Near the old opera house, I happened upon the shop of the vogue chocolatier Cedric et la Chocolateries (Cedric and the Chocolate Factory), which I had enjoyed on the last trip. It features a wall of cascading liquid chocolate and a line of hopeful purchasers corralled behind ropes outside. Alan Behr/TNS
Christmas decorations were still brightening the Place Vendome in January as I went shirt shopping at Charvet, the premium men’s furnishings company located just north of the square. The last white blankets from a once-in-a-decade snowfall were receding, allowing the Paris that the world loves to reassert itself.