If you've been following along the last month or so, we've been sharing portions of our trip to Paris, such as the museums we visited, where we stayed, any day trips we took, and what neighborhoods we explored. But nothing has been dedicated to how we celebrated Christmas in Paris... Until today!The whole reason for the trip was to celebrate my 30th birthday, which falls a week before Christmas. I've always wanted to go to Paris and we decided my 30th would be a great reason to get out of town, skip Christmas, and just go to Paris! With that being said, it's hard to skip Christmas. Every birthday of mine has had Christmas trees and holiday decorations involved in some way. So we decided to skip giving each other presents and allow the experience of Christmas in France to be our gifts! We landed in Paris on the 21st and knew we had to hit the ground running. Not only did we have a traditional Paris must list, but because it was the week of Christmas, we wanted to soak in as many French Christmas activities as we could (If you’re interested in seeing all of the more normal Parisian activities we engaged in, click on “Europe” under categories at the bottom of the screen. That’ll take you to our most recent posts covering Paris). So the first thing we did was hit up some of the Christmas Markets! There are multiple Christmas Markets around the city. We did lots of research beforehand and decided we’d visit the markets along Saint-Germain-des-Pres, at the Eiffel Tower, and on Champs-Elysées. The markets on Champs-Elysées take up several blocks lining both sides of the avenue. We visited this area twice, once during the day and then we went back on a different evening to shop, eat, and drink! We also had plans to go ice skating at the Grand Palais which is right off the avenue so it was perfect, logistically! We bought several things, mostly food, for Christmas Day. Many families partake in the tradition of Christmas morning nougat. We found lots of vendors selling a huge variety of nougat flavors and I believe the most traditional is pistachio! After some samples, we bought a pistachio/almond nougat. When we visited in the day time, we noticed a lot of vendors selling food, made to order. So when we went back in the evening, we decided to grab dinner. We got some Glühwein (we should mention, most of the Christmas market traditions stem from German heritage) which is a red wine that’s been steeped with oranges, cinnamon and a few other spices and served warm... delicious! Anyway, we got some wine and walked around until we found something appetizing. Chase’s favorite was (french) onion soup and I enjoyed a ham and cheese crêpe we got over by the Eiffel Tower Markets. Later that evening we had tickets at the Grand Palais for a midnight ice skating party! It was amazing! Not only is the Grand Palais such a well known place but it’s beautiful inside and we got to spend 2 hours skating and taking in the site! So fun!! Christmas Eve was spent at Notre-Dame. We read some blogs and a lot of Parisians said it’s a touristy thing to do. Not that the mass service would be touristy but that the cathedral itself would be filled with tourists, and it was! We decided that attending mass at such an incredibly historic establishment was worth the crowds. Christmas Eve service was in french and a little hard to follow but the sounds and music was incredible. I fully engaged with the obvious tourists and took a video of “Angels We Have Heard on High” because the music from the organ and choir was something I wanted to have documented forever. After Mass, we headed back to the apartment and spent the remaining hours of Christmas Eve watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle while partaking in our own tradition, watching A Christmas Story (on Chase's iPhone)! Until Next Time,
C + D
3 Comments
1/9/2023 11:14:41 am
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6/30/2023 06:51:19 pm
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