When my former self imagined Christmas in
Paris she foresaw lots of snow and pictured her singing Christmas carols in
fluent French around an elaborately decorated tree.
Turns out the weather in Paris in December has
been uncharacteristically warm (around 11 degrees Celsius), Christmas
decorations are considered a “luxury” when you’re on a budget and successfully
learning a new language in four weeks is near impossible, although alcohol does
help.
While my jovial illusions may have been dashed
like Santa’s chief reindeer, the reality was better. Our festive season in the
city of lights was filled to the brim with good food, good wine and excellent
company.
Champs-Elysées
Christmas Market
To get ourselves into the festive spirit we
enjoyed strolling through the Christmas markets that run up and down Avenue des
Champs-Élysées. The famous avenue was lined with chalets selling trinkets and
regional produce varying from mulled wine and foie gras to nutella crepes and
roasted chestnuts. The street was ablaze with red, white and blue lights,
shining all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe, which was illuminated
majestically for all to enjoy.
Christmas
Eve
As in all of Europe, Christmas Eve is the
big night in Paris. It’s tradition to enjoy your Christmas dinner and stay up
to open your presents at midnight.
Staying true to our adopted European
nationalities, we ventured to a small brassiere near the Eifel Tower (we could
see the illuminated tip) and dined on oysters, foie gras, fillet of beef,
chicken with roasted winter vegetables and their specialty, slow cooked pigeon.
All washed down with a glass (or bottle) of Moet.
For the more traditional, the archbishop of
Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, officiates midnight mass at Notre Dame. We
would have liked to go but didn’t quite make it. Our intentions were good, but
the food and flowing champagne was better.
Christmas
Day
Christmas day in Paris is ordinarily more
of a casual affair. But for us, the celebration continued. What felt like
rolling from one rich meal to the next, we spent Christmas day at the ParkHyatt Paris Vendome.
Being Australian we were on a mission to
find only one thing: fresh prawns.
Consider them found.
With one gentle clink of our glasses our
Christmas feast was underway, again.
BRUNCH DE NOËL - December 25th,
2012
A glass of Roederer Brut Premier
Fresh bakery selection
Special oysters, King crab &
prawns, sourdough bread, seaweed butter
Foie gras & fillet of
duckling
Saint-Jacques Phocéenne style
scallops
or
Thin milk fed veal escalopes Florentine-style with black truffle
Assortment of cheese & dairy
products
Selection of Christmas desserts
135€
Xxx
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