Christmas Markets - Part 2 - Munich, Paris, & Bonn

The weekend after our trip to Strasbourg we flew to Munich for the weekend to check out the Christmas markets and celebrations there. And we thought it was cold in Strasbourg. The temperatures in Munich were another 5-6 degrees Celsius colder (high teens, low twenties in Fahrenheit). With the colder weather, no friends to join us, and having done a similar trip the previous weekend, none of us were as enthused about our trip to Munich. Lessons learned.

The highlight, though, was going ice skating at a holiday rink in one of the squares. Paige, Clay, and I really enjoyed ourselves and skated for an hour or so. It's funny how the cold temperatures aren't as noticeable when you are skating.

This past weekend we tried to go ice skating in Paris at the Grand Palais. Upon arriving, however, we found a two hour wait for skate rentals so we decided to pass. Instead we walked through the market along the Champs-Élysées, one of about a dozen Christmas markets in Paris. There we enjoyed some fresh churros (not exactly a French tradition) and hot chocolate and then walked to the Ferris wheel they have temporarily in place at the Place de la Concorde.

On Wednesday, I had a business meeting in Bonn, Germany so took the high-speed train there for the day. On my way back to the train station the taxi drove by a square that looked to have a lively Christmas market. It happened to be a couple minute walk from the station so I decided to walk back there to take a look instead of catching the next train back to Cologne to get my connection to Paris. I'm glad I did. I was able to pick up a traditional German Christmas pyramid. I'd admired these on previous trips to Germany and found one that I really liked. With the next train coming soon, I quickly purchased it and hustled back to the station with a minute or two to spare. I hope it brings a lot of enjoyment and good memories of our European Christmas market visits for years to come.

You'll frequently see large versions of Christmas pyramids at German  Christmas markets

German Christmas Pyramid
(with Santa, kids, pets, and presents spinning around the Christmas tree)

Christmas Markets - Part 1 - Strasbourg

On a couple of my European business trips the last few years I've had the opportunity to see some of the Christmas markets in Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. So, I was looking forward this year to exploring the Christmas markets in France and sharing the experience with Erin, Paige, and Clay.

A few weekends ago we made an overnight trip to Strasbourg, in eastern France. Strasbourg presents an interesting intersection of French and German culture as it sits very close to the border between the two countries and has been part of each country at various times throughout its history.

We took the high-speed TGV train to Strasbourg, getting us there in two hours and fifteen minutes. Screens on the train showed the speed as it progressed and the highest I saw was 313 km/hr -- 194 mph! It was dark out so it was hard to see how fast we were going but you could definitely feel it. The slight shuddering of the train was a bit disconcerting. It felt like it was going to fly off the tracks or bust into pieces.

We were joined on the trip by our friends Andrew, Nima, Safianna, and Cyrus. Andrew and Nima are here in Paris for a year on sabbatical from their university in Toronto. Safianna is one of Paige's best friends and Cyrus is a friend of Clay's.

We saw right away why they call Strasbourg the "Capital of Christmas". The city was full of lights, decorations, and many, many individual markets. The Christmas market around the cathedral has been in existence since 1570!

We also saw that Strasbourg is a huge draw for visitors like us. It felt like the entirety of France was in town. Moving around some of the markets was almost impossible. The other challenge with the trip were the sub-freezing temperatures. With the streets crowded and the weather very cold, it was difficult to keep the kids enthused about browsing the city. Fortunately we enjoyed a couple of nice meals in charming restaurants to warm us all up.

While I wouldn't describe it as warm, a visit to the Strasbourg Cathedral provided another break from the cold. The cathedral is an amazing structure, completed in the 1400s, that was actually the world's tallest building for over 200 years from 1647 to 1874. Inside we found an intricate astronomical clock, which was of great interest to all of us -- and the hordes of visitors too.

Astronomical clock

Just to comment on the food...we usually strive to try a traditional meal/drink in the towns we visit.  For Strasbourg, traditional dinners include coq au vin (rooster with wine) or coq au Reisling and the Baeckheoffe, choucroute, white wines, spice bread, kugelhopf pastry and other pastries.  TheBaeckheoffe dish refers to when women would gather up leftover meat from the week to put in a casserole dish with potatoes.  They would drop it off at the baker's oven to cook during the 3 hour mass.  Then, on their way home from church they picked up the dish and voila dinner is served.  All of these foods were fabulous! 

Christmas concerts

An enjoyable part of the holiday season for us has been attending a couple of concerts. The first was recommended to us by the French family we met at our Thanksgiving dinner at the American Church in Paris. This concert, at the church, featured three choirs that sang a variety of carols, Christmas classics, and other holiday songs, first as individual choirs and then as a collective group.

