Christmas in France and Switzerland

Well, Christmas has come and went already and it is now 2012. Where has the time gone? I have already spent 4 months living abroad and it has felt like the blink of an eye. I must admit, part of me is happy that the holidays have past. But don’t get ahead of yourselves; it has nothing to do with wanting to work (haha). It’s just because a part of me couldn’t help but feel a little homesick for Canada and my family and friends over the holidays. This is the first year I have not spent the vacation on the farm with my family. But, I must admit that these holidays will go down in my books for life.

Conny and I while we were taking Christmas pictures for Christmas cards.

I am going to go back to the beginning of the Christmas season because I haven’t had a chance to put up a blog in while. Let’s go back to when I started to listen to Christmas music – the end of November/beginning of December. Don’t judge people, you only get to “socially acceptably” listen to Christmas music once a year, so I like to get it started early.  This time coincided with about the time I started “Christmas marketing”. That’s right, Christmas marketing; in France it seems to be “all the fad” during the Christmas season. They were everywhere in Paris. Sometimes I would just be out wandering while waiting to meet someone and I would stumble upon yet another Christmas market. Mind you, sometimes they were only 5-10 stalls big, but still, it was pretty cool. The first one I ever saw was the one on the Champs Elysée. Conny and I – she has been in at least one other blog I believe, but to refresh memories, she is my friend from near Munich who is also a jeune fille au pair – went for a little stroll one night, I believe it was in November. I got to try many new things that are more typically European. For example a “Boule de Noël” I believe they’re called.  It was a little bizarre and very sugary, but in a small quantity quite delicious. It had a texture somewhat similar to a marshmallow and was covered in chocolate (you could choose which type of chocolate, and there were many choices). I also tried my first hot wine – which left quite the impression.  Over the last month I have drank a fair amount of hot wine (a lot of which was when I went real Christmas Marketing in the Westernish France, which is coming up in discussion!).  It was a lovely evening. The beauty of the Champs Elysee lit up at night alone is beautiful, so with the added bonus of the winter Ferris wheel up at the Place de la Concorde, all the Christmas decorations along the street, as well as  the many Christmas stalls of beautiful trinkets and delicious food spanning both sides it was amazing. There is also a lovely Christmas market at La Defense where I take the train to to go into Paris, as well as one just across the street from the Eiffel Tower (amazingly stunning, with an ice rink as well).  But, the ones in western France were the most stunning of them all.

The Ferris Wheel at Place de la Concorde.

Christmas Market sur les Champs Elysees.

Notre Dame at Christmas. The Christmas tree is actually enormous (even though you can't tell) and is "Paris's Christmas
Tree".

Christmas Market in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Another thing I did to celebrate Christmas was go to Euro Disney! It was a lot of fun! On the main street it even fake snowed, which was awesome considering there is no snow in Paris :(. We were there from about 10am until about 10pm! A lot of the rides are the same as the ones in Florida, so it was a little blast from the past for me. I discovered the younger version of me was pretty cool, because Tower of Terror was still my favourite (the elevator one where you drop). I also loved the Aerosmith rollercoaster which I don't think I have ever been on in Florida. It reminded me a bit of Guitar Hero. All the Christmas decorations really helped me feel ready for Christmas!

Getting to feel like a little kid for the day! Being Aladdin here.

The Disney Castle during winter.

SNOW! With my lovely Aussie friend Shannon.

My last day with the lovely Abbey before she left to return to Canada.

The Tower of Terror.

Christmas decorations at Disney!

The Disney Castle at night!

Me, Zoe (another Aussie), and Shannon having fun by the castle!

Conny and I went Christmas marketing on a trip with our Language School in Alsace France (more to the West). We left at 6:30 am Saturday morning, with our first stop being Riquewihr around 13h30. We wandered around the Christmas market for two hours, browsing the trinkets and, you guessed it, drinking hot wine. The cool thing about the markets in Western France were that they had reusable cups that were really cute. You could return them to get your euro back, or you could keep it as a souvenir.Helped the environment and gave Conny and I reasonably priced souvenirs.

First reusable cup and first hot wine of the day! Mmmmm

The clock tower and a bit of the Christmas market in Riquewihr.

Next stop was a village not to far away called Ribeauville. This market was particularly cool because it was medieval themed.

View of a castle on a hill from the Christmas market in Ribeauville.

Souvenir cup number 2. We thought this was hot wine, but it turned out to be some sort of hot liquor that was quite strong. Caught us a little off guard, but was a nice little change from our frequent hot wine.

