Joyeux Noel!

We had a wonderful pre-Christmas vacation in Geneva, simply enjoying the time to get away and enjoy both the break from classes and the joy of the season. The city itself was beautiful, all done up in lights and holiday decorations -- and the location, deep in the Alps, certainly didn't hurt.

We had a couple of truly amazing experiences while in Geneva. First, while we were wandering through the center of town looking for a restaurant, we were surprised to hear someone say (in English), "Excuse me, did you ever attend Georgetown Law?" It turned out to be a woman who used to work in the Career Services office -- in fact, she was the person who finally convinced me that this program in Paris (which has pushed back my graduation date by one semester) was a good idea! She had resigned over the summer, but I hadn't heard any details: it turns out that she moved after her husband was transferred to Geneva. It amazes me how small the world can be!

Second, we very nearly got to meet Kofi Annan (the former Secretary General of the United Nations). We had seen flyers announcing that he would be speaking at an interfaith prayer service. The entire service was really lovely (and, since Genevans speak much less quickly than Parisians do, Matt and I were able to understand more than we'd expected), but the highlight really was Mr. Annan's speech. It was incredibly interesting for me, in particular, because he addressed some of the topics that I've previously covered in my law classes. We tried to go speak with him after the service concluded, but he was whisked away just before we would have reached him.


A few of the things we would have liked to see were closed for the holiday break -- including C.E.R.N., the European nuclear research center. We did take the bus out to see what we could see -- which turned out to be "the Globe", which hosts CERN's visitor's center and is the jumping-off point for all the tours. Deep underground was the Large Hadron Collider, which was in the news a few months ago because some commentators were speculating that turning it on might open up a black hole around the Earth.


We also tried to visit the United Nations in Geneva, which now occupies the building where the League of Nations was founded. Even though the building was emptied for the holidays -- completely closed from December 20 - January 4 -- there was still a large (but completely orderly) protest being carried on outside. From what we could discern, the protesters seemed to be the family members of Iranian dissenters who were living in an unstable region of Iraq, and were not receiving adequate security.


We took a side trip to Lausanne, which is about 40 minutes from Geneva by train and the seat of the International Olympic Committee. The town is beautiful, with a 13th Century cathedral (still in use today) and castle -- but also exhausting, as it was literally built into the side of a mountain.

By the end of the day, we were ready for a good night's sleep -- which, unfortunately, wasn't to be. Our flight back to Paris was at 6:30 the next morning, so we ended up sleeping in the airport to be sure that we'd be on time for the 4:30 check-in. Neither one of us got very much rest, but we had an easy trip home and took long naps before venturing out on Christmas Eve.

Paris is beautiful nearly all the time (perhaps even during the nearly-constant drizzle we've had for the last several weeks!), but I really think Christmas is my favorite time (so far, anyway). The lights are absolutely gorgeous, sparkling down streets and storefronts.


After a good, long nap, Matt and I wandered out to the largest Christmas Market in town, which runs along the Champs-Elysee. Each vendor has his own little wooden hut -- selling anything from vin chaud (sweetened, diluted, and heated wine) and crepes to Indian textiles to light-up Santa Claus hats to virtually anything you can imagine.

[We had seen similar Christmas Markets in both Geneva and Lausanne -- one of the things that surprised us was how some items were in each market (e.g., collapsable wooden fruit bowls and, almost inexplicably, Confederate flag belt buckles).]

We headed home to make a simple Christmas Eve dinner together, then attended the late-night Christmas Eve service at church. I was a little saddened when we had to go through a security check -- nothing strenuous, just a quick inspection of my handbag -- but I appreciated the impulse. (Since dyanamite was found in one of the major department stores, the Paris police really stepped up security measures around the holiday, deploying more than 500 extra officers to patrol the streets.) Once inside, though, it was a beautiful service full of holiday music. My favorite part was something I remembered from home -- at the end of the service, the sanctuary lights were dimmed, and we sang Silent Night by candlelight.

We celebrated on Christmas Day by sharing a holiday dinner with some French friends, who live just outside Paris (an easy trip by commuter train). It was a wonderful, traditional dinner -- we began with foie gras and continued to escargot; after the main meal, we had a beautiful bouche de Noel. We spent a quiet afternoon and evening at their home -- just enjoying each other's company and the holiday. We weren't home until late that night -- with just enough time for me to call my family and Matt to call his -- before we fell back into bed. I was surprised at how much I missed everyone, but we really enjoyed spending our first married Christmas together in our temporary home.

We've spent the last few days back in Paris, catching up our sleep and some of the errands we'd let slide over the end of the semester. (The last big project on our list is weatherproofing the front door, where huge amounts of cold air have been pouring in. As a stopgap, we've lain a heavy towel across the bottom and hung a duvet cover across the door -- but we're still losing quite a bit of heat and would like a more permanent solution.) Then, just after the New Year, we're off to London for a few days!

The One In Which We Acquire a Dog...

