A visit from Steve and Christa

We both looked forward to having family here for Thanksgiving; Christa and Steve left their little ones, Anna and Emmett, in the willing hands of their other grandparents.....and came to spend a week with us!  November isn't an ideal time to visit Paris, as the weather can be questionable,  but none of us could complain.  They got plenty of walking in, as we were able to share this beautiful city with them.  We spent the first few days visiting the Eiffel, of course, along with Notre Dame, cafes, and markets.

 

Many of our visitors have also wanted to visit the Normandy beaches....and so did Steve and Christa.  So we headed north in a rental car, stopped for lunch at the famous resort area of Deauville, and headed to the American Cemetery and Omaha Beaches.  By then, the weather was turning a bit sour with horizontal rain, so we headed to our favorite B&B, an old mill turned into a beautiful "gite".  It was my third time there, but I love the countryside! The rain cut our visit a little short, so we headed back to Paris the next afternoon.

 

One of the highlights when we returned to Paris was going to see an opera!  We all headed to the modern Opera Bastille to see "La Boheme", which was a first for all of us.  Sung in Italian, it did have French subtitles electronically above the stage.  I was surprised that I could actually understand most of it (yes, I can read French much better than speak it!).  We all prepped beforehand and read the words in English, downloaded from the internet.

 

 

The night before Thanksgiving, we went to the Champs-Elysee to see the Christmas lights and visit the annual 

Christmas markets, the Marche de Noel.  These markets are all over Europe and sell handcrafted items from around the world.  They couldn't resist taking a ride on the huge ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde, something that we did last year and loved the views!

 

 

Having a map in hand, Steve and Christa visited the Louvre, the Orsay,  and Montmarte on their own, while I started putting together a Thanksgiving dinner.  That can be quite the ordeal here, as finding turkeys before Christmas can be quite a challenge (the French traditionally eat lots of turkey at Christmas).  My friend, Amy, did order one from her favorite butcher at the market, picked it up the day before, and brought it over in her little cart, via the bus!  This was a BIG dinde, about 16 pounds.  But it DID fit in my oven.  Turkeys are not cheap here....and even with a "sale", it was over $5.00 a pound! But it was FRESH, free-range of course, and delicious!

Besides the four of us, we were joined by our friends Amy and Ken, and Steven and Francis, plus our cute and very Parisien French teacher Michelle who loves American Thanksgivings!  We enjoyed all the traditional American dishes, including stuffing and pumpkin pie!  It ALMOST felt like home, although we missed the little grandchildren.   NEXT YEAR!

 

 

Thank you, Steve and Christa, for coming and making our holiday special!