One of the lovely old-fashioned wood stoves at the market.

Mmmm this is where my "lard" on freshly-baked bread was cooked. It was very delicious (tasted a bit like peamel bacon).

Me at the market! I like this one because you can see all the smoke that was in the air from the wood fires! I had to do a lot of laundry after returning from this trip.

Standing in the square where there were wood-fires as well as a station where they were constantly making fresh apple juice.

The next three pictures show some of the lovely Christmas lights at the market. It was beautiful!

We then went to Colmar where we stayed the night. Conny and I went downtown for the whole evening. We ate an Alsace specialty for dinner - La Tarte Flambee. It was a bit like a thin crust pizza but had a creamy dressing rather than a tomatoe sauce (I believe it was sour cream based). It was really delicious. There were many markets within Colmar, and we even got lost for a little while trying to find a bar we had seen earlier in the evening. We went for a few beers at a sports bar after wandering through all of the markets. It was a lovely evening.

Tarte Flambee.

We followed these signs to be guided around all the Christmas markets in Colmar!

Little Venice in Colmar.

Being silly, what's new?

Me in the markets of Colmar!

Some of the lovely winter decorations,

Decorations in the streets of Colmar.

Our final stop on Sunday morning was Strasbourg where we spent the day. It is the most known in France for Christmas markets. First we went on a group stroll of Old Strasbourg, and then were free to wander as we pleased for the day. Again there were markets everywhere, we didn't even get to them all in 5 hours. I bought some cute little trinkets and treats for my family in Strasbourg (included a miniature hedgehog figurine for my sister, because for some reason there were hedgehogs everywhere).

Me in Old Strasbourg.

One of the views in Old Strasbourg.

Some of the awesome Christmas decorations in Strasbourg.

The church in Strasbourg with the Christmas decorations - I was having some fun with my camera.

One of my favourite Christmas decorations I saw.

A taste of Canada in Strasbourg? By the way, these are hats.

Strolling out of the Christmas markets to see more of Strabourg.

Conny and I at the Christmas tree in Strasbourg.

The nut cracker that reminded me of the one I had as a kid (only mine wasn't quite as big as me haha).

Only 11 000 km from Vancouver in Strasbourg (it was the only Canadian city on there).

Then another weekend I will never forget was the weekend when Conny and I went skating on the Eiffel Tower, went to a French house party, and saw Cirque du Soleil. I can’t even describe how wonderful it was. To start off, we spent 5 hours on top of the Eiffel Tower. We went up around 2 pm and first took a look around the second floor, which was beautiful because the sun was out and it was an absolutely wonderful view of Paris (plus we got some lovely pictures of the shadow of the Eiffel Tower spanned out across the streets of Paris). Then when it started to rain we took the elevator up to the Summit (third floor). We took a look around there as much as we could, but the wind was blowing like crazy. We were freezing, so after getting our fill of the beautiful view, we went back to the second floor and decided to take a, you guessed it, hot wine break (what else during the Christmas season in Paris??). It was awesome because it warmed us right up and brought our spirits back up form the fact that the sun hid on us and the rain came out briefly. I also tried my first European waffle, and it was even smothered in Nutella. It was delicious, as are most things smothered in Nutella are.

One of the magnificent views.

While the lovely sun was out.

Conny and I playing around.

The lovely Conny and I.

Conny and I on the Eiffel Tower.

You can see Sacre Coeur in the left corner!

Up close. I find Sacre Coeur one of the most beautiful sights in Paris.

The shadow of the Eiffel Tower :)

Then we went to the first floor where we finally found the ice skating rink! It was phenomenal. Not too large, but it didn’t even matter with the views both looking out of the Eiffel Tower, and looking up at the Eiffel Tower itself. To make things even better, skating was FREE when we thought it was going to be something like 5-10 Euros to skate and rent skates. We skated for so long and time flew right by. We got there at the perfect time because the rain had stopped and the sun was still up, but then after half an hour of so the sun went down and we also had the luck to see Paris by night. And to put the cherry on the cake, we were on the Eiffel Tower for its first sparkle!! It was one of those moments in your life where you are just 100 percent happy and you can’t imagine how anyone sees anything bad in the world.  Moment’s like that one send chills down your spine.

Skating on the Eiffel Tower!

Conny and I!

Warming up with some hot wines on the rink!

In front of the Eiffel Tower Statue.

Our skates.

Les Invalides from the ice rink.

