With Christmas approaching, the theme for this week’s Blogger Round-Up was easy to find! Phoebe from Lou Messugo takes us to the Provençal village of Lucéram famous for its Christmas cribs, while Carolyn from Holidays to Europe introduces us to various European Christmas foods; meanwhile Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris explains why the lights on the Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame are vertical. Enjoy!
Lucéram, the Christmas village
by Phoebe from Lou Messugo, a traveller, francophile, expat, mum and foodie now living in Roquefort les Pins where she runs a gîte after many years of travelling and living in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia.
In our quest to get into the Christmas spirit, we recently spent a day in Lucéram, a pretty medieval hill village north of Nice and less than an hour from Lou Messugo. Why? Because it comes alive in December with its “Circuit des Crèches”. Literally every tiny alley, every balcony, every doorway and every nook and cranny is decorated with pine branches, red and gold ribbons, and nativity scenes in every conceivable shape and size. These scenes (the creches) are made out of wood, paper, glass, pinecones, traditional santons (earthenware figurines), clothes pegs, matches, wool, twigs and even bread. They come in every size from minute tucked into holes in the wall to a 10m long replica of the village and everything in between. Even the village’s numerous fountains and old wash-houses are all decked out with their own floating creches. Read more
European Christmas Foods
by Carolyn from Holidays to Europe, an Australian based business passionate about sharing their European travel expertise and helping travellers to experience the holiday in Europe they have always dreamed of
The lead up to Christmas can be one of the best times to travel to Europe, not only to visit the amazing Christmas Markets that are held each year but also to sample the delicious food that plays a big part in the festivities.
Marrying into a German family many years ago, I’m now well accustomed to some of the German Christmas treats and I always look forward to indulging in my favourites when the festive season comes around. Read more
Love, tenderness, understanding and unity: lessons learned from the men responsible for Notre-Dame’s symbolic Christmas tree
by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use
For a bi-cultural couple, celebrating Christmas and other holidays can be liking walking through a cultural minefield. Christmas stockings, decorations and traditional foods can all provoke heated debates. If your spouse is from Switzerland, he may claim that Baby Jesus delivers presents to the good little girls and boys around the world when you know for a fact that it’s a jolly man dressed in a red suit. As an American, I find it somewhat hard to believe that a tiny baby could handle the stress of landing a sleigh on a steep Parisian rooftop without bursting into tears. After all, Santa has a hard enough time maneuvering through the city traffic, and he’s a robust man accustomed to managing an entire village of elves. Read more
A little bit of Christmas to start this week’s Blogger Round-Up with a recipe for French Christmas Log from French Moments, followed by Paris Weekender‘s favourite haunts in the Marais. To finish off, fellow Aussie Chrissie from Riviera Grapevine takes us on a visit to Limone in Piemonte in Italy. Enjoy!
French Christmas Log – Bûche de Noël
by French Moments, a Sydney-based organisation with an international focus which promotes the French language and culture to English-speakers worldwide. Their French team is all about the language, culture and experience
A Christmas log is the traditional dessert for the French Christmas meal on the 24th of December. It is a rolled sponge / Genoese sponge in the shape of a log, most often with chocolate ganache inside or chestnut cream and icing on the outside to make it look like a log ready for the fire. In Provence there is an entire ritual revolving around a wooden log in the chimney that is carried three times around the table by the youngest and the oldest members of the family, sprayed with wine and meant to burn for several nights. It is believed the Christmas log is originated from this custom. Read more
The Best of the Marais (So Far)
by Abby from Paris Weekender, an American living in Paris who offers suggestions for Paris weekends, either staying put or getting out of town
It’s been a little over a year since I moved from Saint Germain to the Marais. Here is a sampling of my “favorites” so far. I admit they are a bit 4th arrondissement-centric, as that’s where I live! Read more
Warming up for Winter in Limone
by Chrissie from Riviera Grapevine, a Sydney girl living in Nice with an insatiable thirst for the wines of the Var, Alpes Maritimes and Liguria. She happily sells, drinks and blogs about wine.
Time to let you in on a little secret. If you’re a fan of the wonderful Italian region Piemonte, as I am, you don’t have to head all the way to Alba for your fix of Barolo, Moscato d’Asti and my personal favourite, Arneis (not to mention the food, THE FOOD!!). The closest corner of Piemonte is a mere hour and a half away from Nice, and has a cute-as-pie village centre with some great value restaurants. What’s more turns into a veritable winter wonderland come snow season.
