Is Late February Too Late for a Christmas Post?

The idea for a post about our holiday travels has rolled around in my head for two months now, but we did see a few delays. Food poisoning hit me on our return flight home on December 22, which delayed Christmas celebrations, which delayed decoration take-down, which delayed life.

This brought us up to about mid-January, which means it was my birthday. At this rate, I’ll write about my birthday around Easter.

Then at the end of January, we added a third dog to our small pack. I’ll blog about that probably around July 4th.

Then birthday and Super Bowl celebrations with friends, a job change, and as I type this, we are in the midst of our anniversary weekend.

But back to Christmas, we headed to Paris for a pre-holiday celebration. My mother and stepfather were there a week ahead of us. My Canadian sister and her boyfriend were supposed to join us, but COVID variants threw a nasal swab in things. So, the four of us celebrated Christmas a little early in the City of Light.

If you do nothing else in life, see Paris at Christmas time. There’s nothing like it.

Heed this: Do not return to the U.S. on December 22nd. I cannot stress this enough. Airports are crowded, you’re tired for your domestic holiday celebrations, or you might end up with food poisoning and your Christmas dinner is Saltines and Gatorade.

Paris begins to decorate late November. Traveling December 1 through December 15 has the same Yuletide feels without the stress of traveling too close to the big day. (Unless you’re staying in Paris for Christmas, and if that’s the case, then ignore my warning. And kudos to you for having a French Christmas!)

Despite the vomiting and stress to close out the trip, we had a wonderful time. We took a nighttime tour on a bus to see the Christmas lights. The Department stores pull out all of the stops and decorate their over-sized trees and street-facing windows. The expensive designer boutiques do outrageous and gorgeous decorations, which will make you wonder if you have $5000 to spend on a pair of shoes, just so you can see the inside of the store. Even if Christmas is not your favorite time of the year, I still think you’d find yourself filled with childlike wonderment and reverence.

I’m going to post a few photos from our trip. My bad photography doesn’t do the experience justice. Also, I need my photographer friends to not judge me too much on lighting, balance, composition etc…a photographer, I am not.

Here's the obligatory, pre-takeoff photo on the plane.

Our Hotel: Select Rive Gauche.

Le Coupe Chou. One of our favorite restaurants. We ate here the night we got engaged in 2019 and return to it every trip. I took eight pictures and my husband's face is the same in all of them because he is cold.

To continue my own personal Staff of Ra series, I took this because the moon was over the steeple. I had to stand under a street lamp, and the light reflected into the lense and it looks like ghosts are floating into the sky.

From the Christmas Light Bus Tour

Above and below are from Galeries Lafayette. The man's face in the below picture on the right is apparently how all Parisians felt about the space theme for this year's Christmas decorations. It was not well received.

You stop for coffee a lot. Nathan is asking, "I believe I ordered the LARGE cappuccino." Large by American standards. GIGANTIC by Parisian ones."

We ate at famed La Coupole. Don't order a seafood tower without knowing what's on it. It's like my husband knew we made a colossal ordering mistake. Seeing friends made up for it!

As I’m selecting photos to post, I’m disappointed to find I did not take one single photo from our trips to the Christmas markets. Three-sided white tents line sidewalks in neighborhoods across the city, and sell everything from gifts, special cooking oils, souvenirs, ornaments and hot red wine. Yes, it is more delicious than it sounds.

I did snap this photo of my husband, cold and annoyed, waiting on me to take pictures after we shopped at our second Christmas market that day.

Don't let this face fool you though; we'd both do it again, quicker than you can say "joyeux Noël."

Go to Paris at Christmas. Bundle up. Fight the crowds. Trust me, it will be worth it.

Until I post again...à bientôt!