Paris in the snow

When you only have a year in a place, you are really motivated to see and do as much as you can. Erin, for example, has become famous, among her various groups of friends here, for how many different things we've done and places we've visited.

One of the things I was really hoping to see this year was Paris covered with snow. I've probably romanticized this scene for years, starting with our fondness, twenty years ago, for Michel Delacroix's paintings of Paris, many of which portrayed winter scenes.

But would Mother Nature cooperate? Through much of December and January I waited and wondered. It was often cold enough but we couldn't get the right combination of temperature and precipitation.

Then, last week, it really snowed. We got 2-3 inches over the course of a few days. The kids had snowball fights and made a snowman. We took long walks and snapped a lot of photos. The nearby park was alive with people and we, like many others, broke the rules and played in areas we weren't supposed to enter. (Evidently last year when it snowed, the authorities thought it would be a good idea to close the park. This year, they just roped off most of it.)

Kids in the middle of a snowball fight

Chamonix

For a few days after New Year's we traveled to Chamonix, in the French Alps, for some snow, skiing, and, as it turned out, sunshine.

Chamonix is known for hosting the very first Winter Olympic Games (in 1924) and sits in a valley surrounded by mountain peaks where France, Switzerland, and Italy come together. There are close to ten ski areas across the three countries that can be skiied with a single lift ticket. I wasn't that ambitious so we stuck to the Grand-Montets area where the kids each had lessons for a couple of days.

After a flight to Geneva and a shuttle to Chamonix, we arrived at the quaint Hotel L'Arveyron, just outside the town. The hotel had been recommended by some German friends we met in August in Salzburg on the Sound of Music Bus Tour (we each refer to the other family as "The Sound of Music Family", a designation I definitely never imagined myself having -- I imagine they feel the exact same way -- and probably more so).

As it turned out these friends -- Barbara, Jan, and their four lovely kids -- booked two weeks there for Christmas and our stays overlapped by a couple of days. So we arrived at the hotel, quickly settled into our room and freshened up, and then joined them and some friends of theirs in the hotel dining room.

We were treated there, as a prelude to dinner, by a number of songs, with their children leading the way, playing a variety of musical instruments. Much to everyone's delight -- and nobody's surprise -- we quickly got to a few Sound of Music classics.

After the singing, we sat down to a very nice dinner, with the six adults at one table and the nine kids at another. It was a great start to the trip.

Over the next couple of days the kids took ski lessons, Erin & I hiked some snowy trails near the ski area, I spent a day skiing with Paige, and as a family we hiked from our hotel into the town of Chamonix. Along the way we ate too much fondue and enjoyed the rich, hearty meals of the Haute-Savoie.

With only a few days in Chamonix, we didn't have nearly enough time to do everything we wanted, missing out on ice skating, cross-country skiing, exploring other ski areas, and visiting the summit of Aiguille du Midi. So, we are planning another trip back before the end of winter.

On our last night there, after walking 20-30 minutes into town for dinner, it was too cold and too dark for us to walk back. Taxis were nowhere to be found and the bus service in our direction had ended. As we walked around searching for a taxi, I saw a person getting out of a van at a hotel. I then, in French, asked the driver if he was a taxi and if he could take us to our hotel. He could so we all hopped in. On the way to the hotel he described how he lived in Lyon so had he an over two hour drive ahead of him that night. When we arrived at our hotel, I asked how much I owed him and he responded "Nothing" and said that he was just happy to help us and the kids. What a thoughtful act of kindness.

Our friend Barbara (from "The Sound of Music Family") and her son

Walking into Chamonix for dinner

Our hotel

Nice view from lunch spot

Grand-Montets ski area

Enjoying the sunshine

London

The day after Christmas, which is Boxing Day in the UK, we traveled to London to spend a few days there. We were joined on the Eurostar high-speed train between Paris and London by what seemed to be half the population of both countries. Boxing Day is evidently a popular day to travel. We showed up at Gare du Nord in Paris about an hour before our train -- normally 15 minutes is plenty -- and we still missed the train by 30 minutes. In fact, we almost missed the next train. But after a bit of stress and a bunch of scrambling, we finally were able to sit down for the relaxing two hour fifteen minute journey.

I had always been curious about the experience of crossing under the English Channel -- via the Chunnel -- on the train. That too we missed. With the train departing in the evening and traveling through mostly low population areas of France, the whole trip was dark and nothing really stood out about going through the Chunnel. That was a bit of a disappointment.

We stayed in Wimbledon, a suburb of London, at the home of our friends Kathy & Mike. Their son, Gavin, went to Kindergarten with Clay last year in Kirkland. Like us, they packed up their family and moved to Europe this past summer. Unlike us, they packed up pets and everything else, have rented a house (not an apartment), and plan to stay for at least a few years. Clay had been talking for months about seeing Gavin so he was very happy to see his friend. Paige holed up in her room to avoid Gavin's little sisters and Erin & I enjoyed visiting with Kathy & Mike. We also enjoyed being in a house again.

