Christmas in Paris

It's no Strasbourg nor New York with its Rockefeller Center tree and the windows at Saks, but Paris doesn't completely let the season pass unnoticed. Here's a sampling of the Christmas scenes of my home city.

The boulangeries of Paris come out in style for the holiday season.

 

Behind the counters of said boulangeries, the regular pastry line-up is enhanced with the classic yule log, or buche de Noël (called buchette when in single serving size). The buche de Noël, when not a frozen ice cream based treat, is a dessert most closely likened to a sculpted stick of flavored butter with a small Christmas scene built on top. Depending on the maker, more or less cake can be slipped in between the layers of chocolate-y (or coffee, praline, vanilla, or Grand Marnier flavored) creamy goodness.

The Hôtel de Ville, Paris's town hall, lights up for the holidays and even sets up a little skating rink in its courtyard right where volleyball courts are set-up for a month during summer holidays.

While France may pride itself in being a secular state, there's no tip-toeing around the idea of Christmas in government buildings: the Mairie du XVe, my arrondissement town hall, set up its own mini marché de Noël, Christmas markets. I stopped by here twice during my last weekend in Paris before returning home for the holidays to try a sampling of the crêpes, mulled wine, and even a decadent foie gras sandwich. (Foie gras fills shelves--and presumably stockings-- across the city at Christmastime. I'm sure you can get this food year-round, but the French seem to have a particular taste for it in the holiday season.)

 Christmas markets and trees lit for the season line the Champs-Elysées. This year the lighting strayed from the standard strings of LEDs draped over the trees to something which, as a friend aptly put it, made the trees appear to be playing hula hoop.

My apartment set up a tree in the lobby, making my home feel a little more like Christmas even without having my own tree this year.

My stocking was hung by my window with care.

And before I knew it, I'd survived the trip home to the States in one piece along with a box full of buchettes and some other French goodies which didn't stay in one piece very long. :)