Marché de Noël

This afternoon Cindy and I went into Paris to go to a Marché de Noël. I got to cross a few things off my list.

On the way we stopped to pick up a few things and while Cindy was queuing I saw that that department store that we were in sold Pierre Hermé macarons. I had heard all about this particular chef who puts inspired combinations of flavours into his macarons but was worried when I heard about the crowds at his shop. You've already guessed that they're expensive, so I only bought two: white truffle and hazelnut; and milk chocolate and passionfruit. They were very good but I'm not going out to spend €24 on a dozen.

Then we walked down the Champs Elysée, fighting our way through crazy crowds to get to the Christmas market. Every tree on the Champs Elysée from the Arc de Triomphe down to the Place de la Concorde was lit up with fairy lights and fluorescent tubes with moving lights inside. There was also a ferris wheel in the Place de la Concorde but we didn't go on it.

I was a little surprised that it wasn't just Christmassy stuff. Of course, some stalls specialised in Christmas decorations etc. One was selling just santons. While all these figurines are meant to go into your nativity, only about 10% of the ones on display were Christmas related. I still haven't worked out why you need a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker to fill out the scene; maybe it's because the three wise are arranged somewhere else, they don't arrive until 6th January. I looked for but could find a caganer, which is a shame because Mum's nativity really needs one.

But there was also all sorts of arts and crafts, and regular commercial products from French companies, like art deco bidets!

Of course there was the usual French street food like crêpes and waffles for sale as well as winter foods like mulled wine. While Cindy was pigging out on roasted chestnuts I tried a canelé, something else I'd heard about but never tried. It was pretty good too.