La Capitale de Noël

A couple of weeks ago, Helena and I came up with another fabulous idea,  we would go on one day trip every month, and we were going to start with Strasbourg, known as the Capitale de Noël  (the Christmas Capital - sticking with our xmas theme as it is December). Though, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I came up with the brilliant idea to catch the 6:55 train to Strasbourg the day after Dana left.  Seriously! I hardly sleep at night.  

 

With maybe 4hrs of sleep, I was on my way to Strasbourg.  I wasn't the only one moving at a snails pace, as the metro at 6AM is freaking slow! This caused a couple minutes of anxiety, as I have a mother that drops me off at the airport 2hrs in advance for domestic flights, so I was a little concerned that I may be sprinting to catch the train.  I arrived at Gare de l'Est ten minutes before the train's departure :) phew! 

Once on the train, cup of coffee in hand, Helena and I discussed our plan for attacking Strasbourg, and then I threw my fleece over my head and took a power nap.  We arrived in Strasbourg a little before 10:00.  When we first arrived it was quite chilly and windy which is probably not a major issue for any normal person, but I've been avoiding wearing my winter coat and been sporting only my fleece; it is just so much more convenient.  [Winter finally arrived in Paris this weekend when the high was 0 degrees Celsius this Saturday and a -2 this morning.  Sadly, I went straight to the puffy coat :( and bypassed the wool coat completely.]  I'm pretty resourceful, I solved the problem of being cold by having some vin chaud (hot mulled wine) and believe it or not, I was not the only one drinking at 10:00 in the morning. 

We visited the Marchés de Noël, the Cathédrale Notre Dame (I think there's a Notre Dame in every city in France), and then headed out to the European Parliament.  We tried to sneak into a tour group of gray haired Nordics but it didn't work… I guess the Brazilian and American brunettes stood out.  Probably not the smartest thing to do … tee hee … but I went on the tour in Brussels so figured I could translate for Helena :)  We were just a couple hours in advance, individual tours started at 15:00, so we decided to venture back into town and skip the tour.  

Strasbourg has been holding their Marchés de Noël since 1570 and has the reputation of being the best markets in France.  Each year, they honor a country, and dedicate one of the markets to that countries local products and crafts.  This year it was Switzerland.  More fondue and raclette for me! 

Personally, I was a little unimpressed with the markets.  I was expecting more of a German Christmas market ambiance.  Instead, they were a lot smaller, even the ones in Paris are bigger.  Now maybe they sell better crap but I think it's all junk and the only thing I've ever purchased at a Christmas market besides food and alcohol was cute little lamb slippers in Cologne, Germany (Yes, I know I'm too old to walk around in slippers that look like stuffed animals but they're warm and really cute!).  I don't think anyone goes to the Christmas markets for shopping anyways ... it's all about the vin chaud ;o) and I think the Germans have it mastered. 

Don't get me wrong, we still had a fun time venturing around the town and visiting the markets.  Plus we ate plenty, we tried the brädeles (xmas cookies), choucroute (sauerkraut), and a baguette version of the flammeküche (an Alsatian pizza), and of course drank the vin chaud.

  

Christmas in Paris, Deuxième Partie

Tonight, I met up with Helena for another adventure of discovering the Parisian Christmas vibe. We started out meeting at Odéon and decided we would head to the Saint Germain and Saint Sulpice marchés de noël.

The Saint Germain markets were all set up but not open :( and we never did find the market that's suppose to be at Saint Sulpice … I guess you can't really depend on the internet!

From there we walked around the 5th & 6th arrondissement, then decided to head to Le Marais via Notre Dame, then to Bastille. After that, we ended up walking towards Le Republique and eventually found our way back to Rue Rivoli and the Louvre.

BHV's (a local department store near Hotel de Ville) Christmas theme this year, pretty comical for me, considering all the Québécois comments I have heard while living here... and I will keep my thoughts to myself on this one ;) Hope my loved ones in Québec enjoy this as much as I did.

A new way to recycle, Christmas trees made out of old plastic sprite bottles!

All our walking made us a little hungry, so we decided to head over to La Mosaïque, a hot dog counter in the middle of the Marais! It's no Hebrew National hot dog, but if you're craving a hot dog in Paris, it's probably going to be the closest to authentic that you're going to get. The key being the hot dog bun. I probably eat a hot dog about once or twice a year, on the 4th of July or at a baseball game, so maybe I'm not the best judge, but it hit the spot for us. Yummy!

We walked about four hours before we decided to give up and head home … our last hour was pretty uneventful, I guess that's what you get when you just decide to wander the streets at night.

Helena and I departed at the bus stop. After four hours of walking, I succumbed to taking the bus home too. I'm on an experiment this month, I'm trying to avoid public transportation, and either walk or use the vélib; so far, I've only been lazy twice. Dana will be in for a real treat when she arrives on Wednesday :) he he he

Christmas in Paris

One of my favorite times to be in Paris is around the holidays. December brings gray skies (a phenomenon that’s probably pretty standard all year long though); the weather turns crisp, the street lights go up, and les marchés de noël (the Christmas markets) open. So of course, my secret desire to be a photographer, but have no clue what I’m doing self, get’s the brilliant idea to capture Christmas in Paris! The best part, my partner-in-crime, Helena, is completely down for participation! Midweek, 10:30pm, what better time to grab a vélib (Paris’ bike share program) and start capturing the City of Lights, all lite up. The plan, eventually vélib through the entire City (maybe a little ambitious…), and share my version of Christmas in Paris.

Hope you enjoy!

Avenue Montaigne

L'avenue des Champs-Élysées

les marchés de noël on l'avenue des Champs-Élysées

La place de la Concorde

Rue Royale

Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré