Proud to be an American in France!!!

The Inauguration of Barack Obama was celebrated around the world, including Clermont-Ferrand, France. We were invited to the home of another American family to celebrate. A good friend of ours and co-worker of Preston from the US was working in Clermont, so we invited her to come and watch as well. We all gathered around the tv as CNN International broadcast the entire event live and in English! The inauguration was shown live in French on another channel as well. What a great moment in the history of the US!

Christmas Day and the rest of the Break

This past week back to school/work was really hectic and I am just now getting around to posting pictures from Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and the remainder of our break. Christmas Day, we cooked a traditional meal with hame, chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, greenbeans, peach cobbler and ice tea. Daniele helped with the cooking and everything was good.




A few days after Christmas, we were invited to have dinner with one of Preston's co-workers and his family. There we had a traditional French meal. First there were aperitifs and champagne. Escargots, oysters, and foie gras are very popular during the holidays. Later that evening we attended a gospel concert with Preston's co-worker and his wife, La Nuit du Gospel We had a great time.

The group was from New Orleans and sang a lot of traditional gospel songs. It was really good to hear familiar, spiritual songs. At first it started out like a concert, with most of the audience sitting. But it didn't take long for the music to move people to their feet. I was standing the entire time, singing along and praising God. Amazing Grace, Oh Happy Day, were just some of the songs. Most of the audience probably didn't understand the words or the ministry from the group, but they did enjoy the music and they knew it was the Gospel, the good news about Jesus. Afterwards, we got to meet the group and the band. I guess Preston got a little to caught up in the spirit and invited the entire group back to our apartment for dinner. He invited 12 people to our APARTMENT and it was almost midnight! Fortunately the group declined, but we had a great time hanging out.



New Year's Eve was pretty laid back. We brought in the New Year with 2 other American families. We decided to bring escargots. It was fun to see the reactions on everyone's face as they tried them.

Zurich, Switzerland Christmas Market

Zurich was the last stop on our tour. The city of Zurich was not our favorite. Let's just say it is not as family friendly as Rothenburg or Strasbourg and it was very expensive. The christmas markets were interesting as well. The first one we went to was outdoors in the historic part of town. It was very eclectic and had lots of vendors of things that were not Christmas, just the things you would find at the average flea market. However, I was able to find one ornament.



One highlight was our visit to Starbucks, but the best part of Zurich for us was the indoor Christmas market in the train station. It featured the largest indoor christmas market in Europe. On display was the most beautiful tree of our entire trip and I am sure the most expensive. It was decorated with 7000 Swarovski crystals of all shapes, sizes and designs. It was absolutely spectacular!

Zurich is certainly better suited for adults and couples. Later that evening, Preston and I enjoyed an adults night out with 2 other couples. We had a fantastic dinner at a Spanish Restaurant. The last morning of the trip was Christmas Eve and it was time to return home. We were looking forward to our first christmas dinner in France and a much needed rest at home. Yes, it's beginning to feel like home.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany part 2

There is more to Rothenburg than christmas markets. And since we stayed 2 days, we were able to visit museums and walk around town. The first museum that we toured was the old prison. We also visited the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, a doll museum and museum about the history of German christmas traditions. But our favorite historic part of Rothenburg was to walk along the wall of the city. We had a great time imagining what it must have been like to patrol the city. One section of the wall even had canons in place. It was better than being at Disney!

There were lots of Americans visiting Rothenburg, so most of the merchants spoke English, always a plus when you don't know German. We could have stayed here another day, but we had one more stop to make to complete our Christmas market tour.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Visiting 3 markets in 5 days may sound like a lot of traveling, but this is not unusual when visiting Christmas markets. We even know of one family that visited 14 markets in 5 days!  What is amazing is that we visited 3 countries in 5 days!  Now this type of travelling is not particularly the way French people spend Christmas. They spend the break with family and friends, celebrating the holiday season.  But many American families like us travel during the break.  In fact we had dinner on 2 different nights with other families that were traveling. And with so many countries like Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Germany 4 -6 hours from Clermont, how could we stay home!



Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a beautiful little village in the Bavarian region of Germany. In fact, it inspired the village for Disney's Pinocchio movie.  We stayed in a family run hotel. The rooms were very nice and large and the staff was very helpful.  We stayed within the city and were able to walk to the Christmas markets and the other attractions.   Most of the streets are closed to cars to protect the cobblestone.  It is the perfect christmas village. The only thing missing was the snow.

The christmas market itself was smaller than the ones in Strasbourg. But the atmosphere was just as festive. And the food was better. It was love at first sight...the longest hotdog we had ever seen. I am not the biggest fan of hotdogs, but they were excellent. We also enjoyed another Rothenburg specialty, schneeballe (snow balls). They are a pastry that reminds me of a big sugar cookie. Kinderpunsch, warm juice, (either orange or grape) with cinnamon, was very good. As you can tell, Christmas markets are as much about the food as the gifts and the ornaments.

And speaking of ornaments. I found the largest ornament store, Kathe Wohlfahrt. This store was enchanting. If I wasn't in the Christmas mood before, now I was. There was even an artist on hand to customize our glass ornaments.



See my post Our Worst Christmas Tree Ever for more pics of my collection.

Christmas Market Tour, Strasbourg, France

Our first stop on our 5 day 4 night Christmas Market Tour was Strasbourg, France. We stayed in the Holiday Inn City Center. It was across the street from a tram station, so getting around was easy. We were very excited to see the lights and decorations and the food. We enjoyed bratwurst and sauerkraut for dinner. The children bought Christmas gifts for each other from among the many vendors. There were products from all over the world. Hand-made wooden toys, ornaments, gingerbread, nativity sets, wool clothing and jewelry. Somethings were unique and wonderful and others were cheap and cheesy. It was cold outside and misty, but we were warm inside. While Preston was keeping Prince warm and dry, the vin chaud was keeping Preston warm. I was on a personal mission, looking for unique ornaments to start my European ornament collection. Only one ornament caught my eye.





It was an ornament made in the traditional pottery of Alsace region and hand painted. With only one ornament purchased so far, I had a long way to go for my collection. I was looking forward to our next 2 Christmas market stops.