A Parisian Christmas

Lots to report since my last post, as - surprise, surprise - I did not manage to post from Paris, or even to post during the two weeks of winter break which followed. It would be an understatement to say that I am beginning to suspect that I am not a very good blogger.

Let me tell you first about my Christmas trip to Paris. Probably easiest to do a day-by-day breakdown:

Day#1: Flight from Glasgow to Paris... well, Glasgow (Prestwick) to Paris (Beauvais).
Flying Ryanair was ridiculously cheap - 38 pounds roundtrip (including taxes), plus a little bit extra for a checked bag. However, it does mean that you fly into Ryanair's specific budget airports, which tend to be a tad out of the way. Not only did we have to take the train to Glasgow, we then had to take another 45 min train to Prestwick airport, just outside the city. Then, on the Parisian side of things, we had to take a 70 min shuttle bus from Beauvais to central Paris, followed by a metro ride to the 10th arrondissement, where my friend Kate lives. All in all, this made for a long day of traveling - we left Edinburgh around 10:30 and didn't arrive at our hotel (also in the 10th) til around 9pm.
Arriving in central Paris made it all worthwhile, however. Kate was ready with brie, baguette, and wine for dinner (mmm...), and then we took a trip to the steps of Sacre Coeur to drink another bottle of wine (don't worry, public drinking is legal in Paris) while gazing out over the beautifully lit-up city. Balmy weather (10 degrees) helped to make it a perfect first night in the city.


Day #2: The grand tour.
Taking advantage of our lack of jet-lag (I love inter-European travel!), we started off with a marathon day, taking us from Notre Dame (which had a neat creche for Christmas) across to the Left Bank to the Pantheon (which I hadn't seen last time I was in Paris, and found fairly impressive!), over to the Jardins de Luxembourg (sadly, not as beautiful in December as they were in May), back over Pont des Arts to the Louvre (didn't go inside this trip, to save time and money), then through the Jardins des Tuileries to Place de la Concorde (where a giant ferris wheel is set up for Christmas), up the Champs Elysees (all lit up for Christmas) and past the Christmas market selling various foods, trinkets etc, all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the day!









Day #3: Another grand tour.
As often happens to me after the end-of-semester stress and bustle, on day #3 I woke up without a voice, but with a killer cough and that not-so-nice all-over sick feeling. Being a trooper, I soldiered on to check out Galleries Lafayette with Kate. The atrium of this department store is gorgeous enough on its own, but add in the huge fuschia Christmas tree, and the scene was absolutely stunning. The store itself was mostly out of our price range, and the toy section was a madhouse (this was only a few days before Christmas, after all), but definitely a neat sight!


After that we wandered to the Opera, sitting on the steps for a spell before heading to Place Vendome (home of the Ritz and posh stores). A baguette sandwich lunch was followed by a walk over to les Halles to visit the Rev-O's May 2007 Parisian stomping-grounds. All that walking required a return trip to Kate's place for napping. Dinner near Place de la Republique was delicious thanks in part to the English speaking waitress - despite 13 years of french immersion, I still find menus tricky - especially since specific food terminology was not ever really a focus of teaching.

Day #4: Versailles.
Another spot we hadn't had time for in May '07, Versailles was an all day event. We took the RER mid-morning and joined a tour of the King's private apartments upon arrival. Of these spectacular rooms, the highlight was getting to see the Chapel - since we were on a tour, we could walk around inside as we pleased, while those with a general ticket could only crowd together and snap pictures from the doorway. The tour also included typical infuriating tourists, such as the woman who, after we had been told by the guide that the artists who painted the chapel ceiling aren't very well known today, asked: "Why aren't they more famous?" Arghrghgh. After a sandwich in the gardens we toured through the State Aparments (packed with Japanese tour groups, and, strangely, with an exhibition of Jeff Koons' pop/kitsch sculptures), including the beautiful Gallerie des Glaces. Afterwards a walk through the incredible expansive gardens took us to the Grand Trianon (a smaller palace used by the King to get away from the pressures of court) and the Petit Trianon, beloved by Marie-Antoinette, who also had a fake village built nearby so she could play peasant, very Disneyland-esque in its perfection.










