In which we go to a Christmas market

One of the things that Ginnie wanted to do while they were in France was go to a Marché de Noël, or Christmas market. Actually, she had wanted to take the train to Strassbourg to go to a market, but we managed to convince her, with some difficulty that that was unnecessary. There would be plenty of Christmas markets in the Paris area, and it would be much easier and less time consuming to go to one of them instead. So, she did her homework, and discovered that there was supposed to be a big market under the Grande Arche at La Défense.

After lunch on Saturday, we set out, leaving Danny at home to nurse his stomach flu/food poisoning. (Since none of the rest of us have it, I'm going with food poisoning.) We transferred from the RER to the Metro at Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, and then rode line 1 to the Esplanade de la Défense. (A note to explain the detail: The Paris area is arranged in zones for transport purposes. The city of Paris itself is zone 1, and then zones 2 - 6 circle it like the stripes on a target. All rides on the metro are considered to be within zone 1, although many of the terminal stops on the metro lines aren't in fact within the city of Paris. In particular, line 1 ends at the Grande Arche de la Défense, which is actually in zone 3, at least if you take an RER line there. We live in zone 3, so, by switching to the metro line in Paris proper, we were able to use a cheaper zone 1 to zone 3 ticket, rather than a more expensive zone 3 to zone 3 through Paris ticket.)

The walk up the esplanade to the Arche was very beautiful, in a modern sort of way. Evidently someone had sponsored artwork in the form of gigantic cylinders (think 3-4 stories high and 20 feet around) decorated in a variety of different ways. Cherry (and I) used the (non public) bathroom at the La Défense museum. (I highly recommend bringing a 3 year old with you to Paris. Pretty much no-one will deny a bathroom to a preschooler here, and they can be difficult to find.) Then we dove into the Christmas market. Forty five minutes later, we'd had donuts, mulled wine, chocolates, and raclette, and we were all more than ready to escape from the claustrophobia inducing crowds. We then made the mistake of entering the enormous mall alongside the Grande Arche, hoping to find shoes for the kids. Fortunately, we were able to escape with no major injuries and all of the children, but it was a close thing. We eventually found the entrance to the Metro station, and took the trains back home.

We celebrated Max's 70th birthday with coq au vin (next time I'll pick a quicker recipe since we didn't eat until well past 8) and pastries from the bakery down the street. We all sang in English, and then Sapphire and Ezio sang in French as well. (Cherry fell asleep before dinner, though she can sing Joyeuse Anniversaire as well.)