play enough attention, you might discover some secrets along the cobbled alleys. HISTORY OF PÈRE-LACHAISE If you have watched Amélie, Emily in Paris, or Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, you must have heard of Père-Lachaise. But do you know how it became famous? Before Père-Lachaise there lived a Louis XIV's confessor: Father François d'Aix de La Chaise. Father (Père in French) La Chaise lived on the site (previously known as Champ Evêque) from 1675 until his death in 1709. More than a century later after his death, due to the lack of burial space in Paris and the concern of disease transmission, Napoleon decided to transform the site into a cemetery. Naturally, the name La Chaise was chosen to commemorate the life of the well-loved father. HOW PÈRE-LACHAISE BECAME FAMOUS When the nowadays famous Parisian cemetery was opened in 1804, it only had a few graves, as the Parisians back then didn’t like the idea of being buried in a poor district, not to mention its location which was then too far away from the city centre. As a result, the number of graves grew slowly, but the prefect of Paris did something to restore the image of the cemetery: they transferred the remains of Héloïse and Abélard (the two lovers who died in 1164 and 1142 respectively) as well as Molière (the French actor who died in 1673) in 1817. Apparently, the idea of sharing the final resting place with these “celebrities” delighted lots of Parisians. Between 1824 and 1850, Père-Lachaise was so popular that it underwent five expansions. Now, it’s recorded that there are more than 1 million bodies buried there. THE WELL-KNOWN SECRETS BURIED IN PÈRE-LACHAISE Over time, more and more famous people are buried in this Parisian cemetery, which attracts lots of visitors coming to pay their visits every year. For example, Chopin was one of the celebrities who is buried in Père-Lachaise, not his whole body though. His heart was shipped back to Poland to be buried, as his own request because he wanted to make sure he wasn’t buried alive. Another example is Victor Noir, whose tomb has become a fertility symbol because his genital area was bumped up. This has led to a myth suggesting that women rubbing the area would enhance fertility. These little stories of famous figures might sound funny and absurd, but they do make Père-Lachaise even more appealing, both to the living and the dead. Nowadays, Père Lachaise continues to accept new burials, but unlike in 1804, there is a waiting list now and few spaces are available. And to us who are still breathing, Père-Lachaise is an architectural attraction that allows its visitors to stroll through its funerary art. P.s. If you are looking for another Parisian spot to visit, this little Impressionist island in Paris might just interest you!

The drive to finding healthy spreads and butters is always there. We wanted to provide foods without added sugars and at the same time high in fibre, something diabetics will be able to enjoy. So we were looking for the naturalness, the organic value that can satisfy the people in need. We have found what we wanted! PERL'AMANDE: ORGANIC AND ECO-FRIENDLY Perl'Amande specialise in processing organic nuts and their butters (peanuts, walnuts, almonds) are 100% organic. After the nuts are carefully selected, they purée and transform them into smooth and creamy butters that are full of nutty flavours. Quality is what they are after, and they have done so with respect for nature. From manufacturing to commercialising, they voluntarily adhere to a code of ethics to ensure sustainability. Their objective is to guarantee the highest nutritional values of their products without harming the environment. That’s why, unsurprisingly, their production is totally transparent and all the raw materials are traceable. PERL'AMANDE'S REPUTATION OF ALMONDS Like many brands out there, Perl'Amande's reputation wasn’t built in a day. A century ago, Gustave Dejean developed his own almond-breaking machine in his home town Oraison, in Haute-Provence, where many of the almond trees can be found. His unique service quickly made his almonds very sought-after. In 1964, he built a factory in the same city creating various recipes from a selection of nuts. It’s this “tradecraft” passing down from generation to generation that the brand Perl'Amande has earned its reputation developing delicious butters. PERL'AMANDE & NOISERAIE: COMBINING HAZELNUTS & ALMONDS In 2012, the French company decided to start a rather different line of production - Hazelnut Spread. What seems to be a sudden decision was in fact many years of preparation manufacturing pralines from hazelnuts by the Neuvy family, the hazelnut specialist. They had been making pralines since 1996. The exceptional quality of the pralines quickly earned the flavours of many French pastry chefs, chocolate makers and ice cream makers. It was from there the Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Spread was born. Without milk or emulsifier, this spread offers you the taste of authentic cocoa and hazelnut flavours. By acquiring the hazelnut business, Perl'Amande has brought the hazelnut and almond specialists together. Like many many years ago, they are here to produce butters and spreads that taste exactly what they naturally should be.

