Christmas in Paris 2008

We had the very good fortune of spending Christmas in Paris with our dear friends Nils and Alejandro. We took the fast train (TGV) and had a super smooth, relaxing 2 hour ride to Paris Gare de L'Est. From there we took two Metro trains and Voila! we were in N&A's apt in the 8th district in less than 30 minutes after arrival. If we had driven, it would have taken us a minimum of 3.75 hrs, lots of money for tolls, gas, and about 30 Euros per day for parking. so it was nice that not driving there actually saved us money.

these photos are not really in any sort of chronological order so I'm just going to provide explanatory captions where necessary.

The Champ Elysees trees were all decked out in blue lights. The color of the lights changes every year depending on current events. This year's blue was to honor the European Union - the Eiffel tower was also still blue, and had the ring of stars of the EU flag.

A huge persimmon tree in Parc Monceau, which is very close to N&A's apt. it was full of fruit and the birds were all over it. a few days later, most of the fruit had dropped to the ground. 

The incredibly complex and beautiful nativity set up in the Cathedral Notre Dame. The top relief was lit with a moving "movie" and the images/movie traveled from left to right, slowly illuminating and animating the entire relief. below were hundreds of lights suspended on rods coming from the floor, a screen with clouds and sky, and figures of Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the traditional nativity scene set up. it would repeat the cycle every few minutes. it was really neat to be here on Christmas Eve. the place was packed but it was very festive and fun.

A quick kiss in front of Sacre Cour (awwww).

Stuffed ducklings. C'est bizarre.

a very very elegant entry to this swanky hotel courtyard. 

Nils and one of his many delicious, healthy and colorful meals. 

Skaters at Hotel d'Ville. I was hoping to join in but it was way too crowded and kind of nutty. 

A very chic parisian woman - struttin' it.

Okay, if you have been following this blog for a while you will remember the ridiculous but oh, so amazing mullet we saw in Brussels. Well, this is definitely wins Paris' Best Hair. Maybe all of Europe's. 

On the train, with the Eiffel Tower as a view.

A cute little movie theatre in Le Marais.

It's the small details like using an old milk bottle for a water carafe that i just love and saw a lot of in the varous cafes. 

A friendly cat in a really nice litte garden shop where I bought a rosemary plant for super cheap.

MOre decorations, outside of the fancy dept store, Le Printemps.

The atrium at Le Printemps.

The spectacular view from Galeries Lafayette. The sunset and clarity of the air was amazing.

The atrium inside Gallery Lafayette - the tree was suspended from the ceiling and underneath were some additional counters of stuff for sale. 

THe same "most french-looking man in Paris" at the cafe where we saw him last month. 

A cat waiting for the train with its owner, outside the station.

Happy to be in Paris!

More Champ Elysees ...


One of the many colorful meals - this one at a little cafe down the street from N&A. 

A balloon vendor.

Some sequined outfits from one of the many such shops in Monmarte. 

Dave had wanted to check out this famous bookstore for quite a while. 

An incredibly delicious apricot tartines - the best dessert ever!!!

A study of the color red-orange, on the subway.

The next few shots are from the humongous (biggest in Europe) antique/flea market outside of Paris. we didn't even see half of it and it took a few hours. a huge assortment of stuff, but all of it was wayyyy expensive.

I liked how the clouds and the building were the same color.

Some vintage Jewelry from the flea market. 

Still lots of pro-Obama stuff throughout the city. 

Alsace Region

We did a relatively quick trip to the Alsace Region in France. I knew of the region, but I still had the middle school social studies imagery of WWII in my mind (not that I really remember much of what we studied back then). I also knew the wine here was great, and the area was very scenic but I figured it would be very similar to the Moselle, and we had been there already. 

After spending a day and a half here I fell in love with the place. The scenery is spectacular–very different than the Moselle, the acres and acres of vineyards spread across sigh-inducing, expansive, sweeping fields that are intermittently interrupted by small villages consisting of a church steeple, red roof tops, a few trees. Then the vines continue–in some cases right up to the front doors of houses. Dave also loved the scenery but he also felt like the vines were some sort of "blight" on the region - they were so pervasive. The area was really all about the vines with the occasional relief of a charming village. And the wines we had were really really delicious.

Driving through the Vosges, on our way to Alsace. The Vosges are a lower range our mountains that capture most of the moisture and precipitation before it gets to the Alsace. This makes the Alsace the driest region in all of France, which was surprising to us. It also makes Alsace so well-suited to growing such high-quality grapes. One of the wine producers we talked to said that the Moselle would make better wines if it had more sun, less rain (she of course said this very graciously and would not say that the Alsace wines were better than those of the Moselle). 

Here we are looking back at the foggy, colder Vosges as we begin to drive among the grape vines of the Alsace. 

Here we are in Riquewihr, a tiny walled-in village in the Alsace. Dave is walking towards our little hotel, on the left, where the little red sign is. It was family-owned, with a lovely little restaurant on the street level. When you walked in you got your room key from the bartender or hostess. 

The view from our room.

Some GOOD Gluhwein. Home-made, with real bits of fruit and spices. Very good.

Some glorious sun, low in the sky but so appreciated after a very gray 2 months in Luxembourg.

Dave coming back from the car, outside of the village (not supposed to drive inside the walls), you can see part of the outer wall and the grape vines behind him. 

Looking back through the wall towards the grape vines. 

One of the local "specialties" were macaroons - the kind I have had in the US, hunks of ground coconut with sugar and various flavors like chocolate, orange, etc. I don't know why a coconut based cookie is so traditional to this region. I'm going to Google that.

This photo makes me laugh.

Dave looking out from our hotel room-59 Euros  (about $84.US) !!!

Soaking up some luscious sun.

The Christmas decorations in general were really really nice. Very natural and/or simple and tasteful. There were still many places with over-the-top displays using stuffed animals and santas and crazy shiny ribbons and ornaments but overall i felt like the whole town's displays had a nice, gentle and very pretty style. The photos don't do the decorations much justice. They were much prettier and more striking in person. 

I loved the simple white stars. 

This was really common- evergreen boughs mixed with oranges-reddish drying oak or beech tree branches.

Some more elaborate light strands sold at the Christmas Market.

Some roof tiles that were saved and set aside while one of the buildings was being renovated. 

The main entrance to the village.

From the outside of the village walls. 

Leaving Riquewihr, on our way to Domain Weinbach, in Kaysersberg - a friend recommended this winery (thanks, James!). My camera battery ran out after these photos so we dont ahve any photos of Domaine Weinbach, or another very pretty town, Colmar, that we visited on our way home.