I see London, I see France, I see the Eiffel Tower's Underpants haha

To end off an already perfect day, we were invited out with a French friend of ours. We were supposed to meet them at a bar, but since we were on the Eiffel Tower incredibly longer than we had planned, we ended up just meeting them at a metro stop, not even sure where they were taking us. We ended up going to a house party. At first it was a little awkward, because it was a girl’s apartment and I don’t think the girls were too happy to have other girls there (I think we were seen as competition). But, Conny and I are both quite friendly and I think won them over quickly by asking them all about what they do and so forth.  It was great to speak French all night. I tend to be asked many questions - they want to know where I am from, why I am here, what I am doing; curiosity in this case works in my advantage. The only downfall is that they can quickly hear the English in my French accent and all want to practice English. I have started to hint quite obviously that I am in France to learn French and would really like the practice it myself. Anyways, I had some interesting conversations, including one with a french fellow who also spent, like me, several months in Australia! I also made friends with a French Abercrombie and Fitch model. And I have to explain this briefly because I find it all too funny. This is the entrance to the Abercrombie and Fitch store:

Abercrombie and Fitch Paris - golden gate entrance.

Can you believe it? How insane is that??? It is actually considered a “high-class” store and there is always a queue outside of it! It is like a Parisian monument in itself, which I can’t help but chuckle to myself about considering the Abercrombie and Fitch stories in common malls in Canada. Anyways, I am off topic a little with this.

So, Conny and I went to bed that night, very late, but very happy! And the next day we got to go to Cirque du Soleil! It was too cool – some of the stunts they do make you rub your eyes to see if you’re dreaming! But, I won’t go into too much detail with that because, considering it is Canadian, most of my readers will at the least know about it.

Moi et Conny a Cirque du Soleil.

So that brings me to my week in Paris where I was working very little because the grandparents were down visiting. I was able to do A LOT in the week, which was lovely. I went to Musée D’Orsay where I spent 2 hours and only finished one floor. I have definitely established some form of either interest or appreciation for art history. I never had much time for it before, but now in a city filled with many famous and amazing works of art, I can’t help but be drawn in by it and fascinated by it. The building for the museum is an old train station, and in itself is a work of art. I will definitely be returning. I also made it to Musée de l’Orangerie. I mainly went because of the amazing Monet paintings, covering a full wall each. I went there when I was in Paris in 2007, but definitely felt the need to go again. Plus, I recently watched “Midnight in Paris” (which I would suggest to anyone who is interested in what many of the things I have seen look like, as they visited many of the sights I have visited myself) and it showed the paintings and I remembered how fabulous I thought the two rooms filled with them were. There was also an exhibition on Spanish art which was extraordinarily interesting due to my recent visit to Spain! I recognized many of the artists that I had just learned about a few months ago.  I also an outdoor shopping center called Bercy Village. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined, however it was still cute because each store was shaped kind of as its own little house and it was all decorated for Christmas. Finally, I went to Chateau de Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris, where I got to see the once home of King Charles V and discovered a Parisian botanical garden that I would really like to revisit in the spring or summer. Oh, and I can’t forget the French Christmas party of mine and Conny’s friend! We got to try many French “delicacies” and again got a little French practice in. It was a lovely evening and our French friend and his friends are very welcoming and fun.

Chateau de Vincennes.

The church at Chateau de Vincennes.

Looking out at the church from a balcony in Chateau de Vincennes

 Now, this brings me to SWISSMAS! I was overjoyed to have been invited by Aurelie’s family to celebrate the holidays. I stayed with this family for 3 weeks when I completed a Lion's Club Exchange in the summer of 2007. They were amazing to me then and amazing to me this time as well – they gave me some presents (including the grandmother of the dad who gave me a bottle of wine as “the Canadian” as well as a 50 frank gift card!), invited me to all their celebrations (one on the 24^th, two on the 25^th, one on the 26^th, and one on the 27^th). It was a little overwhelming being introduced to all these family members and friends, but I never once really felt out of place. Even the cousins were friendly and asked questions about me and were interested to see how I knew Aurelie and her family. They are the type of people that make you think of the best in people – they are really a fabulous family.

