Netflix - Stranger Things : From Hawkins to the Champs-Élysées, how a Demogorgon, a Christmas tree and a final season turn Galeries Lafayette into the ultimate gateway to the Upside Down

By Mulder, Paris, Champs-Élysées, Galeries Lafayette, 16 november 2025

Walking up the Champs-Élysées this winter, it's literally impossible not to notice that something strange has taken over Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées. The facade itself acts as a giant spoiler: the Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées neon sign now floats above the official Netflix Stranger Things logo, so even before you open the doors, you know you're leaving Paris and heading to Hawkins. The entrance tunnel has been completely covered with illuminated panels that bathe visitors in a red glow worthy of the Upside Down, echoing the kind of immersive decoration that the department store has turned into an art form over the years, but this time with a distinct supernatural touch reminiscent of the series' opening credits. You don't just walk into the store, you're guided, almost summoned, to the heart of the installation, and you can see it on people's faces: phones are already out before they even reach the first merchandise display, as the pop-up feels more like a set visit than a simple seasonal corner.

Inside, the centerpiece is a wonderfully bizarre collision of Christmas tradition and sci-fi horror. A huge decorated tree sits on the ground floor, crowned not with an angel or a star, but with the series' bright red logo, while at its base, a Welcome to Hawkins – The Best Small Town in America welcomes visitors with ironic glee. Just behind it, a life-size Demogorgon emerges from the decor, its petal-shaped mouth frozen in a scream, framed by garlands, metallic balls, and multicolored fairy lights that would make Joyce Byers proud. The result is a kind of elegant chaos: Galeries Lafayette's classic attention to festive detail, a Parisian tradition as ingrained as their monumental Christmas trees on Boulevard Haussmann, is subverted here by the iconography of the Upside Down, proving once again how comfortable the brand is with letting pop culture re-enchant its chic spaces. Parents take photos of their children in front of the creature, teenagers strike poses imitating Eleven's hand gesture, and for a moment, the line between holiday shopping and fan pilgrimage completely blurs.

The commercial side of the pop-up store is just as carefully thought out, and you can sense that this is not just a commercial operation, but a continuation of the series' universe by other means. The shelves feature the now-classic green Hawkins High School T-shirt alongside the gray Call the Hawkins Hitmaker T-shirt, both sporting a casual, worn-in look that could have been worn by Mike, played by Finn Wolfhard, or Dustin, played by Gaten Matarazzo. Nearby, winter accessories (hats, socks, scarves) expand the color palette to warmer tones, because if you're going monster hunting in Indiana (or waiting in line for hot chocolate on the Champs-Élysées), you might as well stay warm. On a dedicated shelf, Lucie Kaas' designer figurines line up like a small honor guard: stylized versions of David Harbour's gruff but endearing Jim Hopper, Maya Hawke's impassive Robin Buckley, fan favorite Joseph Quinn's metalhead Eddie Munson, and Jamie Campbell Bower's sinister Vecna stare out at you from boxes bearing their names. A carefully printed price list catalogs everything from the Demogorgon jacket and Upside Down Christmas sweater to various hoodies and T-shirts, confirming that what you see is not just decoration, but actual inventory, born of a partnership between Netflix, Galeries Lafayette, and Fulllife. It's the kind of place where you hear couples arguing over which hoodie to choose, friends comparing character figurines that will take pride of place on their shelves, and tourists wondering if they have enough room in their luggage for one more Hawkins souvenir.

What makes this pop-up store in Paris particularly special is that it comes at a specific moment in the life of the series. Created by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer for Netflix, Stranger Things has gone from a nostalgic curiosity in 2016 to one of the platform's flagship series, praised for its blend of horror, science fiction, mystery, and coming-of-age drama, as well as its meticulous homage to the 1980s. Set in the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, the series began with the disappearance of Will Byers and the arrival of a young girl with a shaved head and psychokinetic powers named Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, before quickly transforming into a sprawling saga about secret government experiments, parallel dimensions, and a group of children forced to grow up faster than expected. From the outset, the Duffers fused the emotional clarity of Steven Spielberg, the horror of Stephen King and Wes Craven, and the synth-laden atmosphere of 1980s cinema to create something that felt both familiar and new, and the pop-up store in Paris draws directly on this alchemy: it is both retro and modern, comforting and disturbing.

