Thanksgiving in Paris

Gargoyles atop Notre Dame

I’ve been abroad for a lot of Holidays this year, and it’s been interesting to see how other countries celebrate. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is about as American as you get (a day devoted to stuffing your face with as much food as possible!), and thus Thanksgiving Thursday was just another normal day in Paris. I haven’t really been homesick much, but seeing everyone’s FB updates about Thanksgiving, and hearing my mom’s menu plans made me miss family and friends a little bit.

Without getting sappy, I really do have a lot of be thankful for this year. My wonderful family and friends (obvi), my dad’s cancer going into remission once again, and the opportunity to spend a year traveling the world. This past weekend, I was especially grateful for Megan and Trevor coming to Paris so we could spend the holiday together.

It was Trevor’s first time in Paris (ironically, his dog made it to Paris before he did). As he and Megan had only the weekend here, the goal was to make it as packed as possible, and enable him to see as much as Paris as possible. And I like to think we did a good job.

Friday afternoon they arrived and we began the day with a trip to the market and a little wine and cheese picnic at my apartment: Roquefort, Chevre, Manchego, and Brie along with fresh banquettes (still warm from the bakery), three different types of tapenade (fig, eggplant, and basil), tomatoes, and a bottle of red wine. From there we layered up and prepared to brace the cold.

First stop - Espresso Bar. Megan and Trevor had been up since 5:30am, and we’d just finished a bottle of wine and a carb filled lunch. Caffeine was much needed. And Trevor had never had an espresso before! He doesn’t even like coffee, so we didn’t bother to sugar coat it. “You’re not going to like it,” Megan and I told him. “In fact, you’ll probably hate it. But drink it. Three sips and you’ll be buzzing for hours.”

Decorating of the Christmas Tree at Notre Dame

Cloudy view of Paris

After the Esprsso Bar, we were off to Notre Dame. Fun fact about Notre Dame - it was actually slated for demolition in the 1800’s! Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was responsible for saving the cathedral by reviving interest in the Gothic period. According to our new friend Miles, who is six, Notre Dame is “Big! Really big! Like, as big as a giant’s butt!!!”

Megs and Trev toured the inside while I held our place in line outside, and then we climbed a few hundred spiraling stairs up to the top of the church so we could take in the views of my city. I’ve been up a few times before, and it’s one of my favorite things to do in Paris. Being on par with the gargoyles and looking out over the city - seeing Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and the

rooflines of the houses - is just breathtaking. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating with our desires of “perfect views,” and thus we had foggy views of the city.  But still - beautiful. After playing paparazzi with the city and snapping about a hundred photos, we went up one more level, to the very top of the church. We hadn’t been up for more than five minutes when we noticed storm clouds rolling in over the Eiffel Tower. We braced ourselves for rain, and were pleasantly surprised when it started snowing! It was such a delightful experience being atop Notre Dame and watching the first snowfall of the season cover Paris.

The Contemplating Gargoyle

From Notre Dame, we headed towards Hotel de Ville with the intentions of a leisurely walk along the Seine. Unfortunately, snow plus river does not a leisurely walk make, so we revised our plans and headed to Musee D’Orsay instead to take in some French Impressionism. We arrived with only a little over an hour before closing time, so unfortunately had to rush through, but made sure to see all of the Monet’s, Renoirs, Degas’, and Picasso’s. I discovered a new favorite artist too: Alfred Sisley.

The weather had improved when we left Musee D’Orsay, so we made our way towards Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysees, stopping at one point to watch the Eiffel Tower glitter (it lights up and sparkles every hour on the hour).

6:00

When we reached the Champs Elysees, we stopped at the first booth of the Christmas Market - the booth selling Gluhwein (aka Vin Chaud, or mulled wine, which is so much better than hot chocolate on a cold night). So we drank our gluhwine and made our way down the Champs Elysees towards the Arch de Triumph, taking in the lights and decorations along the way, and making mental notes of our Christmas lists as we passed Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and designer sunglass stores.

Arch de Triumph

 We were pleasantly surprised to find the Arch de Triumph still open, so we bought tickets and for the second time that day, climbed up 100+ spiraling stairs to take in the views of the city (which were breathtaking).

Stairs galore

Glittering Tower

We stayed up long enough to watch the Eiffel Tower glitter once more, and then headed home. The plan had been to change quickly, catch the Bateau Mouche (boat down the Seine), and grab dinner. But once we got home and began warming up with wine and cheese, we decided to forgo the boat ride and stick with dinner.

