Breath of fresh art

 

Outdoor sculptures dot the Esplanade de La Défense. 

 

Above: Deux personnages fantastiques (1976) by Joan Mirò

 

 

Frosty Friday

 

An icy December morning in Parc Monceau.

Goodbye Tante Elli. 10 years already.

 

 

 

Tea Tuesday

Candles add a holiday touch to morning chai at this local coffee and pastry shop.

 

Below: suitable for grabbing

 

 

 

P1 Bouche

151bis rue Marcadet 75018

 

 

Merry Monday

A very Merry Christmas Joyeux Noël this Christmas Day

Monday December 25, 2023 - BPJ

 

Night before Christmas

 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.... - Clement Clarke Moore

 

Above: La Maison Rose - The Pink House, Montmartre

 

Sightseeing Saturday

 

The region of Alsace in eastern France is sprinkled with enchanting villages, all within an easy drive from each other and right now, as it does every year, the magic of Christmas has taken over. And while the decorations alone are reason enough to abandon a comfortable couch and hop on a train (17 trains per day Paris - Colmar), its Christmas markets - with their unusual gifts, baked goods, local wines, regional foods and festivities - rival Europe's best, luring market-hoppers from all over the world. Adding to the charm are half-timbered houses, flowerpot bridges, lazy boat rides and narrow medieval streets, making a jaunt from Paris for even just two or three days exactly what Santa ordered. - BPJ

 

 

Must-visit towns / villages, some with Christmas markets still in full swing.

Most decorations will remain up until after the New Year:

 

Strasbourg

Colmar

Obernai

Mulhouse

Eguisheim

Kaysersberg

Ribeauville

Riquewihr

 

***

Alsace: 3 hours (or less) from Paris

via TGV / plane

car rental on arrival

 

Floral Friday

A love of flowers means no shortage of florists in Paris.

 

Throwback Thursday

 

Warmer days on the lively sidewalk terrace of La Palette café.

 

Wine Wednesday

 

 

Rue des Martyrs in SoPi (South Pigalle) has been renamed Rue des Bulles, Street of Bubbles, through Sunday, December 31st. Celebrations, live music, Père Noël....

 

- See Nouveautés for more -

 

***

 

"All Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne"

 

Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte

 🍾🍾🍾

 

 

 

Treeful Tuesday

Giant Christmas tree of ever-changing colors under the cupola at Galeries Lafayette.

 

Market Monday

A sprawling flea market takes over part of a Montmartre neighborhood.

 

Café Noël

A café-brasserie on Place du Tertre decked out for the holidays.

 

Francophile Friday: a good life in France

  

The book that started it all.

Recommended holiday reading

Into the weekend with 4 great reads by Janine Marsh, guaranteed to make any Christmas bright 

***

Besides photography enthusiasts my stats show that visitors to this blog include not only the curious but regulars, many of whom have followed me here from my USA Today writing days. Most are Francophiles, those ardent admirers of France and everything French. And while some reside in France, of those who don't some have confessed that they envision themselves pulling up stakes and settling in The Land of The Gauls.

 Well that is exactly what author Janine Marsh, creator/editor of popular online magazine The Good Life France, where I am a contributor, did, not all that long ago, now detailed in a first book, My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream that shot up to #1 on Amazon shortly after its release, beating out J. K. Rowling at the time.

 It all started on a dreary day with zero expectations - except to find some cheap French wine on a trip to northern France with her husband and father. That trip turned into a true life adventure, and Janine found herself returning to England “a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais.”

Eventually leaving behind both life and livelihood in London, she leapt into unknown territory of what was to become a completely new lifestyle in the French countryside that included a plethora of animals (another revelation), local characters and many other, sometimes perplexing, discoveries.  

The writing is light and keeps the reader turning pages. If you are expecting a "how-we-fixed-up-an-old-barn-and-made-it-liveable" manual, you will be disappointed. It is a story of survival in a culture that turns out to be surprisingly different than anything she knew, often bemusing. This book is evergreen that is, it won’t grow old, especially now, post Covid, as the world has changed and such forays have become the food of fantasy.

Since then three other books, the second two, sequels of sort and equally delightful, have followed:

Toujours La France!: Living The Dream In Rural France 

My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life in France 

Her fourth and quite recent (October 31, 2023) How To Be French: Eat Drink Dress Travel Love, is a toast to French l'art de vivre and what it means to be French, filled with useful advice, insight and tips à la française. - BPJ 

 

Janine Marsh is a British writer "living in the middle of nowhere rural France, with 72 animals and a husband." - From her Amazon page

 

 

 

Passing through

 

The 2nd arrondissement belies a labyrinth of passages dating from the 1800s.

 

Wine Wednesday

 

Steamed shrimp and a crisp Château Le Puy Rose-Marie (Bordeaux) at a Marais wine bar.

 

Treeful Tuesday

 

 Christmas trees lined up for sale seem to be saying, "Me! Me! Me!"

