Last Christmas Post (Maybe)

I know, Christmas was forever ago, but I have two more things to report on.

First, Christmas trees in Paris are not held in special Christmas tree stands, but rather attach to split logs, which makes the ensemble seem so much more organic:

Those logs must be pretty heavy to keep the tree from falling over, but I guess the base is pretty broad, and that helps.

Notice that this tree had not been deposited in one of the designated areas in one of Paris' parks, as reported on last week.

Second, you may remember hearing tell of a magical Christmas Eve experience involving me, Maggie, Joy, and Jake visiting the local église (church) to hear a pre-Mass concert. After the many unfamiliar French Christmas songs we heard that night, we enjoyed the comforting music and disconcerting lyrics of "Douce Nuit," the French version of "Silent Night." For your Francophone enjoyment, here are the perfectly-scanning lyrics to "Douce Nuit," courtesy of the handout from that Christmas Eve concert:

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!

Saint enfant, doux agneau! Qu'il est grand! Qu'il est beau!
Entendez résonner les pipeaux, des bergers conduisant leurs troupeaux,
Vers son humble berceau! Vers son humble berceau!

C'est vers nous qu'il accourt en un don sans retour!
De ce monde ignorant de l'amour où commence aujourd'hui son séjour,
Qu'il soit Roi pour toujours! Qu'il soit Roi pour toujours!

Paix à tous! Gloire au ciel! Gloire au sein maternel,
Qui, pour nous en ce jour de Noël, enfanta le Sauveur éternel,
Qu'attendait Israël! Qu'attendait Israël!

The Christmas Tree Circle of Life

In the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, right at the entrance closest to our apartment, the City of Paris has set up a Christmas tree recycling point. It's one of the first indications that Christmas has actually come and gone, since elsewhere in the city all the decorations are still up, Christmas music is still being played, and the Christmas markets are still operational.

Recycling spot for pines.

Deposit your Christmas tree here in preparation for its recycling.

Trees accepted only: without decoration, natural (without paint or flock printing), 

not enclosed in a bag, with or without roots

A second life for your tree!

In the small print, it describes how the trees deposited at this site will be mulched and spread around the grounds of the park by its gardeners, providing much-needed nutrients to the soil. Hooray for composting! Until next year, Christmas!

A Very Jewish Christmas

As far as tourists are concerned, Paris is mostly closed on Christmas day. Of the major sights, only the Eiffel Tower and the Centre Georges Pompidou remain open. Some corner cafés are open, but outside of Belleville, most shops and restaurants are closed. (As you might expect, all the Chinese restaurants on Rue de Belleville were open.) Luckily, one museum was not only open but also new to Maggie and me, so on Friday, we joined Jake and Joy for a stroll through the Museum of Jewish Art and History.

Located in a 17th-century mansion in the Marais, the building itself is very beautiful, and everything inside is polished and new. (Pictures are not allowed - this picture of the museum's courtyard was taken outside a security window. Notice that the left-side wall is a façade, as the building behind it is not part of this hôtel particulier (private mansion).) 

Audioguides were free, and there were lots of objets d'art and paintings to ogle, as well as texts to read. I enjoyed some of the maps showing how various waves of Jewish diasporic movement affected France, and the Dreyfus Affair was given a thorough treatment. On the other hand, I felt like the museum tried too hard to juggle explanations of Jewish rituals and theology, history and culture, past and present, and ended up unfocused and a little detached.

Part of the problem is that the museum's chronology only goes up to the Second World War - for the rest, Paris has a separate museum called Memorial to the Shoah (Holocaust). After having been to Jewish Museums in Prague and Berlin, it's unsatisfying to see Jewish history chopped up into pre- and during/post-Holocaust. The best thing to do probably would have been to go directly from the Museum of Jewish Art and History to the Memorial to the Shoah, but that wasn't in the cards.

What was in the cards after our museum visit was lunch. For that, we walked to the nearby Rue des Rosiers and sat down at Chez Marianne, one of many Israeli- and Yiddish-style restaurants on the street. (I vetoed straight-up falafel, as I've eaten too much recently.) We shared a sampler plate that included tarama, feta, Turkish salad, falafel, kefta, tuna salad, hummus, tabbouleh, tzaziki, and pastrami. With some white wine and pita, it was delish! And that concluded our Very Jewish Christmas, since that night, Maggie and I made carbonade, then we all went out to check out Christmas lights.