Walking past the tree, the Demogorgon, and the merchandise, you can almost retrace the narrative arc of the series in your head. The intimate mystery of the first season, built around Will's disappearance and Eleven's escape from the Hawkins National Laboratory, gave way in the second season to visions of a much greater threat, as the Mind Flayer extended its grip on Will and the town itself. Season 3 exploded with action under the neon lights of the Starcourt Mall, where a secret Soviet facility attempted to reopen the gate beneath the food court, and where Max (Sadie Sink), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and the rest of the gang experienced their first loves and first real losses between ice cream and fireworks. In season 4, the series took a darker turn, splitting its cast between California, Russia, and Hawkins, while introducing Vecna, a terrifying psychic predator whose murders literally opened new rifts between worlds. The Christmas lights surrounding the tree at Galeries Lafayette suddenly seem to echo the strings Joyce used to communicate with her son in the first season, and the Demogorgon hovering above shoppers reminds us that in this universe, monsters are never just metaphorical.

The craftsmanship behind the series is also present in the spirit of this temporary Parisian antenna. The instantly recognizable font that appears on the temporary signs is the same ITC Benguiat-inspired typography that the Duffers and design studio Imaginary Forces chose to evoke old paperback covers and 1980s horror movie credits. The soundtrack, composed by Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon of Survive, has become part of the cultural landscape; their analog synthesizer themes, accompanied by tracks such as Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica's “Master of Puppets,” have made their way back into the charts with each new season, proving how much the series transcends the screen. When this music plays discreetly in the background of the Galeries Lafayette installation, mingled with the murmur of shoppers and the occasional clink of the elevator, it creates a strange blend of commercial culture and cinematic obsession, strangely appropriate for a series that has transformed a shopping mall into a battlefield and a humble waffle into a pop icon.

All of this would be enough to justify a detour to this temporary installation, but what really gives it extra cachet is the ticking of the clock of history itself. The fifth and final season, Stranger Things 5, is coming to Netflix in three waves: four episodes on November 26, 2025, three more on December 25, and a final, extended episode on December 31, turning the series' farewell into a kind of serialized holiday event. Set in the fall of 1987, a year after the events of season 4, the new season shows Hawkins scarred by the rifts, the gang united around a single mission (to find and kill Vecna), and the town placed under military quarantine as the government intensifies its hunt for Eleven. This time around, the threat is no longer abstract or hidden within the walls; the Upside Down manifests itself visibly, and the synopsis promises “a darkness more powerful and deadly than anything they've known before,” with the anniversary of Will's disappearance serving as a sinister countdown. For fans who wander beneath the Demogorgon and the tree in Paris, every hoodie and every figurine is now part of a pre-battle ritual: a way to emotionally prepare for one last return to Hawkins.

Behind the scenes, the final season has been crafted with an almost obsessive care that mirrors the fans' enthusiasm for the series. Writing for Season 5 began in 2022, was interrupted during the Writers Guild of America strike, and then resumed with renewed intensity once the strike ended, allowing Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer to rethink parts of their original ending in response to audience reaction to Season 4. The duo described the tone as if “seasons 1 and 4 had a baby on steroids,” meaning we can expect to see the innocence and focus of the early episodes combined with the scale and horror of the later chapters. The storylines will reportedly rely heavily on the emotional repercussions of past sacrifices, with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) still mourning Eddie (Joseph Quinn) and Will (Noah Schnapp) finally returning to the forefront to honor his longstanding connection to the Upside Down, while Vecna would be propelled into “Freddy Krueger on steroids” territory, his powers now fully effective in the real world. It's no coincidence that the Demogorgon at the Paris pop-up store is life-size: Stranger Things has always used physicality, from practical special effects to on-set sets like Starcourt Mall, to make its monsters uncomfortably real.