It was fun to both hear the singing of the French carols as well as hear the distinctive French accents as they sang the English-language songs ("Leyt eet snow, leyt eet snow, leyt eet snow"). The concert wrapped up with the audience singing a number of carols. We finished with "Silent Night", in both English and French. There is something wonderful to me about hearing a familiar Christmas carol sung in another language. It sounds so beautiful and shows the common heritage and traditions we share. (I also had the pleasure this past week of hearing "O Tannenbaum" sung in Bonn, Germany, not as a performance but by a group of people meeting for a private Christmas celebration.)

Here is a recording I did of "Silent Night". If you listen closely, you can hear the French accent in the English verses. I hope you also enjoy the French verse. I love listening to it. (Be patient, it might take a little while to download and hopefully you have the right software on your computer for it to play properly.)

Silent night, Holy night, all is calm, all is bright, Round yon virgin mother and child! Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Douce nuit, sainte nuit, dans les cieux l'astre luit. Le mystère annoncé s'accomplit. Cet enfant sur la paille endormi, c'est l'amour infini, c'est l'amour infini.

Silent night, Holy night, Son of God, love's pure light, Radiant beams from heaven afar; Heavenly hosts sing alleluia, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.  

The other concert Erin and I attended recently was a performance of Monteverdi's "Vespers of 1610" at the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. This late Renaissance/early Baroque piece has been one of my favorites so it was a pleasure to be able to hear it in person in the magnificent Notre Dame. We were also intrigued by some of the period instruments that were used in the performance -- such interesting shapes to them. Makes me wonder when and why those instruments died out.

Night photography class

I mentioned previously that I took a drawing class through WICE. Erin and I have also taken a couple of wine classes (which have been fantastic!) and, for Erin, cooking classes.

This past Tuesday night I took a one-time night photography class that focused on holiday decorations while working through the challenges associated with photography at night and in low-light situations.

Our class of eight students met at Galleries Lafayette, a huge department store not too far away in the 9th arrondissement. Our instructor, Meredith Mullins, spent about half an hour giving us some pointers -- I really learned a lot about some of the controls on my camera -- then we went out to capture some shots.

We started inside the store, with photos of the cupola and Christmas tree. Then we went outside and took photos of the large holiday window decorations at Galleries Lafayette and the other massive department store next door, Printemps. I shot until my hands were numb in the cold winter air then joined the rest of the group for a quick metro ride over to the Champs-Élysées and some more photos there.

After about 200 photos in all and a collection of very numb fingers, I called it a night. The others did the same and we met up at a nearby cafe for some soupe à l'oignon and wine to warm us up. It was a fun, diverse group of expats and we had a great conversation.

Here are a few photos from the evening.

 

Photo courtesy Meredith Mullins

Getting a French visa -- Part 2

To complete the French immigration process, you need to check in with the authorities within three months of your arrival in France. As this wasn't something that we were particularly looking forward to, for the first couple of months we procrastinated.

Finally, in about mid-October (with a month to go until the deadline), I pulled out the instructions and dug into the details. I was a bit concerned to see that they strongly advise you to mail in some required paperwork immediately after arriving in France as the process can take a considerable amount of time. What was particularly concerning, with my frequent business travel, was a statement that alluded to potential challenges in getting back into the country if the process wasn't completed within the required three months.

That got me moving. I sent in the paperwork and awaited a response. Fortunately the response did come relatively quickly and it was fairly clear. Erin and I were to show up at a government office at 9AM on December 5th for a medical exam, x-rays, and to complete the immigration process.

When the day came earlier this week, we brought our passports, more paperwork, and hopes that we'd be able to figure out what we needed to do.

We started off in a long line ending in a desk with a woman working through paperwork. Of course when we got in the line we had no idea whether it was the correct one. When we got to the front the process went smoothly although we weren't clear on exactly what she was saying about our enfants although I wasn't too worried as I did catch something about "18 years". If we didn't have to do something for 18 years or until they were 18 years old, that was fine with me.

We were then directed to a seating area where we awaited our names being called. Upon sitting down a British woman that was helping a French executive and his American or British wife through the process turned to us and explained the comment about the kids. Since they were under 18 they didn't need the carte de séjour (residency permit) that we would be getting.

Our names were then called and we proceeded with a group of about eight people to another room to await the medical exam. As we waited, I studied the process. The young woman with the long jacket would get her name called, go to the first room, proceed to the second room, come back and sit down, get called by a doctor to the exam room, exit the exam room, go to the front desk, leave the room. The young man with the gray jacket would get his name called, go to the first room, etc. This is what life in a foreign country is all about. You don't understand the process and can't really speak the language so you have to observe patterns and do your best to mimic them.

Sure enough, eventually our names were called and we proceeded to the first room for an eye exam. After that, three of us went to individual rooms where we stripped from the waist up (easier for me than Erin) then awaited a technician that brought us -- one at a time -- into another room for a chest x-ray. After that we got dressed and went back to the second waiting room.