Having watched the sun set over the gardens, we caught a train back to Paris and ate dinner (fondue for me) at a low-key restaurant near Kate's apartment, before setting off for the Eiffel Tower. Arriving around 10pm, we were happy to find no lines - neither for tickets nor for the elevators. Though we went up the tower on my last trip, this was my first time doing it at night and the view was gorgeous - it's a completely different yet equally worthwhile experience to a daytime visit. The tower itself is lit up in blue in honour of the french presidency of the EU.



Day #5: Christmas Eve.
Another repeat activity which was just as worthwhile a second time around was the Pompidou Centre, which we visited on Christmas Eve. Panicked realizations that groceries stores may not stay open very late led us to rush home and stock up on all the goodies which one typically eats (or at least, the Rev-O's typically eat) on Christmas eve - lots of cheese, crackers, veggies, and, of course, a shrimp ring.


Following said dinner, we hopped on the metro to the Grand Palais, which was holding a neat night-time video exhibition, with tons of screens installed throughout the hall.


On the way home we passed by the grocery store only to discover that the unsold (mini) christmas trees had been left on the curb - so of course I picked one up and we brought it back to liven up Kate's apartment.


Day #6: Christmas Day.
Having placed her presents under her new tree the night before, on Christmas morning Kate opened her presents while I documented the moment photographically for her family. After a delicious breakfast we went down to the ice rink they've set up in front of l'Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and went skating! Christmas dinner followed - a roast chicken stood in for a turkey, but mashed potatoes were definitely involved (it wouldn't be Christmas without them). It also wouldn't be Christmas without White Christmas, which I made everyone watch after dinner. Though I missed everyone back at home and our family traditions, spending Christmas in Paris was pretty pleasant on the whole - low key and full of good food!



Day #7: Boxing Day.
Though I had been hesitant about the idea, mostly due to my dislike of small underground spaces, on Day 7 we went to the Catacombs. The tunnels were far less scary than I anticipated, though they were packed with thousands and thousands of creepy bones stacked on either side. The trip included another encounter with idiotic tourists: a woman who gripped a leg bone like a baseball bat while her boyfriend took her picture (who does that? to the remains of real people?!). Some people...




Next up was the Musee Carnavalet, which tells the history of Paris. Though it had some pretty neat stuff about the Revolution, the two sections I most wanted to see were closed for the day (the 19th Century, about Haussman's redevelopment of the city, and the 20th Century, which featured a replica of Marcel Proust's cork-lined (and therefore soundproofed) writing room). After a short walk around the Marais area in which the museum is located (including stops at Place de la Bastille and Place des Vosges), we had a delicious dinner at a no-frills little restaurant on rue Rivoli. As we had to catch our train the next morning at 7am, we headed home to hit the hay.

Day #8: Mont Saint Michel.
After getting up at 5am and successfully catching the TGV from Montparnasse, we headed to Mont St Michel on the Northern coast. The train dropped us off in Rennes where we caught a shuttle bus to the Mont - a tiny tidal island just off the coast, topped by an old abbey. As our hotel was on the mainland, we had a 20 min walk along the causeway to admire the beauty of the Mont:






There are a few hotels, souvenir shops, and restaurants at the base of the Mont itself, but the Abbey is really the piece de resistance. Once again we had gorgeous weather, though a bit frosty. Dinner on the Mont included a traditional dish of Normandy - an omelette cooked in a certain way so that it comes out a little like a souffle. Delicious! The walk back to the hotel, though cold, was itself a fairly magical experience, as the Mont is all lit up, while it's far enough from the city that you can see the Milky Way.



Day #9: Ending on a high note.
A day was just the amount of time we needed to explore the Mont, so we caught the shuttle (along with a dozen Japanese tourists, who, along with French families, made up most of the visitors on the island) back to Rennes, and the train back to Paris. Arriving in the early afternoon, we decided to head to Montmartre, stopping in Sacre Coeur before wandering around Place des Tertres and going to see the two remaining windmills.


Dinner was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, as we stumbled across a restaurant called Refuge des Fondues. The restaurant had two long tables against each wall, so the waiter made me step over the table to get to my bench seat on the other side. The waiters are no-nonsense, bruskly asking for your choices and scolding you when you don't finish what's on your plate or in your glass. Not only do they treat you a bit like children, but they then serve the wine in glass baby bottles. The fondue was delicious, however, and more than filling. A memorable way to end a memorable trip!



We returned to Edinburgh the next day, where we jumped right into Hogmanay (i.e. New Year's) activities. However, I'll save that for the next post. Happy (belated) 2009, everyone!