Yep, I’m talking about Limone. More often referred to Limone, Piemonte, to avoid confusion with Limone, Lake Garda. Read more
Last rays of sunshine from our balconyAutumn leaves in front of Café Nemours on Place ColettePalais Royal with the fountain. Unfortunately, some new scaffolding has arrived opposite!
This week’s Blogger Round-Up starts in a museum and ends in a cemetary. Daisy de Plume, whom you may remember from the THATLou treasure hunt I participated in recently, tells us all about the Orangerie Museum; Bread is Pain, in her usual humouristic musings, recounts the difficult ascension of the potato in France; while fellow Aussie Susan from Days on the Claise reports on a new French appellation, the lapin gris de Touraine. Enjoy!
Musée de l’Orangerie
by native New Yorker Daisy de Plume, who has lived in Paris for nearly a decade and created THATLou to share her passion for art and her unique approach toward making the museum experience fun and accessible to all
Now that’s a great photo, no? Lilian Lau is a jack of many trades: from an École normale supérieure post-doc science researcher to a wonderful travel writer (links to a sampling are below). After first meeting her at last January’s THATd’Or created in conjunction with theAFMO, Lilian generously put me in touch with Camille Breton, of Science Académie, for whom I built the Arts + Sciences hunt. Since then we’ve been having lovely lingering lunches between her globetrotting flights. Here she picks up on the Museum Musings(which I had initially intended to be a “monthly” museum musing, but alas time has required that first M to be dropped!). Without further ado: Read more
Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose
by Bread is Pain, a 30-something American living in the Rhone-Alps, getting her master’s degree, learning French and slowly eating and drinking herself through the country
“What tha…why is there a potato on that tombstone,” I turn, looking at MB questioningly. We are on a tour of Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
“Quoi,” he asks, looking towards the grave, apparently he doesn’t know why either.
“Ah,” our tour guide walks over and joins us, bringing the rest of the group. “This is the grave of Parmentier, the man who introduced potatoes into French cuisine.” Read more
Le Lapin Gris de Touraine
by Susan from Days on the Claise, an Australian living in the south of the Loire Valley, writing about restoring an old house and the area and its history and running Loire Valley Time Travel.
History: This type of grey rabbit used to be well known to the inhabitants of Indre et Loire and by the early 1900s it had begun to be called le lapin gris de Touraine. They were raised for meat and fur, but although still common on farms in the area in the 1950s, by the end of the 20th century they had almost disappeared. It has just received official recognition as a breed, after a group of enthusiasts worked on saving the rabbit from extinction. Read more
It’s turning out to be a very rainy autumn. We don’t often seem to get much sun these days, but when we do, the Palais Royal garden is a good place to soak it up! I spent a couple of hours there last week with three new American blogger friends, all of whom have photo blogs. I’m sure you’ll love their different visions of Paris.
This photo owes its existence to Australian photographer Wendy Smith who is currently living in France. We were walking along chatting in the Palais Royal after a sudden shower chased us off the terrace of the Café Nemours. Suddenly, Wendy said, “the light – it’s really amazing! look over there!”. I rushed to the fence and slipped my iPhone through. It was not until I saw the photo on Instagram that I realised there were TWO rainbows!
It’s almost Halloween. I’m dressed in black from head to toe as instructed and standing in line to buy my entrance ticket to the museum in order to participate in a Treasure Hunt at the Louvre by THATLou. “Hi”, says a voice behind me. I turn to see Sylvia from Finding Noon in this stunning purple witch’s hat and skull necklace.
Sylvia from Finding Noon in her stunning witch’s hat
We join Daisy de Plume, who’s running the show, at the meeting point and the other participants soon arrive. I am introduced to my team mates: Elodie from the Paris tourist office and Amanda and her 17-year-old son Eric. They’ve already done a hunt before, I’m pleased to hear, while Elodie and I are newcomers to the game.
At 7 pm sharp, Daisy starts explaining the rules and we’re given our clue sheet. We have one and a half hours to find as many treasures as possible out of a total of 32. There are points for finding each treasure (10 to 80 depending on the difficulty) and bonus points buried in each explanation. Photographs of the team in front of the treasure will prove it has been found.
Finding the first treasure – you can see the highlighted map of the Louvre in Eric’s hands
Each member of the team of three to four people (there are seven teams tonight) is assigned a role. I’m the photographer (though sadly, my iPhone lets me down and a lot of the photos turn out a little blurred), Eric is the map-reader, Amanda the main clue reader and Elodie is the able assistant. In addition to taking photographs, I have to keep my eyes peeled for the treasures.
