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!

Mega Backblog: Let's just bring it up to date, already

Dearest Loyal Followers,

By now I'm sure there are only a few of you remaining - you may have noticed that my semi-slacking off turned to full on abandonment of the blog. Essays are to blame for this - I have spent a good deal of the past month holed up in various libraries and coffee shops trying to churn out an annotated bibliography and two 4,000 word essays. But, as of yesterday, I am free for the semester - so I figured it was time to fill you in on what's been going on in my life. This will be a little briefer than usual, only because I'd like to go back to telling you about what's currently going on in my life rather than what happened a few weeks earlier.

I think I left off in early November, so let's start with Glasgow:

We took a two day trip to Glasgow, staying overnight at a hostel, although this was probably unnecessary because the 45 min train ride is so cheap, that it would have been less expensive to go home and sleep in my own bed and then come back the next day. Oh well. LOTS to do in this city, so here's a quick rundown of the highlights:

1. The Cathedral. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:






2. Shopping. Glasgow is known for its shopping - much better than Edinburgh. I didn't really do any, due to my student-sized budget, but we did walk around the nice pedestrian shopping streets downtown like this one:


And indoor malls/arcades like this:




3. Kelvingrove Museum. This museum is a bit of a hodgepodge, but in the best way possible. One half is themed "Life" - much like the ROM, it has animal skeletons and old suits of armour - and the other half is "Art," which pretty much speaks for itself. Their collection included a few impressionist works which was neat, and a very cool exhibition on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow born designer and architect (more on him later). The museum itself is in a beautiful building located in beautiful Kelvingrove Park:






4. The University. Located in the West end overlooking Kelvingrove Park, the Uni has a spectacular view and some pretty spectacular buildings such as this one:




I also found a plaque commemorating Glaswegian and alum James McGill - it kind of neat that all the old Canadian universities (Queens, McGill, U of T) are all based on the Scottish model:


5. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This Arts & Crafts/Art Nouveau designer is all over Glasgow - though we sadly missed the chance to take a tour of the inside of the Glasgow School of Art, we did have tea in the Willow Tearoom, one of several tearooms he designed in the city:




6. The Burrell Collection. A bus ride away from the city centre, this museum houses the personal collection of Sir William Burrell, a wealthy industrialist who bought artifacts from all over the world - everything from Egyptian carvings to elaborate tapestries to Chinese vases to Degas painting.

7. The Barras. This market was closing down by the time we got there, but normally there are all sorts of things for sale - antiques, books, posters, clothing. Hopefully we'll get to go back and see it in full swing.

8. The Weather. Less of a highlight and more of a nuisance. We were nearly drenched Saturday night while looking for a restaurant in the West End - luckily we managed to borrow an umbrella from the Glasgow Hilton (I asked if they had any for sale while stopped for directions, and he just gave one to us). Sunday morning we faced hail with a tiny tiny amount of snow, followed by an afternoon of ten minute downpours every half hour on Sunday (lucky we had the umbrella). Maybe it was just that weekend, but the Glaswegian weather seemed much more inconsistent than Edinburgh.

Overall, Glasgow gets two thumbs up - most museums are free, there's lots to do, and restaurants are good and plentiful.

On the flipside of Glasgow, there is Newcastle. Early in December we popped down to check out this city (only an hour or so away by train), but for the most part we were fairly disappointed. Here are the lowlights:

1. Segedenum. This Roman fort used to mark the end of Hadrian's Wall. Sadly, not enough survived to make Segedenum worth seeing. Since some of the wall bases are still there (barely sticking out of the ground), they've filled in the remaining rocks so that you can see the outline of the fort from a silly looking tower sticking out of the museum. They've also reconstructed a Roman Bath house, though we weren't really sure why - as you can see below, the links to any original bathhouse that may have existed at this site are pretty tenuous. Even the nearby chunk of Hadrian's wall was disappointing - though they've tried to make up for that by building a reconstruction next to it. Overall, too many reconstructions to make it worthwhile. That being said, the nearby Wallsend metro station has signs in Latin in honour of the Romans, which is sorta neat.








2. Almost no restaurants. Or at least not in the main shopping area. Though the city comes alive at night, with girls in minimal clothing and heels tumbling out of cabs at every turn (the Geordies are known for their resistance to the cold, apparently), it took us an hour to find a restaurant that wasn't a pub filled with rowdy men watching the football game. Though the one we ended up going to was delicious, you'd think an "up and coming" city like Newcastle supposedly is would have more than a few decent restaurants within walking distant of the shopping areas...

3. NO NEWCASTLE BROWN ALE - seriously. We couldn't find it on tap anywhere (maybe it only exists in bottles), but when we finally settled on a bar, they didn't even have the bottled version. Come. On.

There were some good things. The weather was perfect. The Castle of Newcastle was cool (from the outside at least - it's really only a small section of the original castle, so we didn't want to pay to go in). St Christopher's Cathedral was also quite nice. The bridges are cool. LOTS of shopping in Newcastle (apparently on the edge of town they have the biggest mall in the UK - we did not venture out to see it), but for the most part nothing that you couldn't get in Glasgow.










Overall, a little letdown by Newcastle - however, we may give it another shot and go back when the Hadrian's wall bus tour is running, as apparently this takes you to nearby sections of the wall which are more interesting to look at the Segedenum's pile of rocks.

Sadly, the weekend held more disappointments in store for us. The next day was St Andrew's Day - St Andrews is the patron saint of Scotland, so there were supposed to be a bunch of free events around the city. Most of them ended up being pretty kid focussed - we couldn't even find a pub which was hosting St Andrews celebrations - we had high hopes for haggis and some piping, but in the end the bar we went to was out of haggis and the piper had gone home - by ten at night. However - we did get to go to the Zoo for free. And though we had to wait in line for 45 min in below 0 temperatures (cold for Scotland), we did get to see the penguins! For those who have not tried it, watching penguins can redeem any disappointing weekend - especially when said penguins slip and slide as they try to climb out of the water because the ledge of their pool is icy. Sadly, we missed the penguin parade, which happens every day at two and involves the penguins parading around the zoo outside of their pen... Lilah, I think we need to witness this!

So, other than those major occasions I've mostly been student-ing. We went to a rugby game a few weeks ago, which was really fun - rugby is not nearly as hard to follow as I thought it was. There's a neat Christmas village set up in the Princes Street Gardens - a German market and a Highland market with lots of good food and neat Christmas knick knacks, plus rides which I was too scared to go on, and a skating rink that I was too cheap to pay for (9 pounds for skate rentals and an hour of ice time!). I also started my part-time job - I'm working at a Charity Fundraising Consultant's office doing secretarial work - mostly mail merges which require me to spend several hours a week typing up British addresses, which, unlike Canada and the US, follow no set pattern. I'm always sending things to place like "George House, Greenfields Toll, Renfrew, Meadowshire" and on and on and on - even the postal codes are super inconsistent. Though I have addressed letters to charitable foundations at Buckingham Palace - and to David and Victoria Beckham's Charitable Foundation. Woo hoooo....

The real woo hoo is that tomorrow I leave for PARIS! I'll try to blog at least once while I'm there - coming back on the 29th just in time for Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's Eve). Actually, I'd better get packing - but hopefully another update is not too far away!