A living museum: Christmastime in Paris

My last two weekends of 2012 in Paris weren't spent inside museums but out and about in the city that transforms itself into a sort of living museum for the holidays. There was just too much to see to stay inside museum walls despite my ongoing Museum Challenge (and weather has been remarkably moderate thus far). My weekends were a blur of last minute Christmas shopping, the sparkle of lights strung across streets, and glasses of mulled wine sipped while wandering through Christmas markets.

Top left: Christmas lights along the Champs Elysées. Top left-center: A Christmas booth in the market along the Champs-Elysées. Top right-center: Noel décor in the shopping mall of the Louvre. Top right: The skating rink in the Grand Palais. Middle left: The Christmas tree adorning the entrance to my building at the Institut Pasteur. Middle left-center: The performers and the Saint Vincent de Paul church where they just finished performing. Middle right-center: Christmas lights along a street in the Latin Quarter. Bottom left: My stocking hung by my window surrounded by our Christmas books gifted (on loan) from my local library. Bottom left-center: My apartment building's Christmas tree. Bottom right-center: My friends and me at the Grand Palais skating rink.

 Last weekend I introduced Peter to the free classical music concert series at Eglise Saint Vincent de Paul in the 10th where we enjoyed a string quartet concert and were introduced to Lalo, the first French string quartet composer and effective musical father of Saint Saëns, Debussy, and Ravel. I also explored an art and creation fair by the Louvre that was teeming with unusual, creative (and saddeningly over-priced) jewelry and fashion.

After finally hitting last Friday's research results/analysis deadline in lab, I enjoyed my last weekend in the city and the start of my Christmas vacation. Yesterday I had the delight of (re)discovering a nearby library with Peter. This time I finally got my first Paris library card. We each even picked up some surprise reads from under the library's Christmas tree to take on our respective travels. I survived last night's celebration of the impending Mayan apocalypse enough to make it out skating this afternoon in none other than the Grand Palais. We were made well aware of the venue's success on its premier weekend as an ice skating rink while we stood in line for at least an hour alongside everyone else who had bought out all the advance tickets that allow one to cut the line... still, I don't think I've ever enjoyed such an impressive setting for an afternoon skating. With tonight's purchase of the buchettes de noël, the mini French Christmas pastries that I'll be taking home to my family, there's nothing left to do but start stuffing my luggage and hoping I make the weight limit. Fingers crossed!