The first thing is to devise a search strategy by assigning each treasure to an area on the museum map highlighted by Daisy to indicate the sections of the Louvre involved in the hunt. It’s a very large museum so we don’t want to be rushing from one end to the other in just any old order, particularly as we’re not allowed to run or split up during the hunt.
Pointing at the worms and looking very cheesy for the camera!
Eric is champing at the bit, eager to find our first treasure. We start in the French mediaeval sculpture section with Death St Innocent* where team members are to be photographed pointing to worms. There are also bonus points for finding how many unicorns there are in the room. Amanda spies one on a bas relief. “Devious”, she says.
The team is too busy concentrating on the next treasure to look at the camera!
Once we have found all the treasures in one section, we move onto the next. In front of a painting of Christ resurrected, we’re instructed to represent the hand positions of the figures behind us. Elodie cleverly winds a shawl around her in lieu of a wall.
Replicating the hands in a 15C Provençal Resurrection of Christ
As time marches on, the pace picks up. One section turns out to be unexpectedly shut but thanks to Amanda’s determination, we find the treasure anyway. The team pauses in front of Ingres’ Grande Odalisque to win 10 bonus points by looking over their shoulders.
Mimicking La Grande Odalisque by Ingres
Only once do we come across another team, towards the end of the hunt. Time is running out, we only have ten minutes to get back to the starting point or we’ll be docked two points for every one minute late! We haven’t found all the treasures but Daisy has already told us that it’s impossible to do so.
As we hurry back, we make up a limerick** to go with the Raft of the Medusa – there’s a separate prize for the winning rhyme. We make it just in time. We sit down to tally up our points and catch our breath. Daisy was certainly right to tell us to wear comfortable shoes!
The final tally – making sure we have all our points!
Then we all head to L’Imprimerie for a drink and dinner. We’re given the answer sheet so we can tally up our bonus points. There’s an extra 50 points and a separate prize for inventing a team name***. We choose the Skeltering Skeletons. Everyone votes for a winner and WITCHLou, which I have to admit is better than ours, takes the prize.
By the time our meal arrives, Daisy has finalised the scores. The Skeltering Skeletons win with 1150 points out of a total of 2000, more than 400 ahead of the runners-up. We all cheer and share our winning coasters of paintings in the Louvre. The other teams receive their prizes****. As it’s a little noisy, we can’t read out our limericks but they will be posted on THATLou’s blog so we can vote for the winner.
Amanda showing our first prize: a set of Louvre coasters and a postcard of the Louvre each
We all agree we have had a wonderful time and seen parts of the Louvre and art works we would never have known about otherwise. Our attention to detail has been sharpened. I attribute our win to the excellent organisation and friendly cooperation of our team and the fact that we read some of Daisy’s posts beforehand. Having an enthusiastic teenager certainly helps as well!
Elodie says she’s going back another day to find the other treasures on the list! I might just join her.
* EXAMPLE OF CLUES – TREASURE 1DEATH St INNOCENT (La Mort St Innocent)Alabaster, H 1.20m x W .55m x D .27m – from Paris’s Cemetery of Innocents16th Century French Sculpture (end of Middle Ages)
The plaque at Death’s foot reads “There is not a single being alive, however cunning and strong in resistance, whom I will not slay with my dagger, & give to the Worms as their Pittance!” Quick take a whopping thirty points for a photo of your team pointing to these worms (and just look at what they’re doing — Talk about appropriate for this gruesomely ghoulish death hunt!). So our friend Death was originally kept in the Cimitière des Innocents (CDI), which was found smack dab in the center of Paris – abutting the market place of Les Halles. The CDI accepted its first denizens in the 12th Century, as a perfectly orderly graveyard, with a space per individual. But as the city grew, the small swath of CDI (just 130 meters by 65) did not. When space ran out mass burials began to be conducted – up to 1500 dead could be buried in one pit before a new one was dug. Just think about the stench as you’re marketing right next to this grisly pit of death. Horrible. No one moved CDI from the center of town (thirty points for why this is) until Louis XVI passed an edict in 1780 that no more burials should take place. Six years later Mr Skull and Bones here was moved first to St Gervais then to Notre Dame, where he’d be unveiled with his ominous (now missing) dagger only one day a year. Which was? Oh boy, you get another ten points for the correct answer to that! And congrats on your last-minute Louvre prep! POINTS: 80
** Our limerick
Poseidon the god of the sea
Rarely took time for a pee, but
He pulled down his trunks
Screamed “you are all skunks”
And did it before all who could see
***Team names:The Skeltering Skeletons
WITCHLou = Witches in the Chateau du Louvre
Tri’Eiffel Insane
Catwomen in the Louvre
Cape Coders
Dead Funky Unicorns
Winning Witches
****Prizes:
1st place = coasters because you deserve a drink and PCs to write home
2nd place = Game of cards to try another game
3rd = Louvre rulers to measure their mediocrity
4th = Mona Lisa Nail Files to buff up on their Louvre finds
5th = little toy cameras with animals, because they should look at animals not art
6th = bookmarks to read up on the Louvre
7th = stickers of the Louvre’s greatest hits to stick to their memory and chocolate coins to bet on another game
This Wednesday, Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris takes us to the newest shopping centre in Paris, Beaugrenelle, which even has a Marks & Sparks; Daisy de Plume from THATlou Treasure Hunt at the Louvre whom I will be joining on the evening of October 30 for her Death Hunt, introduces us to the Dance Macabre; while Genie from Paris and Beyond, who has a photo blog about Paris, takes us to the famous Rue d’Aligre. Enjoy!