...but only temporarily. Nick and Monica (see the Thanksgiving post) headed to the hospital on Friday morning for the birth of their son (who finally arrived this morning), so their dog has come to stay with us for a few days. Matt and I have been having a wonderful time with our canine houseguest (the cats are a little nonplussed, but being pretty good sports about the situation), and we're looking forward to having her with us for most of the week.

I'm not sure whether she thinks that our apartment is too cold or that our throw blankets are snuggly.

We finally got around to decorating for Christmas this week. Since we didn't want to spend very much acquiring big decorations that we'd just have to either ship back or get rid of in a few months, we kept things fairly minimalist this year. We did hang our stockings and put up an improvised Advent calendar (by the time we'd thought to purchase one, the stores had sold out -- I suppose that's what we deserve for delaying our Christmas observances until after Thanksgiving...)

I covered all the paintings and pictures in the apartment with inexpensive wrapping paper, and then used them to improvise our decorations. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out...

We debated for a long time, but ultimately decided not to buy a Christmas tree this year -- even the smallest trees are pretty expensive, and don't last very long at all. (Rather than the blunt-cut stump I've always seen in the US, the trees here have their trunks sharpened into a point and inserted into a solid stand. The tree would be completely dried out within days.) BUT, rather than forego the entire tree experience, we decided to bring a bit of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special into our apartment and decorate the ficus:

I put about six feet of tinsel and four felt stars on there...I'm really not sure it could stand up to too much more!

We also celebrated Matt's birthday this week! We spent his birthday night wandering downtown, including to Notre Dame to see their beautiful, gigantic Christmas tree and the Illuminated Nativity scene. We finally decided we were hungry and a little bit cold, so we picked a nearby restaurant for dinner. The food wasn't fantastic, but the ambiance was fun: there was a live pianist and both our champagne and dessert came with sparklers. (The French seem to use sparklers rather than candles for birthday cakes.)

Later in the week, I tried for a little taste of home: Texas Sheet Cake, from Ellen's fantastic recipe. I think I managed to over-sweeten the frosting (miscalculated the imperial-to-metric conversion for the sugar), but overall it came out pretty well!


For me, classes wrapped up last week, so all that's left is one week of exams. Matt's semester continues until February, but he gets two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. We're headed off to Geneva on Friday afternoon, but are coming back to Paris for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We're still figuring out where to go for New Year's; I had been hoping we'd be able to go to Greece, but we're going to wait until things settle down a bit. (Since we'll be away, we likely won't be able to update the blog until we're back home next Wednesday.)

The Second Sunday of Advent

Our weekend got off to a chilly start this week: our heat and hot water went out on Friday afternoon (both run off the same machine). We were very, very lucky that it happened at 4:30 -- after a series of frantic phone calls, we were able to track down a repairman who could come the next day. Had it been even an hour later we might have spent the whole weekend chilled and unshowered. We ended up spending all of yesterday (Saturday) waiting for the repairman to show up, but I'm feeling incredibly grateful for the warm shower I took this morning.

The days in Paris are getting much, much shorter now: tomorrow, the sun will rise at 8:30 and set at 4:54. This, of course, means that my most favorite time of year (the holidays!) and least favorite time of the year (final exams) are coming quickly.

At this point, I've done four major presentations and written two papers. Before the end of the semester, I've got one more paper, one more presentation, and two or three exams -- it's going to be an intense two weeks, but I'm looking forward to the break that comes right after. I can't believe that my schooling in Paris is already halfway over!

Even though we're trying to concentrate on school, we're also thinking a lot about the holidays. Last Sunday, we found ourselves at a Christmas Bazaar at the American Cathedral in Paris (an absolutely stunning Episcopalian church). We each picked out a Christmas stocking, which I'm going to finally get hung this week -- I'll post pictures in the next update.

There really wasn't a convenient metro connection to get us across the river to the American Church (where we've been attending), so we decided to walk.

Our path took us across the Pont D'Alma bridge, which used to hold a replica of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty. After Princess Diana's car crashed in the adjacent tunnel in 1997, people used the flame as a makeshift memorial site: so much so that flower, candles, notes, et cetera began to blow off the bridge and into the traffic passing below. The flame has been relocated to one side of the bridge, but -- eleven years after the accident! -- people are still leaving all kinds of tributes there.


The American Church bills itself as the 'Beacon on the Seine,' which I really understood when I spotted the green spire in front of me. It was chartered in 1814, but has stood on the present site since 1930.


I snuck a couple of pictures of the sanctuary today, just before the service began. All the Christmas decorations are up, and it both looks and smells like Christmas because they add fresh evergreen branches each week.


After the services today, Matt and I decided that we were in need of a study break, so we went back to Angelina's for "L'African", their famous hot chocolate that I had so enjoyed a few weeks ago and was very excited to get to share with Matt this time. We also enjoyed a mont blanc, the recipe of which is a house secret. It was incredibly delicious and unbelievably rich -- maybe in a few weeks, we'll go back for another taste and a few more guesses!