Christmas Markets

Today is a holiday in France (Armistice de 1918) so I am using the time to sit at home and research Christmas markets on the internet. I suppose, if I must be away from home during the Christmas season, Europe is the second best place to be. There are hundreds of Christmas markets all over the continent. Hot, mulled wine, warm gingerbread, and all sorts of holiday decorations and gifts are the signature specialties of these many petite winter wonderlands. The booths will be in the shape of minature chalets and they open during the first weekend of advent, which just so happens to be on Thanksgiving this year. I am trying to get to Munich the first market weekend - it is supposed to be one of the best and most beautiful of markets (pictured at left). If we can get there by Friday evening, the first night of the market, we will be just in time to see the lighting of the enormous tree at the center of the square. There are other markets that are also spectacular, but they are farther away and harder to get to. At least the fact that I can't make it to all of them gives me a reason to come back to Europe one Christmas!

Paris has six markets of its own (Place Saint-Sulpice market pictured at left) and I will be there for sure the weekend before Christmas, and maybe an additional weekend at the beginning of December. Marjerie is coming home to Angers for Christmas so she said I can stay at her apartment for free(!) from the 18th-22nd of December. That way I will be right there in Paris to catch my plane home, in the morning on the 22nd. I am so very excited to see the city of lights all decked out for Christmas; I can't wait to go to the French markets and buy gifts and ornaments for everyone back home! It will be nice if some other assistants are in Paris that weekend as well, to share all the fun and excitement with me. But even if I end up in Paris by myself I know I will have a marvelous time shopping and walking and seeing everything I can squeeze into two or three days time.