So far December in Paris has been so awesome! I absolutely love all the Christmas lights everywhere, the cool air, the festive markets, shopping for gifts. I could do with a little less rain, but we can't have it all.
I'm sure it's fairly obvious that our favorite Holiday pastime in Paris is strolling around the Christmas markets. We just can't stop ourselves! The food is fabulous and cheap, the vin chaud flows like water, the decorations are beautiful and everyone is in the Christmas spirit (that probably has something to do with the vin chaud). I can't wait to travel to the major markets in Germany next year!
Oh, did I mention that these are the sights along our walk to and from the market??? I think we can all agree that it's totally normal that we go a couple times a week :)
So beautiful it makes you want to jump!
Or maybe that was the sugar high from the churros with melted Nutella?
This seems like an appropriate security measure for a Christmas market, right?
Ma Famille Vient a Paris
Last week my cousin Cara and her boyfriend James arrived for a visit. It was the first trip to Paris for James and the second for Cara, although it had been a while. We had a blast doing the usual Paris-y things - shopping, cafe-sitting, sight-seeing, getting pepper sprayed. Oh wait, that's not normal...
We were sitting under a heater at a cafe having drinks and really enjoying ourselves. Then, two guys started fighting next to us and one of them pulled out a big spray can that sort of looked like a fire extinguisher. Turns out it was an industrial size pepper spray can. Who has those?? The guy noticed after spraying it that we were sitting right there and yelled to us that it was pepper spray and we should move. Too late... I actually felt drops of it land in my eyes and on my face. Holy crap, I've never felt pain like that! It was so strange, it incapacitated me. My eyes were watering like crazy and burning, my skin was stinging, it made me double over. So weird. How the heck do those Occupy protesters take it?
Once we could think straight again we found out that the guy that did the spraying was actually the owner of the bar next door. He kicked some guy out, but I guess that wasn't good enough. He followed him out spraying, too. Seems a bit irresponsible for a business owner to spray the customers of the neighboring cafe, but he didn't ask my opinion first. They didn't even offer to buy our drinks! Oh well, not everyone can say that happened to them in Paris, right?!
Like I said though, the rest of their trip was super fun!
The Christmas lights at Galeries Lafayette are so pretty!
Visiting Napoleon's tomb
Cara looking rather tiny in the massiveness of Les Invalides
Napoleon's tomb
Chantal's Birthday Dinner!
We went out for dinner and drinks to this really cool restaurant/bar for Chantal's Birthday last weekend. It's called Cha Cha Club and we had great time.
That's the Bday Girl at the head of the table.
Let's see, what else is going on?
Well, I've discovered three things from Winter in Paris (aside from the obvious amazing things!)...
1) Having a dog in an apartment is the pits when you have to take him out in the freezing rain.
2) I have a serious Gossip Girl addiction. I discovered this addiction on a cold, rainy day when I couldn't go outside, I finished every book I had and there was nothing on TV. So, I purchased season 1 of Gossip Girl on iTunes (which I had never watched before) and I've been addicted ever since.
3) I wish I had a bath tub to soak in on chilly nights. Although I never used our huge garden tub the entire time we were in our townhome in Houston, I would kill for it now.
These are all minute trade-offs for all the positive things, of course!
Next up, we travel to Berwick to spend Christmas with the family. I think it's been nearly 20 years since I've been in England for Christmas and we are SOOOO excited. We're planning to do NYE in Edinburgh, which will be fab, too. They put on a big celebration and do fireworks at the castle. CAN'T WAIT!!!
Bisous!
Maygan
