It was not a white Christmas in Europe, although we managed to have a pretty good time in Paris despite being without family. We spent the first couple of days with cousin Ale and her fiancé Vincent exploring Paris – we hit all the well known tourist sites – Eifel tour, Louvre, Pantheon, Jardin de Luxemburg, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Place de la Concorde, Champs-Elysees, and Madeline among others. On Christmas Eve morning, we explored the inside of the Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo (I must say JP asked about her arms), The Winged Victory of Samothrace, and other great pieces of art…. Italian, French, Greek, and Roman. As we had the kids with us, we got through approximately half of the museum in just over an hour – a landspeed record I am sure. We had a quiet Christmas Eve dinner with Ale and Vincent, but were missing the big Christmas Eve bash at John and Jackie’s. We were up bright and early Christmas morning to catch the TGV (high speed train - top speed on this trip was 201km/hr or about 120 mph) to Angers, where Vincent’s mother lives. We were greeted by Vincent’s mom, Marie, and his two sisters, Cecile and Sophie, who all worked hard to make us feel like we were at home. There was a blazing fire in the fireplace (Jim was named the CEO of the fireplace after demonstrating master skills), presents under the tree for all of us, and plenty of food and drinks. The Christmas feast was impressive. We started off with appetizers: shrimp and crab pates, salmon bites, cheese, and warm prunes stuffed with sausage (I know it sounds strange, but it was pretty tasty). We started our first course at the dinner table with fois gras and shrimp. The next course was oysters. The main course was turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and baked apple. Next was a course of various cheeses. Finally, there was a very traditional desert they call branch. It’s a cake decorated like a tree branch, with custard and frosting as filling. The whole dining experience lasted about 8 hours, concluding with decaf coffee and the opening of presents at about 10PM. We were up early again the next morning to visit a castle called Chambord. It is famous for its double staircase in the shape of a double helix (picture a strand of DNA) that was designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The following day we caught the train back to Paris and then the plane back to Basel, where we hopped on an overnight train to Hamburg, Germany.
