by Maureen | Dec 18, 2021 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Featured Articles, Milano, Shopping & Markets
Stretched out along the north side of Milan’s Duomo, Christmas Market stalls are selling meats, cheeses, breads, pretzels, truffles, dried fruit, candies, chocolate… Also every variety of gift item, including little trinkets, clothing, ornaments, jewelry, etc.
Approaching the Christmas Market stalls.
Dried and candied fruits of all sorts.
Chestnuts roasting on a closed fire.
Meats and cheeses from Norcia.
Olives, pickled artichoke hearts and veggies from Puglia.
by Maureen | Nov 27, 2010 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Design, Featured Articles, Graffiti & Street Art, Graphics, Incredible Locations, Introspection, Journal, People, Photo of the Day, Photos, Seattle, Shopping & Markets
“Black Friday”. THE day upon which retailers place their hopes and base their projections for their year’s sales and their holiday “retail success”. The day after Thanksgiving, when much of the country is turkey-drugged, stuffed with carbs, off-from-work and feeling the pressure of the looming Christmas gift list. The thing to do? Join the frenzy. Get in line at 4:00 a.m. and shop!
Some friends and I met in downtown Seattle this evening at Westlake Center, the closest place this city has to a central cathedral’s main plaza. (I guess it IS a cathedral of sorts…) The streets were barricaded and filled with people awaiting the lighting of the tall Christmas Tree out in front of Macy’s department store.
What caught my attention most, were the simple, stark, white-on-black signs carried by smartly-dressed, friendly men and women. “Buy More Stuff”, the signs said. And “Hurry!”.
.
.
.
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Some people were sure that these folks had been hired by the retailers to ramp up sales. Others understood the facetiousness of the message. It turns out that there’s a group named “BuyMoreStuff.Org” who states its foundation as: “We’re here to encourage people to buy more stuff. If you don’t hurry, they’ll run out of stuff or you’ll run out of time.”
“It’s interesting: Americans in particular are hyper-attuned to advertising and marketing, which all comes down to Buy More Stuff, and when you reduce it down to its primary thing it becomes very weird. When the message is pared down to its essence is when it confuses people the most.” said Michael Holden, who founded Buy More Stuff with fellow performance artist Cody Strauss.
Yes. There’s been plenty written about our having been hoodwinked into feeling compelled to buy, buy, buy. But one thing I mused over, having recently returned from Italy, was “WOULD this be allowed in Italy, and if so, would anyone actually DO this there?” These simple signs are a clean, inoffensive, provoke-thought-and-get-under-the-skin manifestation of “Freedom of Speech”. Bravo!
I like that they can walk around town with bold signs. I like that they did (and do). I like their message. (And I like their graphics.)
Here’s a Huffington Post blurb from last year’s “performance”.
To twist your head around, read a bit of the Buy More Stuff mailbag here. “Hurry!”
by Maureen | Dec 27, 2009 | Cheese, Christmas & New Year's Eve, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Journal, Meals, Paris, Photos
Journal Entry:
“8:00 P.M. After a day at the Louvre.
I’ve just eaten the most sumptuous dinner at a little restaurant/bar, “Louis Vins”. The food had me melting at the first bite.
Le Louis Vins, 9 Rue de la Montagne Ste Geneviève, 75005 Paris, France
I ordered the warm goat cheese salad, which had rounds of cheese crusted with pistachios (?) and grilled, served on a dressed bed of mixed greens. The warm cheese was lovely.
For my main course, I absolutely savored the “Araignée of Porc with Trompettes de la Mort” mushrooms. The drizzles of sauces had me relishing every bite as the flavors lingered. Fabulous! I’m drinking a nice red, 2006 Crozes Hermitage.
(My language skills translated “Trompettes de la Mort” as “Trumpets of Death”, but when I researched the name, it came up as “Horns of Plenty”. Hmm. So much for my language skills.)
…Oh! They just brought my “Cold Creamy Cake Candied Chestnuts”, drizzled with some sort of heavenly sauce! Out-of-this-world divine! My mouth is in a dream.
by Maureen | Dec 26, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Featured Articles, Journal, Paris
It seemed to me that the ultimate Parisian, Catholic experience would be attending Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. (And it seemed the thought occurred to thousands of others, too.) It was raining last night at 8:00 as I walked from my hotel, across the bridge and toward the cathedral. What a sight with the church illuminated in the blustery, late evening!