They also took me to do so many things!! Where do I even begin? After the Christmas celebrations had finished (and I do want to note 2 quick differences about them 1) for the kids to get their present(s) they have to give something, and that was in the form of a piece of music or reciting a poem or something along those lines and 2) if you invite someone over for Christmas you cook for them all – and in many cases over the holidays this was a Chinese fondue which consists of a big pots of broulion and vegetables that is boiling and you use a fondue stick to put in raw meat to cook it yourself; it takes longer to eat so you spend more time enjoying it and conversing, it was quite lovely) we first went to “faire du bob”, known to Anglophones as tobogonning. It was great because in Bienne where I was staying there was no snow, but we drove up into the mountains there was heaps of snow! I think they are very lucky that pretty much all the winter they can drive to snow because they live so  close to the mountains. It was a beautiful view from up in the mountains and I got to play in the snow (including making a snowman, so I at the very least get to make one this year). We also went to a gigantic indoor water park where we spent 7 hours that felt like two in a lazy river, going down water slides, going in the sauna, and, my favourite, swimming in a pool that was half inside and half outside (and yes there was snow in this area) where you had an absolutely stunning view of the surrounding lake and mountains (I imagine this place to be phenomenal in the summer when you can also go to the beach and on the lake).  They even took me skiing on a mountain nearby which was awesome because I hadn’t gone in like 2 or 3 years. Plus, the view from on top of the mountain was, again, amazing. It was so fun, and another one of those moments where you feel on top of the world (literally and metaphorically). I was so content. I also did some shopping with the two oldest daughters  (Aurelie who I have already mentioned, 24, and Florence, 20). The sales were so good because we went after Christmas. For example, Florence bought an ESPRIT coat on sale for 70 Francs from 200 and something Franks! I couldn’t help but buy myself a lovely dress (on sale from 100 francs for 25 francs) and a sweater and a pair of jeans.

The view of the Alps from Aurelie's apartment building.

My little snowman (I had little resources, okay?).

Happily in the snow in the forest :)

Tobogonning!!

Virginie and I (the youngest daughter - 9).

The beautiful beginning of dusk.

Me on the mountain :)

I just loved these clouds. And you can see that people were also skiing on the mountain.

And sunset :)

Gruyere where we went to eat a Swiss Cheese fondue on our way home from Aquapark (it was about 2 hours away).

SWITZERLAND :)

Me, Florence, and Adrien (12) while out skiing.

Me with the beautiful views on top of the mountain.

Finally, but definitely not the least, was new years eve. Aurelie invited me to climb le Chasseral, a mountain just outside of Bienne. It is 1609 meters high and we did it in snowshoes and with ski poles. It was, again, phenomenal and words can’t even describe the experience. It was my first mountain climbed in the winter! It was actually not too difficult because the snow shoes had amazing grips on the bottom of them, so I didn’t slide around at all. The only really hard part was the last 20 minutes or so (it took us approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes in a group of about 20 people) because we exited the forest and it was just open and it was extremely windy and rain snowing (you know what I mean, that slushy disgusting snow).  But once we were there, it was such an amazing feeling to have climbed a mountain! Then we warmed up (changed into dry clothes I had carried up the mountain in a backpack), and had swiss cheese fondue! It was a very “typically” swiss night – with traditional swiss music that we danced to (including the chicken dance and some very funny dancing in general), mainly all swiss people, fondue (how much more swiss can you get?), climbing a mountain, and so forth. Then we had to descend the mountain at like 2:30am after we had finished with the champagne and dancing. I was not really looking forward to the descent until we started sledding down the mountain! It was probably my favourit part of the night. We were literally tobogonning for about and hour without ever having to climb back up. And the way that the road was (no cars can go up it in winter, don’t worry), made it safe. I was able to stop and turn whenever I wanted even. It was absolutely phenomenal. I will put some videos on facebook if you are interested. But it was just fabulous.

The view I had when I looked behind me when climbing the mountain - the headlights of those climbing behind me!

WE MADE IT - Aurelie on top of the Chasseral.

I MADE IT - Me on the top of le Chasseral, window of the barely visible restaurant behind me.

Mmmmm our swiss cheese fondue.

Our ridiculously attractive New Year's Eve outfits.

Our group's table.

The Swiss "band".

I am now, as a write this, on the train back from Switzerland to France. I must say I am a little sad that the vacation went by so fast and I had to say bye already to Aurelie and her family. They were really lovely to me, and I couldn’t thank them enough. But I am excited to see what this new year will bring and how much more my French can improve. With graduate school applications out of the way, I can finally focus the majority of my energy into excelling in French. Hopefully I will be much better over the next 2-3 months. But I am also, already, thinking about my next trip out of France. I am thinking, Prague or London, but time will tell.

I hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas and New Years!  Part of my heart was home over the holidays.

A