Our couple of days there were spent exploring the tip of the iceberg that is London. The first day we wandered through the Tate Modern where the kids saw a couple of paintings and artists that they recognized and were intrigued enough by the modern art to survive an hour or so. Then we saw the exteriors of the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey but didn't have enough time to go inside like we had wanted.

The second day we had fun visiting the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park where we enjoyed bratwursts, Dutch poffertjes (a real treat; soaked in butter and smothered with powdered sugar), and a fabulous homemade blueberry liqueur (a subsequent business trip to London had me squeezing in a side-trip between trains to go buy a bottle).

We then went to the Natural History Museum to check out their fabulous dinosaur exhibit, featuring a number of amazing full skeletons. Finally, we did a quick run-through of Harrods to finish up a busy day.

In typical fashion, we traveled around the city and from our base in Wimbledon using a combination of trains, subways, double-decker buses, and the famous London black cabs. The double-decker buses were by far our favorite, offering a great view from the top as we traveled from place to place.

The metro offered a surprise. While I was working on getting tickets, Erin and the kids ran into a family from Bellevue that lived three houses down from us. They were in London for the holidays and on a tour so they could just briefly stop and say hello. Small world.

On our last day, after saying thanks and good-bye to Kathy, Mike, and family, we had lunch at a traditional pub and then spent half an hour in the National Gallery. A benefit of many museums in London not having entry fees is that you can quickly pop in and out without feeling bad about paying $30 or $40 (or more) for a short visit. We couldn't see much in the short time we had but the kids enjoyed seeing some paintings by Monet and then discussing the vivid painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, depicting the sixteen year-old queen's last moments.

We then hustled back to St. Pancras International Station to catch the Eurostar back to Paris. On the return journey, I paid careful attention to when we might be in the Chunnel and this time barely recognized it.

A batch of poffertjes cooking

Christmas

Like Thanksgiving, I came into Christmas a little worried about homesickness and regret from not being able to share the holidays with our parents, brothers, their families, my extended family, and our friends.

The weeks leading up to Christmas felt very similar to back home. We got a tree in early December and while six or seven feet shorter than normal and missing all of our usual decorations, we put on a few lights, a handful of ornaments, and a home-made angel for the top and it looked pretty good.

All month we had the same holiday music as always playing in the background. And we added some new decorations to our collection -- some German "smokers" and nutcrackers, a Santa, the Christmas pyramid, and a few other things.

On Christmas Eve, the four of us sat down to a wonderful meal that Erin prepared, including our traditional Green Jello Salad (don't laugh until you try it!) and a beef recipe that she learned at one of the cooking classes she attended. Afterwards we made our way to the American Church in Paris for a carol-filled candlelight service.

Later, after opening a couple of gifts, getting the kids off to bed, and doing some last-minute wrapping, we settled into bed a bit after midnight.

Like an explosion, our door was opened by excited kids at about 6:30 on Christmas morning. In a state of semi-consciousness I told them to go open their stockings -- something they are always allowed to do before we all get up and open packages -- and they replied that they already had. They were ready to move on to the main event!

Erin and I slowly -- painfully to the little ones -- got moving and made our way out to the living room. There, over the course of the next hour or so, we opened gifts and felt very much at home.

The rest of the day was really a delight. The four of us hung out together, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, and we enjoyed a very quiet, relaxed day. In the afternoon we used Facetime to exchange Christmas wishes with our family back in the States. We played games, built Legos, and checked out our gifts.

In the evening I went down to the very center of Paris -- the Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis -- and walked around a bit. The city was the quietest I had ever seen it. A few people were out, a few were in restaurants, but that was it. I walked to the Hôtel de Ville and watched a group of people playing a very fast game of tag on ice skates on the rink there. That was the most action I saw in the normally buzzing city. I then made my way home through quiet streets, kissed the kids good-night, and went to bed.

In the end, while I missed spending the day with family in the States, we had a really nice day together that didn't require jumping in a car or rushing off somewhere. (Before we had kids, there were many Christmas Days where we would spend four hours or more in the car, driving over 200 miles to two or three events. It was always a lot of fun and I always loved it, but it did make for a long, tiring day.)

I've come to realize that there are two elements to the pleasure of this experience. There is first the pleasure of being here, of experiencing different things in different ways. But there will also be the pleasure in returning. In getting back to the things that we've missed and gaining a new appreciation for them after a year away. I have a long list of those things and Christmas is definitely on it. This Christmas wasn't filled with regret, as I had feared it might be. It was really nice. But I also know that we will really enjoy getting back to our usual Christmas routines when we return.

Our tree; notice the clever stand -- it worked well but the tree was incredibly dry after four weeks 

Each of the kids opened a gift on Christmas Eve

Clay and his pile of gifts -- I had very full suitcases on my trip back from Seattle in December

Clay thanking Paige for the football (soccer ball) she got him for Christmas