December 2016 – A Broad Abroad

Joy to the World: Christmas in Paris 2016

I’ve had some folks from back home ask me, “How are the holidays celebrated in Paris?” While I won’t actually be spending the week between Christmas and New Year’s in France, I’d love to share my observations on the lead-up to the holidays.

Oh Tannenbaum (Christmas Markets)

In many parts of Europe, and Paris is no exception, you’ll see Christmas Markets (Marché de Noël) pop-up in squares and grand boulevards (usually mid-November through the first week of January). Wooden chalets line the streets, each offering enough space for vendors to display and sell all sorts of gift items The largest one I’ve visited in Paris was along the Champs-Élysées, which had more than 200 booths. On offer are scarves, hats and gloves, decorative housewares like pillows, blankets and knick-knacks, children’s toys, chocolates and a variety of candies, artisanal meats & cheeses, handmade soaps and jewelry, and leather goods, just to name a few. If you get hungry or thirsty while you shop, never fear! There are the treats ubiquitous to street fairs worldwide, like fried chi chis (churros), candied apples, and barb à papa (cotton candy), but you can also choose regional dishes such as hearty cassoulet, a white bean, goose, duck, & sausage dish from the southwestern Occitan region, fresh, raw oysters, shucked to order, champagne by the glass, German sausage and sauerkraut, Italian paella, and even salmon being cooked over an open fire right before your eyes. Along the street, there are Christmas decorations – colorful nutcrackers, artificial snowmen and santas, and trees strung with colorful lights add to the festive atmosphere. One thing that really stood-out to me: Christmas music is played throughout the market, and it was ALL in English!

My friend, Theresa, at the Champs-Élysées Christmas Market, Paris

Christmas Market in the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, France

Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly (Malls)

During December, I had the opportunity to visit a couple of malls in Paris. I am here to report that they are much the same as they are at home: decorated for the holiday, playing Christmas music (also in English), and crowded with shoppers.

Quatre Temps mall in Paris at La Défense

Oh, Holy Night, The Stars are Brightly Shining (Churches)

In my experience of churches at home in the states, most take the opportunity to decorate for Christmas. It is no different here in Paris. Often, you will see floral decorations throughout the church as well as at the alter. There are also Nativity scenes of all sizes. When I visited the world-famous Cathedral of Notre Dame in central Paris, they were busy installing their Nativity scene, which included hundreds of figurines, buildings, animals and the crèche.

Setting-up the Nativity scene at la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas (Christmas Windows)

I have not had the pleasure of seeing New York City’s Christmas windows, but have heard about them since I was a little girl. My friend, Melissa, tells me the shop windows in Paris are a little like those in NYC. There are three large department stores in Paris that really make an effort to spruce-up (pardon the holiday pun) their display windows for the holidays. In Paris’ 9^th Arrondissement, you’ll find Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. These two department stores cover about two city blocks, and most of their windows are decorated. This year, Printemps went with brightly-colored scenes of charming puppets: children playing in the perfume, shoe and crystal departments, dwarfed by giant candies, as well as puppets of animals playing musical instruments.

Me, at one of the windows at Printemps in Paris’ 9th Arrondissement

Paris’ Printemps window featuring women’s shoes. This little puppet was adorable, trying-on shoes while the animated “grown-up” legs behind her moved.

At Galeries Lafayette, the windows were filled with animated snowy scenes of white paper, crafted to look like polar bears, penguins, and winter scenes. The center of the store is drop-dead gorgeous all year long, as it is a rotunda crowned with a stained-glass dome. The Christmas decorations make it even more so — several stories tall, the rotunda is filled with an elaborate Christmas tree.

Galeries Lafayette, in Paris’ 9th. The windows had raised catwalks, so children could get up-close to see the decorations. They were charmed by the puppets!

The department store BHV / Marais, in Paris’ 4^th Arrondissement also decorated their windows with snow and moving puppets of Santa and mischievous elves. Don’t tell anyone, but I thought the elves were a little creepy!

In these first photos, I was visiting on a weekday afternoon. As you can see, viewing these windows is a whole different story during the last weekend before Christmas. I would not recommend waiting!

Oh, la la! The crowds on the last weekend before Christmas were a pain!

Winter Wonderland (Disneyland Paris)

It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Disneyland Paris and the Walt Disney Studio parks this past weekend. We’d been on the fence about going to them at all – after all, we can go to Disneyland as often as we’d like, being Southern Californians. With a free Sunday, and no real plans, the idea of seeing that classic Disney Christmas was really appealing. Visiting the park is super easy, as it lies right on the regional train line – it’s only a 35-minute train ride directly to the entrance of the park. No traffic, no parking, no long drive home at the end of a full day!

Christmas at Disneyland Paris is very much like it is in the LA parks. They do such a beautiful job of decorating every inch of the parks with lights, “snow”, and garlands. The characters were all wearing their Christmas costumes, and Main Street pumps-out fake snow (bubbles) at regular intervals. Disney Magic is turned-up to 11! I thought that the Paris park’s Sleeping Beauty Castle was glorious, its rooftops bedecked with tiny white lights, sparkling like champagne bubbles (or maybe it’s actually Fairy Dust).