I walked around to the plaza in front of Notre Dame, and it was incredibly beautiful with the lights and the Christmas tree. (No. I didn’t retouch or recolor the image to make the tree look blue.)
When I arrived just after 8:00, there was another mass going on, so I walked around and looked at the side chapels. Toward the end of that mass, I and countless others, positioned ourselves, ready. Within little more than 5 minutes after the end of mass ALL of the chairs (no pews) were full of those that had been waiting. A short time later, an image/light show, “Lumen de Lumine”, was projected on a taut panel of fabric, suspended above the altar. It was a narrated (in French) picture story of the birth of Christ.
The light show was followed by Christmas songs sung beautifully in both French and English. When they sang “Silent Night” in French and invited the participation of the congregation, I sang aloud in English. I imagine others did, too.
There were 6 little choir kids without blue robes, like this little girl. She was SO little and so young, yet so very intent on her singing.
I don’t know how many people fit in that cathedral, but it was standing-room-only, even out into the small side chapels.
Notre Dame has a grand organ and it accompanied the choir and priests.
There were about 20 priests present to assist with communion, though they did not concelebrate. The mass was in French, with a few responsorials in Latin. It might as well have been a Latin high mass, though. A foreign language in a cathedral like that… it had the SENSE of a high mass.
I was seated just 3 rows back from the front, so the frankincense was thick and fragrant. I like it.
I had arrived just after 8:00 in the evening, and was leaving at 1:30 in the morning. What a memorable life experience: Midnight Mass at Notre Dame. The rain had stopped, and as I walked home to my hotel room, I could hear the church bells pealing loudly all the way.
by Maureen | Dec 25, 2009 | Cheese, Christmas & New Year's Eve, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, Paris, Shopping & Markets
What was for dinner on Christmas Eve in Paris? Fast food, Parisian-style!
From my journal yesterday:
5:30 P.M. Christmas Eve, Paris.
I’m eating in my hotel room, after spending all afternoon at Musée D’Orsay absorbing the impressionists and Art Nouveau and before heading to Notre Dame for Midnight Mass. At the Maubert-Mutualité exit for the metro, there’s a charcuterie, fromagerie, boulangerie and wine shop that I stopped at to buy dinner. The ultimate “fast food”! On tonight’s menu, (eaten in my room with Christmas music on “shuffle” on iTunes on my laptop):
– Escargots in puff pastry with garlic herb butter. 3 pieces for 3,00 €
– Foie gras roll with pistachios. 1 slice for 3,40 €
– A sort of Chevre cheese, donut-shaped and very moldy. 6,80 €
– Flan de Legumes (with broccoli). 3,80 €
– Puff pastry rounds, (eggy and moist). 4 small pieces 1,30 €
– Bordeaux. (1/2 bottle remaining from before). 4,50 €
TOTAL COST OF CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER 22,80 €
(With today’s exchange rate, that’s about $33.00, but I figured that was fine for my Christmas dinner.)
…and it was delicious.
by Maureen | Dec 25, 2009 | Journal, Paris
Christmas. Friday. 9:11 PM. My suitcase just arrived from my flight on Monday.
I can change my clothes tomorrow.
(Don’t fly Air France.
They’ve handled this poorly.)
by Maureen | Dec 24, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, Paris, People, Photos
Group tours aren’t generally “my thing” but I found out in Washington D.C. a few years back that hitching a ride on a tour bus is like a crash course in the new city. (Not literally, of course!)
So I decided to take the “3-hour cruise” of Paris with a tour group: drive around to see the main sights, then finish with a sunset boat ride on the Seine, seeing the Louvre, D’Orsay, Eiffel Tower and others from the water, shoreward.
My driver picked me up at the hotel at 1:15, a bit earlier than scheduled, then we drove across town in his touring van (no big, long bus) to pick up other passengers… Along the way, Eni (Eniel) gave me running commentary. We arrived at the other hotel and I waited in the van. Eni came back and told me I was having a personal tour. The others had cancelled.
Born in Cuba, and moved to Paris in 2004, Eni speaks half a dozen languages or more. We used English, Spanish and Italian, and I couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant afternoon in Paris. For three hours he whipped that van around the city as only a local could. (Oh, the traffic he wended through!) We talked about the city, but also about personal aspects of living here, of having moved across the globe, of world politics, of culture, of our lives. How could I have planned all that?! He loves history, so he’s absorbed details that made the time more than just a driving tour. And he pointed out things on back street corners that no visitor would hear about.
