Christmas in Paris

The best Christmas gift ever – My parents deciding to come to Paris =) We had such a wonderful time together. They came bearing wonderful things from home such as: clothes, socks, Tapatio (hot sauce), Bath and Body Works, and much more.

Although we didn’t do much in the sense of traveling and sight seeing, I really felt like I got to spend some quality time with them. I showed them my tiny studio room and by the time my mom left, my room was decorated and looking very cute (the Mary Margaret Touch©).

The Champs Elysee is a truly magical place during the Christmas season- everything is lit up and decorated so festively. So from my place, Mom, Dad and I walked down the Champs and through the Christmas markets, and through the snow to la Concorde to really take in the whole Christmas in Paris feel of things. It was nice, but we were freezing so we went to this really dumpy hotel (sarcasm) to have drinks and warm up.

A few days later, mom and I decided to go do something cultural – I took her to the Cartier Foundation to a Graffiti exposition. It was about the movement of Graffiti in New York during the 80’s and how it turned into “modern art” and is now being practiced all over the world – legally and illegally.

Christmas itself was good, different from what I am used to, but it was good. My aunt Nicole invited some of her friends over and cooked us a wonderful dinner consisting of smoked salmon, foie gras with fig sauce, a giant castrated male chicken stuffed with a meat mixture (un Chapon), and many many other yummy things – oh and lots of Champagne.

A few days after Christmas, we traveled up north to Lille to visit my cousin Alex’s family. And that was awesome. From Lille, Alex, his brother and sister in-law, his dad, and me and my mom, we all drove to Belgium (25 minutes away from their home) to buy cheep cigarettes and more importantly CHOCOLATE AND BEER =) While we were there, we went to this Christmas market and ate yummy treats and drank some hot wine.

Then a few days later a dear friend of ours, Cecile, came up to Paris to spend some time with my mom and dad and I before they left. We walked around Paris, ate delicious food, shopped, and even took a ride on La Grande Roue (the big ferris Wheel – similar to the London Eye). Only offered during Christmas, the ferris wheel was really magical – we got to see Paris from all angles and were even able to see most of the main sights and attractions.

Seeing mom and dad leave was sad, but getting to spend the Christmas holidays with them was really special and most definitely a great way to end 2009 for me.