Click the link below to see it sparkle!

https://youtu.be/hbnYQRV1xAg

We had park-hopper tickets, and spent a couple of hours at the Walt Disney Studio park. This is where they’ve got the Toy Story area (OMG, so cute to have all of the giant classic toys!)

Some interesting things at these parks: The Tower of Terror is still here (not closed-down, like the one in CA). Indiana Jones is an outdoor rollercoaster instead of an adventure theme ride (still fun, with fast turns, good drops and a loop). There is no Jungle Ride, Tiki Room (no Dole Whip!), Matterhorn, Nemo Submarine or Splash Mountain. They do have a really cool, Jules Verne-style Captain Nemo’s Nautilus that you can explore, They’ve got a Magic Carpet ride (similar to Dumbo), a cool 3-D Ratatouille ride, and the Disney standards, Haunted Mansion (Phantom Manor) and Pirates of the Caribbean (sans Johnny Depp) are both there. While it is still an awesome roller-coaster, Space Mountain is quite different, both inside and out. Before you go, check-out the park info online to avoid disappointment if you have a favorite ride in CA:

http://www.disneylandparis.co.uk

Despite near-freezing temperatures, we had a great time! If you visit Disneyland Paris, here are my suggestions:

Download the Disneyland Paris app on your phone before you go to the park. This has an interactive map which includes approximate wait times.

If you’d like to eat dinner at a restaurant where you can sit-down, make reservations early in the day at one of the park’s restaurants. You can make reservations by calling directly from the app, but I also saw a kiosk on Main Street where you could use an ATM-like machine to reserve for later in the day.

There are not as many dining options or snack carts here as there are in CA. Bring some snacks. There is a designated picnic spot outside of the entrance, but you can eat snacks as you walk around with no problem.

Don’t count on FastPasses. The day we were there, most FastPass kiosks were closed.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas (our home in Vincennes, France)

Our petite ville, Vincennes, is just on the southeastern edge of Paris. We feel so fortunate to have found an apartment (two, actually) in Vincennes, because it is right on the regional train line (RER) that Mark takes to work, and it is at the end of the Métro line 1 which crosses the city of Paris. We can be anywhere in the city within 20-30 minutes. The icing on top of the cake is that we also have within walking distance the vast Bois de Vincennes (woods and park created by Emperor Napoleon III in 1855) and the regal Château de Vincennes (former residence of the Kings of France). Vincennes has a lively community, while maintaining a small-town feel. We were enchanted to see this little band of merry-makers adding to the holiday festivities with music and good cheer one evening this week as we did our grocery shopping.

Click the link below for a short video of the fun:

https://youtu.be/zbSLxl0dJW0

The square at the train station in Vincennes even has a small Christmas market. Every night of the week, there are families gathered to chat with friends, indulge in treats, ride the ride and buy gifts.

Silent Night (Vincennes)

Around Town: Daily Life in Paris/Vincennes, France

With a few weekends spent “at home” in our Vincennes Airbnb apartment, we have had a little more time to be inhabitants rather than tourists. Living in another country is different than being a tourist, as everyday activities that are second-nature at home can be a challenge. Mark came-up with a great phrase for all of this, and we use it often: la courbe d’apprentissage (the learning curve, as we say back home).

Mail

Mark has had some things to send to friends in California for a while, but it is expensive to use the French post (and can take a long time to reach its destination). It took some research to find another service (kind of like UPS) – but then we had to find a good box (I have a pile of assorted boxes at home, but where does one get one here?). It even took a while to find packing tape.

Shopping

There is a great store here, Monoprix, that carries lots of things, sort of like Target. The larger Monoprix’ even have clothes, groceries, some fresh fruits and veg., and limited household goods. However, things that are not carried include: contact lens solution (must get at an optician) contact lens cleaner and over-the-counter meds like Advil and vitamins (only available at a pharmacy), if you want fresh seafood, there’s the fish shop next door, and another shop for a better selection of fruit and vegetables (or you can get all of that at a bi-weekly street/farmer’s market).

Think about grocery shopping when you’re in an unfamiliar store (how much longer it takes to find all of the things you need). Multiply that by a factor of four when you’re in another country! I enjoy seeing items on the shelves that are unfamiliar, and it is really fun to try different stuff. The tricky thing is to find items that you have a real preference for. We’re all loyal to some brands, because we like the way they taste, smell, feel, or perform compared to others we’ve tried. I have used Tide for over 20 years, but there is no Tide here. There are great products that work just as well – but which are best? They all smell different, too. The first one I tried worked fine, but made our clothes smell too sweet, like flowers – no “mountain fresh” or the like. Toilet paper – at home, I know just what to grab off of the shelf. Here, one was too thin and another was almost as thick as paper towels (weird!). Like Goldilocks, with a little trial and error, I’ve finally found one that is “just right.” Think of your favorite food – will they have something like that where you are? We like Mexican food, but the grocery stores have just a small selection, and they’re not spicy (though I can approximate it). In a big, cosmopolitan city like Paris, you can find almost anything, for a price. I found Skippy (peanut butter is not common here), 8oz for about $5.50. Yes, I bought it!