I was always “Lady”. (Maybe that’s what he calls all the female passengers.) “Lady! At that restaurant they charge you 10 euro for a cup of coffee!” He recommended a restaurant for Christmas dinner (Le Veux Paris) and told me where the cheaper shopping is located. In 3 hours, we just about covered all the arrondisements of Paris and their highlights, and it wasn’t from a slow-moving bus.
At the end of our drive, he dropped me off at the boat launch at the base of the Eiffel Tower. We shook hands and he saw me off.
I told Eni that I have friends scheduled to come to Paris, and got his contact information. If you’re planning to be in Paris and want a personalized tour like only Eni could show you, get in touch with me and I’ll give you his number and e-mail address. It was absolutely time and money well-spent and gave me an overview that assures me that I’ll just HAVE to come back again and again to this city.
by Maureen | Dec 23, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Journal, Paris, People, Quips
If someone had said to me: “You’re going to Paris for a week, but the only thing you get to wear is what you wear on the plane” I would NOT have picked the following: a bra, heavy opaque tights, black polartec pants (almost sweat pants, but snug), gray cashmere turtleneck, off-white polartec pullover, a red-striped neck scarf, my “chic” gray and white striped swing coat, black beret and gloves, heavy wool socks, pearls and gore-tex hiking boots.
But that’s what I’ve got. Tomorrow will be day four, Christmas Eve and I haven’t changed my clothes since Monday. So chic! So elegant! So Parisienne! (Not even a pair of underwear to worry about changing.)
My flight left a half hour late on Monday because of the weather. Patches of snow remained on the runway, and the sky was that “looks like snow” kinda sky.
After arriving in Paris at about 12:30, all of us passengers went to baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited. I don’t know how in the world it was possible, but NONE of the passengers’ bags had been loaded onto the plane in Milan. So, a planeload of people piled around the baggage service desk and waited to talk to the ONE person that was there to hand out forms and then add names to the claims list. I was finally walking away after two and a half hours. There was no use getting upset. I had my wallet, computer and camera. I was here for a week. I had enough clothes to stay warm. I felt badly for the people that were transferring and flying on to another country! The woman at the counter said the bags would fly out of Milan that night and be delivered Tuesday.
Yesterday I talked to a girlfriend in Milan and she said they got a half foot of snow on Monday and the airport was closed. I guess I made it out of town just in time! Needless to say, the bags didn’t make it onto the next flight.
I had been sure to have clothes both warm (for anticipated snow and cold here) and chic enough befitting of Paris. Here I am, however, in hiking boots and sweat pants. Sigh. But I DID get here before they closed the airport in Milan and didn’t miss my time in Paris. I might have to go out and buy some clothes though. It’d be nice to wear something fresh!
by Maureen | Dec 23, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Featured Articles, Graphics, Journal, Paris, Photo of the Day, Photos
Today I simply followed inspiration and ended up south instead of north. I had all sorts of wonderful encounters with people along my wanderings and saw beautiful, delicious arrays in front of me.
…But right now, it’s approaching one in the morning (again, same as last night) and I’m too tired to post much, so I’ll throw you a bone with this fun image.
Joyeux Noel and Bon soir.
by Maureen | Dec 22, 2009 | Christmas & New Year's Eve, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Journal, Meals, Paris
From my journal entry, 21 December, 2009, 9:00 pm:
I just ordered French Onion Soup, to be followed by pepper steak and a nice red wine. (Chateau de Brague 2006, Grand Vin de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur). I spent the last 5 hours walking across the Left Bank area, starting in the 5th Arrondisement, ending in the 14th. I was approximately aiming for the Eiffel Tower, but had to go all the way around the Luxembourg Gardens. It started to rain, just at the edge of snow, so I hopped onto the metro after staring at the map for a long time figuring the best route.
Cold and wet, I followed the crowds in the long-since dark evening for the several blocks to the tower. When it came into view, I saw that it was made of gold! (I hadn’t known that before.) (…Just joking.) Glimmering, illuminated, brilliant. Its spire disappeared and reappeared as the mist and low clouds drifted. What an incredible moment for my first sight of the Eiffel Tower!
The light, constant rain begged an umbrella but it was a juggle to steady it against the breeze and gusts while at the same time bracing the camera against a lamp post for low-light. I think the occasional rain drop on the lens adds to the wintry atmosphere in the images.
(By the way, no Photoshop filters, or otherwise, used on these photos. That’s exactly what the tower looked like.)
