Christmas in Paris

Christmas time in Paris starts almost after Halloween.  Pretty much like in the states.  Decorations start going up in restaurant and store windows, lights get strung along major shopping streets and the Christmas Markets start to appear, with the major one along the Champs Elysee in the 8th district.  Sadly, I was never able to get a good shop of the street with the booths. It's quite beautiful. Here's a stock image pic that gives you a bit of a idea of how the booths look:

The weekends were always crowded, barely enough walking room. I found myself there during the week a few times, when it was much more manageable. Never bought anything but churros (those long, sugar coated fried donuts) and sausage and fries from this one vendor that really knew what they were doing. However, you could buy just about anything. There were also cute rides for children and even ice-skating (though the rink was pretty slushy).

Here are a few images of Jonathan having fun at some Market activities and a cool pic of Santa in a bubble:

The American Church in Paris also had its own little Christmas Market where Jonathan got a pic with Santa.  The American Library also had a nice Christmas afternoon with games, crafts, singing and time with Frosty that Jonathan enjoyed:

Since 2013, I've been leading a small online life group through my church, Liquid Church (liquidchurch.com).  I recently sunset it because it was too hard juggling the time differences. However, one of the members lives in the UK with her husband and daughter, who is Jonathan's age. They stopped through Paris on their way home from a trip to Germany, so we got to meet in person for the first time.  Jonathan and I met them at the Gare de l'est train station and walked the short distance with them from there to Gare du Nord station. We took some good-bye shots in Gare du Nord:

On December 14, Jonathan participated in a Christmas sing-along during the contemporary church service at the America Church in Paris.  Here's a shot of him all do'd up and a video of the children singing with the band:

Finally, managed to get a small Charlie Brown Christmas tree:-), and enjoyed spending Christmas Eve Service at the American Church.  Here are some shots of the Christmas Tree, Jonathan on the bus ride to church, a balcony view of the service and a shot of Rue St. Dominique, a major shopping road, where you can see a view of the Eiffel Tower at night.  Unfortunately, we never got to the tower for the Christmas lights.My next post will contain pics from October when we managed to see the lights get turned on one night!