Next, a physician grabbed our x-ray, called our name, and we followed him into an office to discuss our health. Fortunately, both Erin and I had great guys. They were both very friendly and spoke English well. Erin mentioned that she was a doctor and had a conversation about the process and government. It turns out they are primarily looking for TB, cholera, and plague.

After our visits with the physicians we returned to the first waiting room and waited for our names to be called. There we chatted with another American couple -- she grew up in Kirkland -- and enjoyed the anticipation of almost being done with the process. Sure enough, our names were called, we handed over our passports, the woman put in a sticker, and we were on our way. The immigration process, fortunately, is done and we can legally reside in France for a year.

Getting a French visa -- Part 1

When you arrive in France and go through customs, your passport stamp gives you three months in which you can stay in the country. Should you, like us, wish to stay longer, you either need to exit the country and re-enter (and hope you don't get caught), just stay as an illegal alien (and really hope you don't get caught), or get a French visa allowing a longer (typically one year) stay.

After some debate about the requirements and options and whether I should instead establish my Dutch citizenship, we decided to apply for one-year French visitor's visas.

The first step in the process was to gather all of the information required to apply -- fill out an application (of course, in French) for all four of us, have passport photos taken of each of us, write letters promising not to work in France, get letters from our US employers, show proof of income and medical insurance, gather marriage certificates and birth certificates, show proof of accommodation and details associated with your flight into France, etc.

We then did an overnight trip to San Francisco in mid-June to visit the French embassy. All four of us went and we brought the pile of paperwork -- with originals and copies of every document --to the appointment. For some reason I pictured we'd be sitting in a room discussing our plans with a French bureaucrat sitting behind a desk. What we found instead was like a visit to the DMV or post office. There was a counter with three officials that would call out your name and you would very publicly go up and present your documents.

The mood in the room was tense and got much worse when the young woman ahead of us started arguing with an official. She wanted to stay in France for six months until her marriage there in December and that was a problem for some reason. In response to the official's "no, it cannot be done", she kept repeating that she "read it on the Internet". That didn't get very far with him. Finally, after raised voices and much debate, he asked whether she spoke French. She responded with a hopeful but unconvincing "Oui". That raised my blood pressure about 30 points as I awaited our turn.

When our name was called I brought up our pile of paper and the official asked me for "the application". I started to hand over the entire stack -- assuming it comprised the full application he was referring to -- and he responded very sternly that he wanted "only the application form". My blood pressure went up further.

After that, however, we got into a good rhythm. He would ask for a specific piece of paperwork and I would silently hand it over. After about 20 minutes of that and some photos and fingerprints, we were done for the day. Surprisingly, our passports showed up in the mail in a few days with the French visas. We had what we needed to get into France for an extended stay. But, we weren't done yet. More in Part 2.

La merde

I was first introduced to la merde de Paris in Stephen Clark's novel A Year in the Merde. The book, about a British expat adjusting to life in Paris, jokes about the challenges of avoiding the doo-doo left behind by the Parisians' beloved foo-foo's, fi-fi's, and other four-legged friends.

Coming to Paris I quickly realized he wasn't exaggerating. It is everywhere. Trying to understand why it isn't picked up is like trying to understand why the French smoke.

Fortunately, in my first sixteen weeks here, I managed to completely avoid la merde. But then, last night, on a long walk home after giving up on a metro that wouldn't arrive, I not only stepped in some, but I did it twice within 10 minutes. The only saving grace was that on this power walk, I managed to stay upright on both occasions when one foot went unexpectedly sliding out as if on ice.

I hope the two hits isn't the start of a new, foul trend for me. I'd much rather go another sixteen weeks -- or, even better, 36 weeks -- until I encounter it again.

Side note: I've often wondered what the French think of the book title and cover. Evidently, though, the book is titled "God Save la France" here.

Me

My best friends are named Aubrey, Saffiana, Charlotte, and Francesca. Some others are Felix, Joseph, Mayuko, Sonia, and Katya. My favorite classes in school are show-choir, English, and French history (all in English). My French teacher is Madame Croisy (cwosy) and my English ones are Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Thenot (teno). It is cool to look at the Eiffel tower on the platform but I still miss America.


                                  Written by Paige

Night walks

One of the pleasures of living in Paris is going for walks. Whether it is with a destination in mind, to view the sights, or to just wander and soak in the atmosphere, I love walking around the city.

Walking at night is a particular pleasure. On typical evenings, Monday through Thursday, I'm on the phone for work for three or four hours. When the calls wrap up around 10PM or so, it feels so great to get out for a walk.

