IAS 380R Midnight Mass in Paris

Small Cultural Proof

A day doesn't get much better than this. Christmas Eve in Paris was lovely.

Santons are a big deal in France. They're handmade and painted clay figures that make a Christmas village. You don't just have the manger and carolers. There's the whole lot: the baker, the butcher, the cheese man, the doctor, the gypsies, the teacher, the washerwoman, the blacksmith. The list goes on. Because they're so expensive they're often given as gifts. 

I once heard a man at a Christmas market ask if they had any doctors left. The woman said, "No, we're all out of doctors." He was kind of upset and took off to continue the hunt. I guess someone was sick.

I started my collection. Got a few townspeople and the manger scene, of course. Couldn't find an angel unfortunately. Oh, or a baby Jesus. Kind of a critical component.

 

The Gallaries Lafayette theme this year was Rock and Roll.

The Agenda for the night. Here's how it goes: Everyone does their last minute Christmas preparations during the day. Then, around 11, every good little Catholic marches off to Midnight Mass. If you want the full cultural experience, you go to Notre Dame de Paris. You all stand in line and cram inside as tight as can be. Then you wait. Meanwhile, the Pope is being televised outside the building on a huge screen and inside on several smaller screens.

 

We got there earlier, around 9pm, so what we saw was not technically Midnight Mass, but the presentation of baby Jesus. In France, baby Jesus does not appear in the nativity scene until Christmas Eve. So it's a big deal when he appears. The bishop in Notre Dame read some announcements and scriptures, then brought out the most enormous baby Jesus I've ever seen. Then he took the baby, holding him high above his head, and walked around, kind of by the North Transept and placed the baby in the crèche. Would've gotten a picture if I could've lifted my arms. But it was really neat and the people followed him around to watch.

Then everyone either waits for real midnight mass, or goes home and puts their own baby Jesus in the crèche. Most people left and a new flood came in. The whole process took less than an hour. That's plenty of religion to last until next year!

After baby Jesus is securely placed in the crèche at home with the rest of the town (the butcher and baker and sheep and goats) it's time to eat! In France it's not Christmas dinner that's the big one; it's Christmas Eve dinner. I really wanted my family to do this the correct way. The proper French way. After all, it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity that we would all be in Paris for Christmas. However, we'd already pretty much blown it. Since we'd spend so long at Galleries Lafayette looking at the window displays, we sort of forgot about dinner. Have you seen A Christmas Story? Remember the dog ate the turkey and they ended up at an Asian restaurant? That was us this year. Only it was Indian.

However, after the more traditional French family eats a huge wonderful dinner, it's time for the Yule Log! This was strike two for the Americans. We forgot to get the Yule Log. HOW can anyone forget the Yule Log, you ask? Erm....I don't know. And believe me, we were sorely disappointed in ourselves. We knew all the bakeries would close early. So we just...forgot. I can't be held responsible. Far too many sparkly things around. Anyway, after we would've put the baby Jesus that we didn't have in our chèche, we would've eaten our Yule Log. The following picture is what my mother insisted on calling a Yule Log. I know. It's embarrassing. Tasted delicious, nonetheless. What can we say? We're American. We're innovative and creative and definitely know how to think outside the box and get a job done. Hello Yule Log. (Yes, that is pistachio ice cream that you see.)

Joyeax Noël!

 The day after Christmas we found a real Yule Log.

FR 311R

This morning I met up with M. et Mme Bourbon, the elderly couple who runs the bed and breakfast where I stayed during my first 9 days in la Vienne. I hadn't seen them since moving into my apartment, but we became friends during that time of apartment and cell phone hunting, so it was so good to visit with them today. They came in for the market at Notre Dame which is the best place to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, flowers, etc. We met up and walked to a café where we got hot drinks and patisseries for breakfast. M. Bourbon said that my French had gotten much better since we last met and it was music to my ears.

We talked about many things, most of which will be applicable to the paper I need to write on the history of Poitiers. (Note: in French, the word for "history" and the word for "story" are the same: "l'histoire.") I asked them about the history of Poitiers and the Vienne, and they responded with enthusiasm about Joan of Arc, Poitiers' roman churches and the architecture, (Notre Dame de Paris is Gothic), the oldest and biggest nearby cities, which ones have good churches and roman ruins and which ones don't. There's a roman bath and amphitheater out by where they live, 20 minutes in the country. Also, they told me a story of when Poitiers was under attack from the English and someone snuck into Notre Dame to ring the bells and warn the people so everyone could escape. They said there are lots of stories like that which I made a note to research. I told them I recently traveled to Tours and La Rochelle. They said Tours is very modern because most of it was destroyed during the war and rebuilt. Angers, La Rochelle, and Limoges however, were not destroyed and therefor have a more classic, older look like Poitiers.

We also talked about the more modern gems of Poitiers: apparently there's a little shop that sells very nice, sturdy umbrellas made in the region. They told me which patisserie shop sells the best macaroons, which are a specialty of la Vienne. We talked about book and hat stores, orchestra, my students, and the Christmas market. Apparently Poitiers, which I think is so beautiful now with the lights, trees, and stables filled with live animals, is normally even more gorgeous. Previous years they've had more lights in more colors, but this year most of the lights are blue because it's more economical. M. and Mme Bourbon seemed to think it was not worth sacrificing the beautiful colored lights for economical purposes, and expressed their disappointment about the mediocre light displays this year. Also, there's usually an ice skating rink at Hotêl de Ville, which I was very disappointed to hear is not happening this year. We talked about other Christmas markets in other cities. Some are better than others. Some have colored little houses, but some, like in Tours, have houses made of wood. Blue lights, colored or wooden houses, live camels, this is all quite a lot more glamorous and magical than Christmases chez-moi, ice skating rink or not.