Joyeux Noel!

Just when you thought I had nothing left to say about France, I come back with a list of thigns to say. First, France is the country of Christmas. Seriously. More lights in Paris than in New York. Sadly, I suck and never take photos, but there are many examples. For example, there is a Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame. It was beautiful and all lit up and made the cathedral about 10 times better. Gorgeous. My dear friend Liz sent me this link and I think France beats most other countries. Prends-toi un regard: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2008/dec/25/art-christmas-tree-lights-festive?picture=340829464

I was also fortunate enough to have a gorgeous, pine-smelling, beautiful real "arbre de noel" chez moi, à la française. The only thing was, they don't really decorate them right away, which made me sad because I love ornaments and seeing how different families decorate their trees. I also don't know if I've ever mentioned just how much food the French eat on Christmas. It must be the only freaking time they eat anything. Seriously. They make a huge turkey, much like ours for Thanksgiving, and stuff it with this delicious meat stuffing and serve it with veggies, but all of this AFTER they have already eaten oysters and several other small seafood items. Follow all that with cheese and salad and a huge buche de noel or whatever that cake was ( I didn't like it so much), and you have Thanksgiving. On Christmas. (read here for more French traditions: http://french.about.com/cs/culture/a/christmas.htm).

When I said goodbye to Madame de Ribier, i gave her a box of chocolates to say thank you, as a dual thank you-christmas gift. We both got a little teary eyed. I love that woman and I am going to miss her so much.

Merry Christmas to all.