Even though Michael is not a big fan of oysters (les huîtres), I am. And lucky for me, so are a few of our friends. Well, and basically all of France. Oyster season in the hexagon is lasts from September/October all the way to April, during which time you are certain to find folks at all hours of the day sitting on a cafe terrace sipping a chilled glass of crisp white wine and slurping on these briny beauties. To me, it is the taste of the ocean that I miss so much. The oyster shucker (écailleur) at the restaurant we went to this weekend can be spotted behind the pole in the picture below taking a little snooze. Apparently, prying these babies open all day really tuckers a guy out. Here is a great oyster primer if you find yourself out and about in Paris in the cold months in need of a briny fix.
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We received a very sweet Christmas care package this year from our friends in North Carolina - Justin, Angela, Ron and Cindy. You can tell they've visited us a few times by the addition of hard-to-find american goodies like the ziplock bags (in two sizes!), Sharpie pens, Lara bars and a few other thoughtful gifts like (our personal favorite) Santa and Rudolph who both poop out candy while wishing you a very Merry Christmas! On a more serious note, we also received these little angels, who will now hang on our tree every year. I hope Cindy doesn't mind that I have posted the lovely poem she wrote to accompany them, but it was too sweet a message and gift not to share! Three little angels come your way Every year at Christmastime, the major Parisian department stores like Le Bon Marché, Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and BHV, go all out in decorating their storefront windows for the holiday season. For a reason I cannot rationally explain, I have never paid a visit to said window-fronts to view the magic. So it is with much delight that I was able to squeeze in a visit to Printemps in the early days of January before the displays disappeared into the bleak of mid-January winter. As described on the fact sheet I found about about the Printemps display this year: To mark the 150th anniversary of Printemps, the department store on Boulevard Haussmann has come up with a mischievous fairy who makes spring (printemps in French) awaken in the depths of winter, with choreography designed by Philippe Decouflé. Using her magic, the Printemps fairy has decked the façade of Printemps Haussmann with stars, flowers and sparkling lights. These pictures do not do the displays justice, as each of the figurines you can see is a marionette dancing around the scene, in perfect harmony with the others.
But by far the best window was the one where we became fairies ourselves :) |
AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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