Though 4 Sep 2022 marked the end of the 3-month Chaumet “Végétal – L’École de la beauté”, it has left its imprint on us. “Végétal” was more than just an exhibition; it was a herbarium in the form of storytelling that invited us to explore and understand the poetic relationships between plants, art, and jewellery. When we entered, we didn’t think we were at the Beaux-Arts de Paris (School of Fine Arts in Paris). We had rather the impression that we were brought into a special nature, a different dimension that showed us the beauty of the blend of art and ecosystem. Through various artistic forms and plants, we were drawn, naturally, on the jewellery heritage of Chaumet and their botanical vision. Végétal: involving more than 70 museums and foundations One of the aspects of this meticulously curated exhibition that we have to mention was the number of institutions that participated in it. To organise this exceptional exhibition , Chaumet displayed 80 of its jewellery and invited more than 70 museums (e.g. Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre, Albion Art Collection of Tokyo), galleries, and private collectors to exhibit their artworks under the same theme, which included almost 400 objects of paintings, sculptures, textiles, photographs etc spanning over 5,000 years. Together, they welcomed the visitors to journey into the story of plants and discover the beauty of artworks and jewellery inspired by the natural world. A botanical exhibition with artistic works that sublimated it Anyone who visited “Végétal” would surely understand that it was a botanical exhibition that paid tribute to plants and biodiversity; but the exhibition was also about the natural world through the eyes of artists, scientists, and designers. It showed how much their works were inspired by the simple or complicated forms of plants and animals. This is why it made sense to divide the exhibition into different chapters: Forest, Foreshore, Reedbed, Meadow, Garden etc. They were the landscapes that represented the natural environments of the species displayed. To show you what “Végétal” was about, here are some of the works that we were rather fond of: Christian Dior dress embroidered with rhinestones and green threads representing lilies of the valley Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, a motif that was flavoured by the well-known impressionist Gold myrtle wreath discovered in Derveni, Greece (325 - 200 B.C.), with delicate craftsmanship seen in the buds and blooming flowers Yves Saint Laurent black wool jacket embroidered with wheat ears; Yves Saint Laurent Wheat ear embroideries Eva Jospin’s Forest, which was created entirely with cardboard and wood An exhibition that inspired This is the second time we participated in a Chaumet exhibition. The first one was “Dess(e)in de Nature” in 2019, but this time was even more comprehensive. There were moderators around ready to guide you through different sectors, which made the exhibition more dynamic. Each sector was separated with black automatic gates to deliver a sense of mystery. To assimilate us into the environment, there was also the presence of symphonic music being played gently in the background. Though we stayed there for 3 hours, we didn’t feel like it. There was just so much to see and to be reminded of, as the natural world is, for most of us, the side of the world that we rarely pay enough attention to in terms of its shapes, textures, and colours. These aspects, together, construct the beauty of nature that is timeless. Chaumet “Végétal – L’École de la beauté” showed us that nature itself is enough for us to be charmed. At the same time, Chaumet’s botanical motifs and heritage have also imprinted on us. P.s. here is a fitness event organised by Hermès. Go check it out!

The last time we wrote about Maison Evelyn was almost a year ago. As we have recently expanded our product range, we think this is about time to share what we think about the past year and talk about the new merch on this blog. YOU ARE OUR ENDORSEMENT Ever since we have started Maison Evelyn, we have always wanted to develop it in the form of e-commerce. Though all the orders and promotions happen online, we are not much different from traditional stores. We, as a retailer, also have to acquire products and make sure you get them as soon as possible. So, some products are stored in Hong Kong, some are in France. The perk, of course, is that we can arrange delivery immediately (especially in Hong Kong) as soon as we have an order. At the same time, however, we also take the risk of surplus. Lots of companies have their own purchasing departments; we, on the other hand, have to be cautious about introducing new products. We have to carefully select what to import to make sure they are what the market needs. Inevitably, it takes time. That is why whenever we receive an order, we are filled with joy. It’s like receiving an affirmation. The fun (or the unpleasant) of owning a company is that we get to make our own decisions and live with the outcome. As the end of the year approached, one of the decisions we have made recently was the introduction of festive products. In fact, these are our 2022 Christmas gift recommendations, including several Christmas chocolate gift boxes from Maxim’s de Paris and Christmas/New Year cards from ALL THE WAYS to Say. NEW PRODUCTS: CHRISTMAS GIFT BOXES, GREETING CARDS, ORGANIC BUTTERS We have blogged about Maxim’s de Paris before. In the festive season, this 120-year-old Parisian restaurant launches a variety of gift boxes that are composed of chocolate, champagne, foie gras and other French specialties that have made their reputation. For example, the Christmas Chocolate Box contains 22 prestige chocolates of various flavours, which is a sure delight to all generations. “A Christmas at Maxim’s” Christmas Box is a gourmet box that is wrapped in Christmas decor and is ideal as a gift or for sharing with guests. “Holiday Sparkles” Christmas Box combines pleasure and surprise. It contains an assortment of Christmas jam, dark chocolate pearls, and fruit pastes etc. Montmartre Chocolate Gift Box is an irresistible black box containing chocolate truffles, rochers, strawberry jam, ideal to sublimate your dinner on any occasion. Apart from these Christmas boxes, we have taken an extra mile to help you convey your love to your friends and family. We have added a series of greeting cards from ALL THE WAYS to Say, a French stationery brand. Their cards are made of fine materials and range from birthday, Christmas to any other themes. Inspired by nature and decorated with a few French words, they are sure a joy to be seen. Also worth mentioning are the two new spreads from Perl'Amande & Noiseraie, a French brand that has been making spreads and butters with 100% organic ingredients since 1920. All of their products are vegan and gluten-free. Organic 4 Dried Fruits Butter contains toasted peanuts, cashew nuts, almonds, and toasted hazelnuts to allow you to taste the authentic, rich flavours of nuts. Organic Raw Sesame Butter (Tahini), on the contrary, contains 100% organic hulled sesame seeds that are ground through a cold grinding process on a cold stone grinder, giving out the earthy, nutty flavours of raw sesame seeds. It is ideal for enhancing the flavour of most dishes. To be honest, knowing the receiver loves our products is what pleases us most. Christmas is coming! We hope that we can be a lovely surprise from France for your loved ones🖤