Christmas Break in Paris

We left on the 23rd for Christmas Break. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive from Neuchatel to Saint Germain, a suburb of Paris where Sophie's parents live. ( By the way, I told them my family makes a 22 hour drive twice a year and they all laughed. That is unheard of, it is like driving from Paris to Moscow.) Sophie grew up in that city, and Sophie and Quentin used to live in Paris until a two years ago when they moved here.

The first full day we were there Sophie and Quentin drove with me into Paris and showed me around. It was cold and very overcast, so the pictures aren't great. We saw the basic monuments, the Arc of Triumph, the courtyard of the Louvre, and such. This was nice to have reference points for getting around and they briefly explained the history of some of these monuments and such. I got a personal tour of Paris by real Parisians.

The way I uploaded the pictures put them in reversed order, and I didn't feel like moving 300 pictures so just bare that in mind.

The next day was Christmas and Sophie's parent took me to see Montmartre, Le Sacre-Coeur when they were dropping of Sophie's grandmother in Paris. This is a huge cathedral that has a wonderful view of Paris. Inside the cathedral they had nuns singing Christmas hymns. It was quite ideal to see it on Christmas day.

After Christmas I finally went into Paris by myself to explore, much to Aunt Debbie's dismay. She reminded me of what happened in "Taken". They dropped me off at the Eiffel Tour and it was a cold, but beautiful, sunny day. I spent 6 hours just walking around. I am planning another trip with friend to Paris in April, so I felt no need to rush about and see everything. I just took my time, and saw random streets. I was kind of lost for a bit, roaming around the non-touristy area of the southern portion of Paris. I just asked someone to point me in the direction of Notre Dame, and I found the rest from there. I ate lunch at this French fast-food place called Pomme du Pain (Apple of Bread?) . It was so good! I just had a ruben bleu sandwich(because that was the only one I could confidently pronounce), ham and cheese on a French baguette. I love French baguettes! They are delicious. Unfortunately we do not have those here in Switzerland, even though we are in the French portion and 30 minutes from the French border.

On Monday we rode the RER(short train) in to Paris and then I was on my own again. This time I used the metro! I mostly just walked around the Christmas market and up Champs-Elysees, the famous shopping street.

So the following are just all my Paris pictures. I tried to label some of them, but many are just random churches and building I saw around Paris, and if they are a significant government building or something, I did not know what it was.




Above is the back of Les Invalides. It was previously a hospital for injured, (or invalid hence the name) soldiers.
Above and the next four pictures below are of the courtyard of the Louvre. I didn't go in this time, but next time I definitely will!












A French firetruck, just in case you were wondering.












I think the building below is a government building or something, I had no idea

The following are pictures of Notre Dame. The picture immediatly following this caption is of the window inside. I wasn't sure if you can take pictures, since you usually cannot inside churches because it is disrespectful. I think I saw a sign saying not to, but everyone was
(in an unshameful manner too!) , so I just took one of the inside.











Below is the statue directly next to it on the property.








The Metro sign.





The next four pictures are of the Pantheon. The picture above is just the building facing the Pantheon.







I think these pictures above and below are of the area or garden around the Palais de Luxembourg. But I had no idea. I know from the map I was in that area, but I didn't really know what it was I was looking for, or at. Next time.



Random downtown Paris.

The following three pictures of the front of Les Invalides.




The Eiffel Tour, obviously. I just took a bunch of pictures, because it was fun, and the light was so different on the different sides.









The church Madeline above.

I just thought the chandelier in the street was cool.
Above is a department store, and below is the one side of the Opera house. The old side I think, they were remodeling.


Below is Montmartre, and views of Paris from Montmarte.















The Louvre.
Joan of arc. Later when we went to Compeigne I saw the jail where she was imprisoned.


A copper monument of Napoleon dressed as a Roman Emperor.
Below is the entrance to the Ritz hotel.

Above is a jewelery company that is owned by Sophie's Aunt, and has been passed down in the family for centuries. I met the Aunt, she had a huge diamond ring, but was very nice. She was elderly and telling me that we were in the same boat, she can't hear anyone and I can't understand anyone (because of French).
Above a store's Christmas display. Below is inside a Starbucks. So nice, and the raspberry cheesecake was divine. I should teach them about cheesecake.
The new side of the Ope







The colorful cookies in the window below are delicious! They are called macarons. They are lite and airy, and flaky almost like they are composed of a mixture including egg whites, but they have more substance than a meringue. The filling depends on the flavor, but often has a sweet almond flavor. So far I have tried chocolate, pistachio, cherry, ginger fig, vanilla, praline and strawberry. My favorites are chocolate and pistachio, and the ginger fig was pretty good too.
Below is La Concorde.

The following are pictures from Place de la Concorde, essentially Concord square.







Below is the Arc de Triumphe. There is a huge roundabout surrounding the arc. It was crazy! I was about 5 cars deep, but there are no lines, people are just coming in and out everywhere. There are 11 roads that intersect at this point. I am glad I was not driving. Switzerland is so much more organized that France.








