So We are Moving to Paris: Looking for Christmas

I've been scouring the internet the last few days looking for Christmasy things to do around Paris. While all the neighborhoods in and near the city are decked out in all their noël finery, I still wasn't getting the full force of the season's spirit like I usually did back in the states. I have come to the conclusion that what Paris is missing are my dear family and friends. This time of year has always been a time where I would head back to Pennsylvania, hang out with the family, including my super cool and energetic niece and nephew, and visit with friends that I've known since grade school. My husband and I would also organize a dinner of two with friends in DC before everyone headed back to our respective parts of the US. We send our Christmas greetings to them all, and thank whoever invented the internet, video skpe, and factime. It makes living across an ocean seem a little less far.

A Blue Christmas, just like Elvis sang it.

Since most of the few people we do know in France are off visiting their families, I am enjoying the holidays here with my little family - hubby and the two beagles. We bought a little Christmas tree at the market. We even found some Christmas lights at the Castorama (DIY store). We still sometimes look at pictures on the package instead of reading the french words, so the lights turned out to be blue and blinking instead of what we assumed (white and constant). Lesson learned- words are important even if they are french. We went back to the store to buy a proper set of lights to keep with tradition. In addition to the tree, we've made Christmas cookies, and checked out the Christmas markets around town. We have also been trying to do touristy things this week. Today we went back to Versailles. It turned out to be only a 15 minute drive from our apartment, which gives us another reason to like our town.

Chateau Versailles

Versailles is not just the famous royal chateau and garden, but it's also a fairly big town. It has a sizeable market, one that is at least five times bigger than ours here in Garches. Looks to be a little less expensive too (Thomas is convinced that the prices in our market are marked up because people in the town are rich). We wandered around the market, through town, and eventually ended up in Versailles' garden which is free to the public.

The weather was cloudy and being winter there was not too much diversity of color, but that just made the formalness of the gardens much more striking. By formalness, I mean sculpted shrubs and statues. The Versailles palace is grand. It is definitely a place to visit at least once. The formal gardens are as beautiful as they are expansive. It is quite possible to find some quite corners despite the thousands of tourists crowding the main palace. The gardens are definitely a place to visit over and over again.