Beaugrenelle Paris, the newest shopping center in Paris with FREE shuttle boat service from the Eiffel Tower!
by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use
My neighborhood isn’t trendy like the Marais, exclusive like Saint-Germain-des-Prés or charming like Montmartre. It’s a residential area that attracts families who need an extra bedroom rather than hipsters who want to be close to the newest, latest, hottest spot in town. But thanks to the opening of Beaugrenelle Paris, my part of town is on the “must-see” list of Parisians this week.
For the first time since I’ve lived here, I walked out the front door of our apartment, strolled along the Seine, crossed the Pont de Grenelle and had easy access to stores like Guerlain, Baccarat, Michael Kors, Sandro, H&M, Zara and Desigual. I didn’t have to hop on a bus or fight the crowds in the metro. When it started to rain, I didn’t have to worry that I had forgotten my umbrella (again!) because I was safely inside the newest shopping center in Paris. Read more
Trilogy of Death – Part II
by native New Yorker Daisy de Plume, who has lived in Paris for nearly a decade and created THATLou to share her passion for art and her unique approach toward making the museum experience fun and accessible to all.
So yesterday we spent a sunny Sunday pondering the dead at the Cimitière des Innocents (CDI), once Paris’s largest and oldest graveyard smack dab in the middle of town (where the Renaissance Fontaine des Nymphs, aka Fontaine des Innocents** currently is, near the RER Les Halles station). We had just touched on how when space ran out, mass graves of 1500 cadavers per pit were filled, before they were closed off and a new one of equal size was dug. But we haven’t yet considered the business of death. Read more
Rue d’Aligre – un Café
by Genie from Paris and Beyond, who lives in Mobile and has loved Paris, its people, its architecture and all of France since she was eight years old. She has a photo blog about Paris and occasionally other places in the world.
Taken on a busy market day (Marché d’Aligre), there is scant room for café table and chairs.
Still, the pastries and a coffee (or thé) can be enjoyed as the market vendors shout out the quality of their wares.
One thinks that the price of the coffee and pastry is small for this front row theatre seat.
Click here to see the photo which I haven’t reproduced as a small photo would never do justice to the original.
In our quest to get into the Christmas spirit, we recently spent a day in Lucéram, a pretty medieval hill village north of Nice and less than an hour from Lou Messugo. Why? Because it comes alive in December with its “Circuit des Crèches”. Literally every tiny alley, every balcony, every doorway and every nook and cranny is decorated with pine branches, red and gold ribbons, and nativity scenes in every conceivable shape and size. These scenes (the creches) are made out of wood, paper, glass, pinecones, traditional santons (earthenware figurines), clothes pegs, matches, wool, twigs and even bread. They come in every size from minute tucked into holes in the wall to a 10m long replica of the village and everything in between. Even the village’s numerous fountains and old wash-houses are all decked out with their own floating creches. Read more
The lead up to Christmas can be one of the best times to travel to Europe, not only to visit the amazing Christmas Markets that are held each year but also to sample the delicious food that plays a big part in the festivities.
For a bi-cultural couple, celebrating Christmas and other holidays can be liking walking through a cultural minefield. Christmas stockings, decorations and traditional foods can all provoke heated debates. If your spouse is from Switzerland, he may claim that Baby Jesus delivers presents to the good little girls and boys around the world when you know for a fact that it’s a jolly man dressed in a red suit. As an American, I find it somewhat hard to believe that a tiny baby could handle the stress of landing a sleigh on a steep Parisian rooftop without bursting into tears. After all, Santa has a hard enough time maneuvering through the city traffic, and he’s a robust man accustomed to managing an entire village of elves. Read more 
