It was anything but a white Christmas, but at least it didn’t rain. It has, however, snowed a bit in the past couple of days, giving a very thin, but nonetheless white, coating on things that makes winter just a little easier to bear.
For the second time in these three years (yep, January 18th is the 3rd anniversary of my arrival in France…January 17th being the 3rd anniversary of my departure if you want to get technical).
So, a bit about Christmas in Alsace.
First off, as in many parts of Europe, but especially Germany, towns and villages all over Alsace hosts beautiful Christmas markets which bring a strong element of tradition back to the lives of locals for one month every year. (Digression – yes, already – many things that we consider to be German, most French people consider to be Alsatian…like pretzels, for example). Anyway, Alsace appears to be renowned in France for their Christmas markets, and the traditions that go with them. In fact, when I typed “marchés de noël” into Google, www.marche-de-noel-alsace.com was the first link to come up, followed by “les marchés de noël en allemagne” and only then “marchés de noël en france et en europe”.
Christmas markets, set up generally one month before the big day, generally consist of wood-cabin style market stalls where people sell decorations, baked goods, handmade gifts (jewellery, wooden toys…) and, of course, food. The first alimentary product people generally think of is spiced wine (vin chaud or glühwein if you will). While the French seemed at a loss when asked about non-alcoholic spiced wine (which exists in Germany, and I knew about it from back in my Denninger’s days), besides the red and white wine that is spiced and heated, they also heat apple juice (normal enough; if only they would add cinnamon more often) and orange juice (hot orange juice just seems inherently wrong to me, but hey). The most prominent food is probably the well-known Alsatian favourite, Flammeküche (tarte flambée: think pizza with impossibly thin crust and cream, cheese, onion and bacon bits instead of tomato sauce etc.), but, of course, crêpes and company can also be found. (I was very excited to find my crêpe man, who I finally re-discovered a couple of months ago after not having seen him in over a year, had a traditional stall set up – which also means he was probably able to stay warmer than in his usual tent-style set-up!).
Different towns and villages are known for different things (or, depending on who you talk to, are good at varying levels). As with so many things, people figure just about every other place is better than Mulhouse, but I think Mulhouse is just fine (frankly, the markets look more or less the same and sell more or less the same things everywhere). I saw Strasbourg two years ago, and had big plans to see lots this year, but busy-ness prevented it. I did, however, make it to the one I had most wanted to this year in Montbéliard. Apparently, each year they have a special invitee (from the little I know, a country) and this year was Canada. I had expected to see a stall among the others, but in fact there was a whole set up, about half a dozen stalls (all French Canadians), a couple of teepees, and other Canadiana set up in a section apart from the rest. There I got to buy an incredibly over-priced bottle of maple syrup for a friend, and the friend that I went with bought us each a ‘tire d’érable’ (I don’t remember what you call it in English…when you pour hot syrup in the snow and eat it once it’s hardened). I got to see Père Noël, and looked around at some nifty merchandise before our sticky and frozen hands got the better of us and we headed home.
Other cool events, classmates of mine invited my to their annual dinner which was, as it turned out Raclette (a personal favourite – similar to fondue, but you each have you own little pan in which you melt your raclette (or other) cheese to pour over (a couple of forkfuls worth at a time, because it has to be eaten warm) potatoes, cold cuts, and other such things. Deeelicious. I was very embarrassed when I realized that they had arranged their annual Secret Santa exchange, but, having forgotten to tell me about it, pooled together and bought me a gift (the uncensored Simpsons family photo album en français). It was really cool. It was actually then that I was supposed to go see the market at Montbéliard, but we didn’t end up having time, so I was happy that I managed to make it a few days later, just a few days before Christmas.
Christmas Eve I was invited for dinner at my friend Léo’s, where we had the traditional foie gras, oysters (okay, 2 of 6 people had oysters, and I was not one of them, having tried two years ago, and having not at all enjoyed), and smoked salmon as the main dish. Christmas Day I was invited to another Christmas dinner, this time at Nico’s parents’ where I got to meet Nico’s then 4-day old nephew Éthan. This time smoked salmon was the entrée, and a bird resembling (but apparently not quite the same as) a chicken was the main course. Both were great in any case.
After dinner, I went back to my apartment, where I has an online rendez-vous with my dad, sisters, and brothers-in-law. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (ie. webcam and high-speed internet), I got to be present for the gift unwrapping. Something that, even two years, I could not have hoped for with my 512k internet connection.
Overall, a very nice Christmas!
This has been a busy work week, with a couple of late evenings and a website to relaunch tomorrow that, as is so often the case, will be ready only if we’re very lucky, in part thanks to the fact that the client that insisted on this extremely tight deadline is on vacation. Lucky her.
For New Years, it’s Oven BBQ’d chicken for dinner, and cocktails for after, all happening at Château Maximus Force (still named such despite that ‘Maximus’ moved out at the beginning of the summer, because it’s a cool name!). Then, well, then it’s 2006 and we’ll see what happens with that!
My very best wishes to all for the rest of the holidays, and for the new year.