We enjoyed a dinner of fois gras, duck and scallops at Le Colimacon, a great French restaurant in Le Marais specializing in wine and snails, and then headed out for drinks. And then I accidentally brought Trevor to his first gay bar. Most of the people I’ve met in Paris are gay, meaning I’ve been hanging out primarily at gay bars. Which is great, as I can request all the Lady Gaga, Britney and Rihanna I want. The only downside to this is when I have straight friends come visit, I don’t know where to take them - which was the case when I dragged one of my Australian friends to Cafe Banana because he wanted a fun dance bar. While I knew Megan and I would have loved shaking our asses on the dance floor at Cafe Banana, I didn’t think it would be quite Trevor’s scene, so I called a friend and asked for a recommendation. I guess I forgot to specify that I wanted a non-gay bar, so Trevor ended up having his first gay bar experience anyway. But the DJ was fabulous, the drinks were good, and we had a great time!

Plucking the turkey

Belated Thanksgiving Day. Saturday morning came early and found us at the local market picking up our turkey. I ordered it a few days in advance, which was so they could go to the farm and slaughter it. No joke - we arrived at the market before the turkey wasn’t quite ready and found him with his neck, head, and tail feathers still attached. Thank God the butcher took care of that for us, as well as all the pulling out gizzards stuff - he even stuffed the bird with chestnut stuffing for us. We still had to pluck a few feathers out when we brought him home (eww), but thankfully not many.

Once we had the turkey safe in the fridge, day two of touring commenced, and we headed to Sainte Chapelle, my favorite Church in Paris, and another great example of gothic architecture.

Sainte Chapelle. Absolutely stunning.

From Sainte Chapelle, we headed down towards the banks of the Seine for a leisurely walk, stopping to admire Pont Neuf along the way.

Fun fact about Pont Neuf: It’s the oldest standing bridge in Paris (built in 1607) and is decorated with mascarons (ie, a grotesque, sculpted head). There are a few stories of who these mascarons represent, but my favorite claims they’re of King Henry IV’s friends who were present at the elaborate opening ceremony of the bridge. It was a huge celebration, everyone got drunk, and there was a caricature artist present. The king loved the artists renditions of his friends so much, he had them replicated into mascarons and place upon the bridge. So basically, when you walk under the bridge, you can stare up at 300+ faces of drunken men from over 400 years ago.

Pont Neuf

 Upon crossing under the Pont Neuf, we walked a bit further, and then crossed over Le Pont des Arts, which is covered with “love locks.” Couples from all over the world have clamped padlocks on the bridge’s railings before hurling the keys into the Seine below. Incidentally, last weekend I saw a police boat under the bridge with a few scuba divers, and I wondered if some rich couple had broken up then hired divers to retrieve their key. 

Love locks

Pont Alexander II

Next we hit up the Louvre. We didn’t have time to go in, so just took in the architecture from the outside, warmed ourselves up with hot chocolate, and then walked through Le Jardin des Tuilleries towards Place de La Concorde, the largest square in Paris, home to the Obelisk, and where thousands of people were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.

We crossed over Pont Alexandre III, the bridge adorned with art nouveau lamposts. We then made our way towards the Eiffel Tower, stopping at a boulangerie along the way for a fresh baguette. We then spent about thirty minutes by the tower enjoying a little picnic (and freezing our asses off) before heading home to begin our Thanksgiving Feast.

This Thanksgiving was unlike any other. We enjoyed Fois Gras and tapenade, salad and cheese, turkey and green beans, and washed it all down with sancerre and a few too many bottles of red wine. We managed to cook the turkey to perfection (based off of my translation of the butcher’s French cooking directions, which thankfully I didn’t screw up, and sans the little butterball pop-up thing that tells you when it’s done). But it’s been three days and so far no one has complained of salmonella symptoms, so I think we pulled it off!

Thanksgiving ended with a trip to The Ice Bar. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

The actual bar in Ice Bar

 And awesome. An entire bar made of ice! We were given down jackets and gloves, and then handed glasses made of ice filled with some sort of fruity drink. The bar itself was made of ice, as were the walls. There was even an ice bed! We went to a few “normal” bars after that, and then ended the night by hitchhiking home (Megan gets credit for that one). All in all, a wonderful thanksgiving.

As did Saturday, Sunday came way too early as well. But we got up, grabbed croissants, pain au chocolate and espressos, and made our way to Montmartre. We didn’t have much time, but worked our way through the windy streets, through the artist’s area, and up to Sacre Coeur.

Artist's Square in Montmartre. Photo credit goes to Trevor

 It was a wonderful, packed weekend I don’t think I fully recovered until Tuesday. I’m so grateful to have had my friends to celebrate Thanksgiving with this year when I couldn’t be home for it!