Skating in the Grand Palais Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches
Christmas in Paris
Ann lives in a fourth floor walkup, near St.Germain des
Pres. Going to her apartment is liking walking up to sunshine and warmth. The rooms are chockablock with art and doodads, an
accumulation of meaningful objects over a lifetime. It doesn’t have that heavy English
accumulation of dusty extinct birds, but rather a lot of giggles on the beach
or in the dark. It was here we ate ducks
and Danish pickle, radishes and potatoes on Christmas eve.
The highlight of the
evening was the lighting of the
Danish Christmas tree, with actual candles and sparklers. Everyone I tell this story squeals about the
danger of it, but as the Norsemen present pointed out, “everyone in Denmark
does this still, with a very fresh tree and plenty of paying attention”. As we shut the lights the crowd was hushed
and we felt the spirit of Christmas enter the room.
For Christmas the next day at our house, I filled stockings for the attendees: Blair had the pleasure of going to the Port
de Vanves flea market the week earlier to buy decorative spoons, a vial of ”uncut
diamonds”, a pair of earrings in a
Christmas box, a bone handled jackknife…all little suprises for the
stockings. Because it was brunch, I made
eggs with oriental spices over creamed spinach and onions; we ate smoked salmon,
bacon, sweet roasted peppers,
roasted fennel, marinated eggplant, green olive tapenade, olives, pistachios, seven cheeses, and poached pears. Friends brought breads and pannetone,
beverages and flowers. We feasted for
two hours before going to the piece de resistance: ice skating at the Grand
Palais.
Ice Rink Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on wood 4.5 x 13 inches
When we went to the market to buy vegetables early Christmas
morning, the Egyptian greengrocer talked
to Blair about Maryam. “Maryam is the only important woman in our
holy book, and she is the mother of Jesus. We believe in Jesus, too, that he is
alive and waiting in heaven for the judgment.
Maryam came to Egypt, you know, after that trouble with Jesus. We believe she was a very wonderful woman,
just like you believe. Really, we all
want the same things,” he went on. “We
want to be respected and have respect for others.” He spoke to Blair with his hand on his heart,
and it was a very touching, almost
tearful Christmas experience.
I also found a 500 euro note that day, in a very wet spot on
the sidewalk near the Luxembourg Gardens.
We were walking Harika, and there it was tweaking its bright blue/purple
eye at me. It was saturated, which gave
further credence to its authenticity, which
eventually proved to be false. It made
me think I had five hundred extra euros, and I lived my life more generously
and with greater freedom than I might have otherwise (I didn’t find out it was
fake until Thursday).
We handed out Christmas cookies to all our dog friends in
the park – no matter whether it’s Christmas, or rainy or snowy, all dogs need
to go out, and we make our faithful rounds with them.