In front of the camera, the final season brings together what amounts to a generational farewell tour. Winona Ryder and David Harbour reprise their roles as Joyce and Hopper, the broken adults who have somehow become the emotional backbone of the series; Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, and Jamie Campbell Bower are all back, joined in the main cast by Amybeth McNulty, while franchise newcomer Linda Hamilton enters the universe as Dr. Kay, leader of a military unit with the ominous name “The Wolf Pack.” At the helm of the creative team, Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer work alongside showrunner Karl Gajdusek (season 1), executive producers Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Brian Wright, Cindy Holland, Matt Thunell, Iain Paterson, and Curtis Gwinn, while cinematographers Tim Ives, Tod Campbell, Lachlan Milne, David Franco, Ricardo Diaz, Caleb Heymann, and Brett Jutkiewicz, as well as editors Dean Zimmerman, Kevin D. Ross, Nat Fuller, and Katheryn Naranjo continue to give the series its rich visual and rhythmic identity. It's a machine that has been fine-tuned for nearly a decade and is now heading into its final stretch with a confidence that can only come when everyone knows they are closing a chapter in pop culture history.

Netflix clearly understands that this ending deserves an event setting, which is why the series' final episode, titled The Rightside Up, will not only be streamed on the platform but will also receive a limited theatrical release in the US and Canada, marking the first time a Netflix episode will be shown simultaneously in theaters and online. In other words, Stranger Things will bring together the streaming phenomenon and the shared big-screen experience, giving fans the opportunity to hold their breath, cheer, and perhaps even cry together as the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down comes to an end. Around this central event, the franchise continues to expand with projects such as the theatrical prequel Stranger Things: The First Shadow and the animated spin-off Stranger Things: Tales from '85, ensuring that the universe will outlive the original series even as it concludes the main storyline. Seen from the polished floors of Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées, where customers navigate between luxury brands and monster-themed T-shirts, it feels as if Stranger Things has become less of a television series and more of a shared world in which each new medium—theater, animation, fashion, pop-up shops—is just another gateway.

That's why this particular pop-up is so successful. On any given afternoon, you can see three generations interacting with it in different ways: children rushing toward the Demogorgon to take a photo, teenagers comparing their favorite moments from season 4, and parents who grew up with Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter movies smiling quietly as they watch the cycle of 1980s nostalgia come full circle. The Galeries Lafayette team clearly knows how to stage an experience, and here they've given Stranger Things fans something that's halfway between an art installation and a farewell party, nestled among Christmas baubles and high-end fashion. For Parisians, it's a rare opportunity to stroll through a little corner of Hawkins without leaving the city; for tourists, it's the most surreal souvenir stop on the avenue, where you can walk away with a designer hoodie that still smells faintly of Demogorgon plastic.

This collaboration underscores the emotional contract that Stranger Things has forged with its audience. The series was born out of the stubborn conviction of two brothers, Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, who refused to abandon their child heroes when networks asked them to age up the concept. It became a global success because it never stopped treating these children—and by extension its viewers—with seriousness and affection. The pop-up store at Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées crystallizes this story in a very simple way: here, under the glow of Christmas lights and the neon logo, you can stand between a sign that promises “Welcome to Hawkins” and a creature that once haunted your late-night TV marathons, and realize that you are saying goodbye while still very much invested in the story. With the fifth season and the final battle approaching, this detour to Paris feels like the calm before the storm, one last chance to stock up on souvenirs, photos, and hoodies before the party comes together one last time and the lights, inevitably, begin to flicker.

You can found our photos in our Flickr page here and here

Synopsis : 
The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

Stranger Things
Created by The Duffer Brothers
Showrunners : Karl Gajdusek (season 1), Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin, Paul Reiser, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Amybeth McNulty, Linda Hamilton
Composers : Michael Stein, Kyle Dixon
Executive producers : Karl Gajdusek, Brian Wright, Cindy Holland, Matt Thunell, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, The Duffer Brothers, Iain Paterson, Curtis Gwinn
Cinematography : Tim Ives, Tod Campbell, Lachlan Milne, David Franco, Ricardo Diaz, Caleb Heymann, Brett Jutkiewicz
Editors ! Dean Zimmerman, Kevin D. Ross, Nat Fuller, Katheryn Naranjo
Production companies : 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre Productions, Upside Down Pictures
Network Netflix
Release July 15, 2016 – present
Running time : 42–142 minutes

Photos and video : Boris Colletier