Last week, we were having new friends, Melissa (an American from FL) and husband Olivier (French), over to the apartment to play board games one evening. I figured I’d do an easy meat and cheese, bread, fruit and wine spread, since they’d be arriving after the work day, and we wouldn’t have time to go out to dinner. In the new Airbnb apartment, I have a stovetop, but no oven, and only the basic few pots and pans, so cooking a meal for four seemed a little ambitious. It was super fun to have them over, and the food was good – I think we were all full. Here’s the difference between the prep for this evening vs. doing it in my own house in CA: I made two trips to the Monoprix, because wine, some household things I needed, AND groceries would be too heavy to carry home on foot. On the second trip, I also stopped at the cheese shop, the boulangerie (for the baguettes), and the farmer’s market for fruit. All stores are nearby, and easy to walk to, and the quality of some items (cheese and bread especially) is far better than in CA. However, in California, it would have been one trip and done! Please don’t think I’m complaining, though! I’m just illustrating some of the differences between daily life here and there.

Getting ready to have friends over to play board games.

Goat’s cheese from the specialty cheese shop. OMG, delicious! It is said that there are more varieties of cheese in France than there are days in a year!

Friends and Family

Speaking of entertaining, we definitely miss our friends and family! Thank goodness for social media, especially FaceTime, so we can keep in touch and actually see the kids (and them us) when we chat. It isn’t easy with busy schedules on both sides of the Atlantic to find a good time to talk, but it is wonderful when we do. We can’t wait for a couple of friends to come visit, and Molly and Sam will be here for Spring Break!!!

Snapchat screenshot of Sam & Molly in Lodi for Thanksgiving. Representing the holiday with silly hats Mark sent (pumpkin pie and turkey).

Through the social media app, Meetup, we have found some friends through both a boardgame Meetup that Mark has started, and a Paris Dog Walk Meetup that Mark found early-on. We took a drive out of town with two of our new friends, Theresa and Stuart (ex-pats from New Zealand who have lived all over the world). Theresa and I both enjoy walking, so we often meet for lunch during the week and walk the different areas (arrondissements) of Paris, discovering shops, restaurants and interesting buildings all over the city. We have such fun together, and are so happy to have found them!

We had a fun day at Château De Chantilly with new friends, Theresa and Stuart.

Seeing a movie in the theater

The bigger theaters have showings of American movies both in VO (original version, with French subtitles) and dubbed in French. Most theaters have ticket sales at automated kiosks, like we see at home, and the machines offer interaction in English, so you can make sure you’re doing it correctly if you don’t understand French. The seating is a little different sometimes – we saw a movie in one theater that had one long row of a high-backed sofa, that had pull-down armrests (not individual seats), but most are similar to ours. Popcorn and other snacks and drinks are offered in the lobby, but people don’t seem to eat quite as much in theaters here as they do back in the US. There is definitely less paper-rattling and popcorn crunching! Often, the smaller theaters have a restroom with one toilet for men and one for women right in the theater, rather than a larger restroom in the lobby.

Me in the theater, chatting with a German woman as we wait our turn to use the restroom.

Safety

This is a big question for many, and one of the first things some said to us when we told them we were going to be living here was along the lines of “Oh, stay safe! Terrorism these days…” Yep. Sadly, it has happened here, but it has also happened in America. No matter where we are in the world, we definitely need to be aware of our surroundings. Since the terrorist attacks here, the police have stepped-up their presence. You’ll often see them in heavily-populated areas, walking in groups of three or four, with automatic weapons in their hands. It is jarring to see that, but also reassuring. As for crime in general, Paris is quiet a safe place to be. The main concern for safety here is pickpockets, rather than mugging or violent crime. The cross-body purse is my best friend, and I use little carabiners (get them at a sports store, like Big 5) to attach the zipper-pull to the strap of the purse, to discourage sneaky fingers. Men should never put valuables in back pockets. Public transit is safe and easy to navigate. There are Métro stations sprinkled generously throughout the city, and you don’t have to walk far to get from one to another. Even after midnight, you’ll be among lots of other people of all ages, and feel quite safe. They may not be super clean or sweet-smelling, but they are well-lit and busy.

For reference, we live in the bottom, right-hand side, our stop is the Yellow Line (1), Chateau du Vincennes. Notre Dame Cathedral is in the island on the Seine at the map’s center, which takes about 20 minutes for us to reach from our apartment. Most sites in Paris are no more than 35 minutes from our place via the Métro or RER (regional train). Mark usually works outside of Paris (east of our apartment). He catches the RER just down the street from the apartment to get to work.

Mark, on the platform waiting for the RER (regional train) to go to work.

Some friends have asked if we love it here. We do love that we get to have this experience. Living in another country, even temporarily, is eye-opening in so many ways. While I might say that we do some things better in the US, they do other things better here. On balance, I think that this time in our lives has helped us to better appreciate both places.