Stopover in Paris

Well not quite Christmas, but at least many of the lights remain. I have never quite been here at Christmas time and have always missed the many marchés de Noël in the city. Although only remnants of the earlier Christmas markets

 shopping in the newly renovated Gare St. Lazare

remain along the Champs Elysées, the lights have yet to be dismantled, and I was disappointed that they were no longer lit up at night.



  Happily, the sapin de Noël and the Christmas crèche still remain in the foyer of my apartment building--probably until the end of the month, because it looks like the crèche de Noël took quite a bit of effort on the part of Maria, the gardienne here.  I understand we customarily have until January 31 to wish our friends and neighbors a "happy New Year."

Sapin de Noel

Christmas creche with the Holy Family

Note the sheep on the hills and the ducks in the pond

 It is also the season of the after Christmas sales.

I managed to catch a television spot on buying bread and learned that my pain de tradition, even though made by an artisan boulanger, didn't quite measure up.  This type of bread is to have a nice crisp crust, should not be flour-y but a golden caramel color, have an almost nutlike aroma when warm, the inside cream-colored and full of those large air-holes, the loaf not super flat in the middle, and should weigh 300 grams.  Mine flunked the weight, flatness and smell tests, I'm afraid!  On the other hand, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a loaf of 300 grams for the usual EUR 1,25 price though--more like 200 grams.  The baguettes seem to be shrinking in size, however...

Tomorrow (Monday) I will spend my time cleaning, sorting and packing for my trip to Ouagadougou on Tuesday, but today, I visited a small museum dedicated to Asian art located adjacent to the lovely Parc Monceau, the Musée Cernuschi.  The carefully selected collection was just the right size for visiting on a Sunday after lunch.

Musee Cernuschi, interior

An added bonus is that the permanent collections of the Musée Cernuschi are free!