 

Stollen moments

 

Stollen, the traditional German Christmas cake that originated in Dresden in 1329 as a result of a baking contest, is now considered French in France as it became a specialty of Alsace, a region that once belonged to Germany. During the holidays it can be spotted in boulangeries and pâtisseries everywhere, as it is here, direct from Alsace and usually displayed on bakery countertops.

 

 When I was growing up, along with mouth-watering poppyseed and apple strudels, it was one of my mother's holiday specialties, covered in finely powdered sugar that resembled snow. It is sometimes called the French panettone, that cherished holiday import from Italy, also studded with candied fruits and nuts, and leftovers, if there are any, will show up on the breakfast table and at tea time for days. - BPJ

 

Weekend warmup

 

Let cold winds blow to their hearts' content.

It's a time for tea and cakes and get-togethers and readying for the holidays.

 

***   

 

 Christmas concerts Paris / île-de-France 2023

(click to enlarge)

 

Floral Friday

It really is this red.

Throwback Thursday

 

A vintage car shines against a wintry backdrop.

 

Walnut (and chestnut) Wednesday

 

Bins of walnuts and chestnuts at the Christmas market on Place des Abbesses.

Autumn colors

Autumn light bathes a cobbled square.

 

Market Monday

Marchés de Noël 2023

***

Above: a Christmas market on Place des Abbesses

 

 (Have been receiving lovely "Happy Saint Barbara" wishes today in French -- Do you know your Saint's Day?)

 

Sacré Saturday

 

The Basilica towers in the background.

 

A narrow street

 

A Left Bank street at sunset.

Throwback Thursday

 

Just a few short weeks ago parks and squares were still lush and green.

 

Wine Wednesday

 Red wine and beef go together like well, red wine and beef.

 

Tarte Tuesday

 

An assortment of small artisanale tarts compete for attention on a bakery countertop.

 

A Thanksgiving table

 

 

A casual Thanksgiving in a Montmartre loft.

- Merci nos chers amis -

Turkey Tuesday

 

A turkey run on a farm that welcomed school groups and visitors.

 

(click to enlarge)

 

***

 

In France, bigger is not necessarily better and as turkeys are usually smaller than those in the US, cooking time is shorter. And because they are free range the quality and taste of the meat will be superbe. When cooking a turkey my French mother-in-law would lay a rasher of lard (bacon - fumé or not fumé) from the butcher atop a whole bird before bunging in the oven and the fat basted the skin. Stuffed with chestnuts or a breadless herbed pork farce and served with grilled seasonal vegetables and an autumn fruit - figs, apples, airelles (easy to find and mistaken for cranberries) - a feast was inevitable.

 

A very Happy Thanksgiving to one/all and until next week... - BPJ

 

 

Mushroom Monday

 Still in season: varieties of mushrooms that inspire.

Above: large meaty cèpes have all but disappeared by 10 a.m.

 

Church search

 

Three-quarters of the churches in Paris were burned down during the French Revolution leaving few survivors, most notably Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Église Sainte-Chapelle and the Basilique Cathédrale de Saint-Denis where the kings and queens of France repose, now all well-known touristic sites. (Despite its byzantine aspect the Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre did not appear until 1914).

Today there are many lesser-known churches sprinkled throughout the city that deserve a detour, easily found by searching their whereabouts on a map of Paris. Most are active but some are former churches, cloisters, and ecclesiastical buildings, all worthwhile to discover for their history, architecture and beauty. - BPJ

*** 

Recommended:

 Église Saint Paul-Saint Louis

 Église Saint-Jean de Montmartre

 Chapelle Nôtre-Dame-de-la-Médaille-Miraculeuse 

 Église Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois

 Église Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais

Èglise Saint-Médard de Paris

 Basilique Nôtre-Dame des Victoires

Basilique de Sainte-Clotilde

Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont

Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre

Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre

Église Saint-Sulpice

Église Saint-Séverin

 Église Saint-Eustache

 Église Saint-Seraphin-de-Sarov

 Église de la Madeleine

Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Le Panthéon (originally Église de Sainte-Geneviève)

Collège des Bernardins

 Église des Billettes and its medieval cloister w/exhibitions, concerts

 

 

Autumn yellow

Shimmering leaves will soon carpet the ground.

 

Fig Friday

It's the end of the fig season, but figs can still be found in most markets and on market streets.

 

Nouveau

Last night the 2023 Beaujolais Nouveau made its fruity debut.

Much anticipated on the third Thursday of every November dozens of vintages for every taste and budget begin to appear in wine bars, restaurants, shops, caves and on comptoirs.

Did you celebrate?

Beaujolais Villages AOC

 

 

Une belle lumière

 

A beautiful light, a beautiful morning.

 

Artful dodging

 

Le Petit Palais is not only a magnificent art museum but its garden is an unexpected escape in the center of Paris.

Le Petit Palais

 

Avenue Winston Churchill 75008