A Thanksgiving We Won't Forget

Guten Tag!
I hope everyone had wonderful, happy Thanksgiving! Ours was great. Well, mine was and part of Kyle's was. Our friend Erin that used to live in Paris moved to Dusseldorf, Germany a few months ago and invited us over for the holiday weekend. Erin's parents, Barry and Brenda, are currently living there as well and were gracious enough to let five of us (Kyle and me, Julie, her friend Lee who was visiting from Texas and our friend Jessica) take over their home for a few days. They were the sweetest, most hospitable hosts!
Things started off perfect...
Sightseeing, experiencing the German culture, beer halls and bratwursts, Christmas markets, gluhwein, great company. Jessica wasn't able to fly in until Friday, so we postponed the Thanksgiving festivities until the weekend. Our actual Thanksgiving was a tad unconventional. We had sushi for dinner, German food (which basically means lots of potatoes) for lunch, and stopped in for German beers at the local beer halls. The night did end with a pumpkin pie and football, so we can still proudly call ourselves Americans.

Here you see Julie and Lee displaying some of the other German food groups: meat, gravy and flammkuchen (German flatbread, pizza-ish thing)

 First beer hall stop = happy Kyle

Notice the waiter in back, seething with jealousy that Kyle is at a table with four girls when the rest of the place was practically packed with dudes. 

 He wasn't shy... he grabbed my camera and politely demanded we take a photo together :)

 You have to put a coaster on top of your empty beer if you don't want another. Otherwise, they just keep walking around replacing all empties with filled, frothy new ones. Dangerous! Good thing they are less than 2 euro a pop. Are you listening, Paris? ONLY 2 EURO!

The Real Deal German Christmas Markets

 Mmmmmm warm, delicious gluhwein

 Gross, but cute, gingerbread cookies

These are the last photos of a smiling Kyle on record...

 

 Some of the loot. Julie and I were dragged out of the ornament shops, kicking a screaming. 

Then It Happened
The most persistent food poisoning I've ever heard of. The germs in Germany don't mess around. No clue where it came from, could have been a number of suspect things Kyle ingested... black pudding, mussels, bratwursts. Perhaps even the one raw vegetable I forced him to eat, a bell pepper from a local farmers market. Who knows. What we know is that it lasted for over 80 hours and landed Kyle in the Keiserswerth ER. Poor guy didn't even get to eat his Thanksgiving dinner :(

Doesn't he looked thrilled that I'm taking pictures of it all though?

I must say, if you have to make a trip to the ER, this was the best experience you could hope for. We walked in, told the staff what was wrong, paid and were taken back to a room immediately. Within ten minutes of walking in the front door Kyle was in his own room, had an IV in and they'd already taken blood samples. The nurses and doctors were smiling, accommodating, efficient and, as a bonus, spoke perfect English. If you find yourself in need of urgent care at a "Notfallversorgung" near Dusseldorf, don't worry, you're in good hands!

While Kyle was resting up, the rest of us went to Cologne to see more Christmas markets with Barry. Alas, the markets hadn't started yet. Ugh. What to do? Go to more beer halls, I guess.

 Our lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Erin and her parents

Bisous!
Maygan

Chocolate Festival. Mmm Hmm, That's Right!

Salon du Chocolat

You heard me right. A festival of chocolate was held. We attended. Leave it to Paris to host such an extraordinary event.

Of course chocolate was the star of the show. But not to be out shined was the rest of the sweet, sugary, delicious food group... macarons, candies, cake in all forms - pops, sliced, whole, the cup variety. It was beautiful. And tasty. And exciting. And we ate our weight in treats and left with stomach aches. 

Because this is Paris and everything must be magical, there was also a CHOCOLATE FASHION SHOW! Yep, designers and chocolatiers collaborate to create whimsical pieces of wearable, edible art that they display in a fashion show that's not to be missed!

Well, I missed it. Not for lack of effort though. I tried to catch a glimpse, but was out-elbowed by the far feistier, far more sugar-buzzed crowd forming an impervious ring around the catwalk and missed the whole thing. I heard it was spectacular. 

Instead, I took the opportunity to seize the free samples that were now abandoned by the sweet crazed spectators. Things worked out brilliantly.

Naturally we were accompanied by our favorite sugar-loving, treat-adoring Paris bestie, Julie. Which is exactly how it should be when attending any sort of festival in Paris! 

 We met a pal as soon as we got there and he continued to give us complimentary huge slabs of delicious dark chocolate the whole time we were there because he loves Texans! 

The bizarre, the beautiful, the clever, the creative

I don't know what that's made of, but I know I don't want any part of it.

 Hand painted with chocolate paint! So pretty.

 Chocolate lipstick. Can you imagine the reactions if I started eating my lipstick on the metro? Bet I wouldn't be bothered as much. 

 Chocolate dipped macarons. Ooh la la.

 Arc du Chocolat Triomphe 

 Chocolate Sausage

  Parisian Grand Marnier, the perfect accompaniment to super dark chocolate :)

After sampling so many sweets, we all needed something savory and some veggies in our system. "Let's just share a light dinner" we said. 
So, we visited our buddy Ludovic at his Italian restaurant. This is not what we had in mind for a starter, but we managed to finish it anyway. It's as full as I can remember being in a while. Chocolate festivals are so worth it though!

Ludovic was also at the Salon du Chocolat... obvious?

Bisous!

Maygan