Since we are a 10-15 minute walk to the Arc de Triomphe, I'll often start in that direction before heading down the Champs-Élysées or another of the twelve avenues originating at the Place Charles de Gaulle and Arc de Triomphe. There, at an underground vent situated between Avenue de Wagram and Avenue Hoche, I can always count on seeing my friend "Ratatouille" and a buddy or two of his scurrying around.

Occasionally one or both of the kids will join me on their scooters ("trotinettes"). Recently Clay and I went for a long walk towards Les Grands Magasins, the huge department stores on Boulevard Haussmann with their fabulous Christmas decorations and lights, and then on to Palais Garnier. Along the way we saw a whole host of interesting things that Clay was anxious to share with Erin and Paige upon arrival back home -- the Boy Scout troop returning from camping, the Christmas decorations, the world's most ornate McDonalds, Hotel Bellevue, and the marching band playing on the steps of the Palais Garnier.

Thanksgiving

It is hard to beat Thanksgiving in the States. A day off from work spent with family eating the same wonderful food you eat every Thanksgiving followed by some football on TV and then three more days off while kicking off the holiday season. Can't get much better than that.

So, we had much lower expectations for Thanksgiving this year. We knew the kids would be in school and that I'd be working and we questioned whether we'd be able to find a traditional dinner.

As it turned out, we had a wonderful time.

After school was out on Thanksgiving Day, we grabbed the three fantastic desserts that Erin spent the day making and jumped in a taxi (a very rare occasion for us) to head over to our friends David and Christina's apartment. We were joined there by their family and another family from our school.

While the seven kids entertained each other (and were entertained by a movie), the grown-ups had a great time. We enjoyed appetizers with a French flair, a non-traditional but very delicious main course, a surprisingly enjoyable -- and very French -- cheese course, then Erin's excellent desserts. Throw in copious amounts of wine and good friends and we had a recipe for a very fun Thanksgiving evening.

Two nights later, the four of us concluded our Thanksgiving festivities with a traditional dinner hosted by the American Church in Paris. There they served about 150 people for a dinner that included all of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes -- turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We were seated at a table with, surprisingly, a French family and we enjoyed visiting with them.

One of the interesting parts of the dinner at the American Church in Paris was the reading of President Obama's Thanksgiving Proclamation. The proclamation included the following:

I encourage the people of the United States to join together -- whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors -- and give thanks for all we have received in the past year, express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and share our bounty with others.

As we sat in that church hall, with a mix of Americans, other expats, and locals, living out an amazing opportunity in an amazing city and meeting a whole host of new friends, that statement really resonated with me. We do have a lot to be thankful for and I can add the experience of Thanksgiving in Paris to that list.

Venice

Venice is a city unlike any other.  The train dropped us off in front of the Grand Canal, giving us a beautiful welcome to the city.  The sun was shining. Although Paige had been reluctant to keep traveling after Lucca, she said, "this is awesome!".  Clay agreed but said it was, "a bit too lakey".  Venice would make a good Richard Scarry book.  There is a boat for everything--police, ambulance transport, transporting goods, mail delivery, garbage collection, cement delivery, crane and bulldozer work, and taxi's all have a boat.  We were even ferried ninety minutes to the airport by boat. 

Venice is not for the weak as there are 400 bridges in this romantic city.  One time we counted 9 small bridges that we had to ascend and descend to walk a short distance. All the narrow canals and bridges give the city a picturesque feeling.  Normally you may see one main canal in a town but here it was amazing to see tons and tons of lovely narrow canals providing many photographic opportunities.  My brother Clark would have gone crazy taking pictures. 

In Venice we enjoyed learning about the Italian renaissance painters (even Paige took some notes), seeing St. Mark's byzantine basilica with its ceiling made of tiny squares of mosaic tiles, and enjoying the local fish and pasta dishes (we were a bit too leary to try the black squid though).  We were thrilled to see our favorite ice cream place -- Venchi.  We also tried Venice's signature drink, the Bellini made of peach juice and champagne.

Paige wanted to make sure we told about our pigeon called "Pidgey".  Duane saw a gull harassing a pigeon and a little later noticed a pigeon sitting right under him (between his feet) as we stood in the middle of St. Mark's Square watching people. The pigeon hung out there for a while so we figured there was something wrong with it. It looked like it had an injured or broken leg. Not wanting to just leave it there, Duane picked it up, placed it in a bag we had (without any objection from the pigeon), and walked 10 minutes to a quieter square. We dropped it off there with some other pigeons. We hope he made it.

You can envision how this city was bustling with boat traffic and trade in years past and what a grand city it must have been.  Now much of it needs a fresh coat of paint and repair.  Let's hope they can figure out a way to keep it from water destruction.  Couldn't believe that a few days after we left the main square was flooded and tourists were swimming and wading to get to their destination walking with luggage above their head.

First glimpse of Venice

Lots of photo opportunities!

"Pidgey"

Rialto Bridge