Our Very Jewish Christmas inspired me to think about Parisian Jewish geography (real geography, as opposed to the American social networking kind). All of the major monuments to Judaism and Jewish history are neatly located in or near the Marais, which traditionally includes the distinctive Jewish quarter of Paris. In the map below, this geographic logic is clear: the Museum of Jewish Art and History (top) and the Memorial to the Shoah (center) bookend the Rue des Rosiers, the epicenter of Jewish life in Paris (cluster), and the Memorial des Martyrs de la Déportation (bottom) isn't far away in a park behind Notre Dame.

One night in Paris

Alyssa and Michelle could only stay for one night in Paris, so even though they were very jet-lagged, Louis and I somehow managed to drag them out of bed after a brief mid-afternoon nap (well, Panda helped, too). We had made plans to meet up with Joy and Jake at Galeries Lafayette, one of the big department stores that we have visited twice before.

It was nice to get out of the cold, go inside, and see the grand Christmas decorations.

As we were walking around, Joy saw a dress she liked. It cost only 1400 euros, and even though we all thought she looked great in it, she decided not to buy it.

We passed through the "épicerie," which is really a giant gourmet supermarket, and marveled at the huge table whose multicolored spices filled the whole floor with delightful scents.

Back outside, we walked a block over to Printemps, another grand magasin (epic department store). They didn't have a central area with amazing decorations, but they did have a "Russian" theme going on. I especially loved the larger-than-life nesting dolls.

To give you a sense for just how big the store is . . .

Through careful study of this complex map, we figured out that the real highlight of Printemps is its rooftop deck, from which you can see the whole city in all its amazing shapes and colors . . .

La Madeleine, with la Grande Roue de Paris (Ferris wheel) just to the left

A Printemps turret bathed in red light, with the back of the Opéra visible to its left

Eventually we took 8 flights of escalators down from the roof to leave Printemps . . .

. . . and headed to dinner at Le Mesturet, another restaurant on Jesse's list that's very close to Louis' primary place of research. If Alyssa, Michelle, Jake, and Joy wanted to experience tasty traditional French cuisine at a reasonable price, they couldn't have done any better than Le Mesturet. Louis' three-course meal (just as an example) included:

Smoked-salmon-topped puff pastry, greens with fennel vinaigrette

Parmentier de canard - mashed potatoes over roasted duck, baked just a few minutes

Mi-cuit gâteau de chocolat (chocolate cake with a moist center), topped with cardamom ice cream

What a night!

Christmas Traditions

We're trying to assimilate, and most of the time we're trying through food. So we were more than happy to adopt the French Christmas tradition of the bûche de noël, a super delicious log-shaped cake.

The pâtisserie where we got our bûche used a gold-colored chocolate piece for the ends of the log, but we've also seen cakes where the "grain" is done in frosting. We also chose a chocolate bûche instead of other offerings, like coffee and butterscotch.

Inside, the sponge cake that's rolled up into the log shape was soaked in rum and reminded us of tiramisu.

The top of the log was decorated with a Christmas tree, a shooting star, and - what else? - an axe. Well done, pâtissière, well done.

Served as a prelude to the bûche - our secord effort at carbonade.

Joy and Jake approved.

Merry Christmas, From Paris With Love

Paris takes Christmas decorations very seriously, and everyone benefits. From everyone here at Panda-à-Paris (all three of us!), we hope that your Christmas was every bit as bright and cheery as the Champs Elysées, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette (the big department stores), and the Eiffel Tower.

Christmas Eve Traditions

It's Christmas Eve here in Paris. Being away from family is difficult, but we're enjoying spending time with our friends Joy and Jake and creating our own holiday traditions. For example, we began the evening with a rousing game of French Monopoly.

We suspended the game to walk 10 minutes to the Église Notre-Dame de la Croix de Ménilmontant to attend the 11:00 p.m. Veillée de Noël service. The church is large, beautiful, and felt very much like a local parish (we had considered going to the other Notre Dame, but thought it might feel a bit too touristy).

The Veillée service consisted mainly of organ music, singing, and readings. We all liked it when the organist pumped up the bass, and didn't really like it when the song leader sang out of our range.

We left just in time to see the start of the midnight mass. It was cold, we're not Catholic, and hey, we had a Monopoly game to finish! Merry Christmas Eve!