The last picture of Paris, it was taken from the car and came out really badly, but I just thought it was cool that a store in Paris has the same name as my two sisters


Christmas was great. I feel like we celebrated Christmas 4 times. The first time was in Saint Germain with Sophie's family. Here they have a friend with a small apartment they rent to students, and that was were I stayed. It was great! It has a bathroom/shower, kitchenette, TV, radio and a large double bed. Almost my favorite part of the trip. For Christmas eve we attended Catholic mass. I didn't understand the Christmas readings since they were all in French, but we sang Christmas songs, so that was nice. It was about an hour long, shorter for Christmas. Then we went back to Sophie's parents house and had a nice traditional French Christmas eve dinner with her parents, uncle, 2 siblings, and 2 cousins. Most people in her family speak some English, which is good.

The small apartment I had.

A church near Saint Germain, I think where Thais was baptized.

The church were we attended Catholic mass.

A beautiful castle in the city of Saint Germain. Just across from the church above.

Another picture of the same castle.
City hall.


Every meal has some new food for me to try. The French eat slowly, which is fine, it just meant that our meals were usually 3-5 hours long. First you have a pre-dinner where you have small snacks like crackers, small sandwiches, and you drink some wine, or Champagne depending on the occasion. Then you have the starter, it was usually smoked salmon, other smoked fishes or on special occasions it is goose liver or oysters. For Christmas we had the liver, and for New Years Eve we had the oysters. I did not really like the liver, I think I am having trouble getting over the fact that it is liver. I tried to think of it as a good French cheese and it was slightly better. The smoked salmon kind of makes me sick which is odd because I ate all kinds of smoked seafood in Japan and I was fine. Anyway, so the next course is the main meal. For Christmas Eve it was escargot. I thought it was delicious, not rubbery at all and it was cooked in butter and garlic with herbs. You do have to pull them out of the shell with a little spoon, but they in no way resemble any living thing. Just a little green ball. Green from the herbs of course. We usually have pan fried potatoes and salad with a french vinaigrette dressing. I have yet to see store bought dressing here. For dessert we had the traditional yule log, a thin cake kind of rolled with a rich chocolate frosting. On Christmas day we had a similar meal. I told them that we usually eat ham on Christmas day, so they gave me a piece of sliced deli ham with my starter. For dessert we had this delicious flour-less chocolate cake. Very rich.

The second time we celebrated Christmas was at Quentin's grandmother's house in Amiens. There were many family members there, a few spoke English. We had a delicious 5 hour meal. His grandma gave me a cute little picture frame, as a souvenir. We were only in Amiens for the day, but they showed me a near by Cathedral nearby. It was huge! They told me it has tallest ceiling in all of Europe and it was built in the 13th century. It was at night, and my flash was not working great, so the pictures make it look very ominous like Dracula's castle or something.


The third Christmas was at Quentin's mother's house in Compiegne. We stayed here the remained of the holiday. Quentin grew up here so many of their good friends live there, or where home for the holidays. It was a crowded house with his two brothers, his sister and there respective families and children. I thought it was kind of an interesting house arrangement. There was a room with just a toilet, no sink. Then a room with just a sink and tub, and a room with just a sink and shower. Hmm. I shared a room with the youngest brothers girlfriend. It was good. His mom got me a French cookbook, in French. Exciting! I can read most of the ingredients, but I have no idea what the instructions are saying, or even what the dish title is. I will have to work on that.

For New Years Eve we had oysters as our starter. You open them with your hands, then put a little lemon juice. They are still alive! But you can't really tell. Then you scrape them from the shell and eat them. The essentially taste like the ocean. Salty ocean water. I didn't really care for them, but I didn't mind eating them. Then we had wild boar as the main dish. One of the guest likes to hunt, so he contributed this. It tasted good, pretty much like a good beef roast. We had pan fried potatoes and green beans with it.

This guest is actually currently living in Boston getting his MBA. He was telling me how amazing American beef tastes. I thought that was so funny because I think European meat tastes amazing. We concluded it was just different than what we are accustomed to eating, and it consequently tastes great! He was also telling me how much they enjoyed Halloween and Thanksgiving. He thought Halloween was so weird because it was such a warm, friendly, family oriented atmosphere with such gory, morbid symbols.
The last Christmas was here in Switzerland when we got home January 2nd. They didn't have room in the car for all of the things, so we had a little Christmas together. They got me a really nice Tommy Hilfiger watch and a kit to make mini madelines. The kit includes two silicone baking sheets and a cookbook, in French again. They both work for watch companies, so the watch made since. My first Swiss watch! It was so nice. It has a large face, but it has one dial that is for a different time zone, so I can always know what time it is in Texas, just in case I forget how to subtract 7.



Today, January 3rd, we celebrated some holiday to do with the three kings coming to see Christ on the third of January. We ate galette, which is a pastry with top and bottom filled with an almond filling. It was good, a bit sweet. There is a crown inside on of the pieces and whoever gets it is king/queen for the day. The youngest child sits under the table and calls out who gets what piece. It was fun.

And that concludes my French Christmas experience. Happy New Year, Bonne Annee!