Un petit déjeuner à Paris

Something intimate today from Paris.

Yesterday morning, when I pulled open my blackout curtains, I saw only one window lighted in the buildings across from me—the ground floors appear to be offices, all the floors above are apartments.

I noticed that this one view showed a white-haired woman laying a candle-lit table. Well, an 0800 meal is generally breakfast, and it’s not very often at all that you see candles at breakfast. So I hauled out my point-and-shoot and shot. (The photos are very grainy because of the low light and the optical zoom.)

She was moving quite slowly and deliberately, making sure things were just so. After a while, a white-haired man entered the room; they kissed and he sat down; they ate. (It must be a regular Thing, because they were at it again this morning, by candlelight. It was lovely.)

That’s it, folks, just an old couple still affectionate, and enjoying a candle-light breakfast in Saint Germain-des-Près.

Parole sur les avenues

We’ve moved from Berlin to Paris, the last leg of this trip. I have to say that, for a capital city (and increasingly the capital city of the leader of the free world), Berlin’s Tegel airport is not whelming. It’s about the size of Hollywood Burbank airport; even so, the lack of clear signage and any type of information was aggravating.

There was a hotel-related kerfuffle with getting me to the hotel here, which I’ll write about later. But I’m here, I have a to-do list and I’m ready.

Yesterday I spent three hours at Musée Rodin; it was absolutely spectacular and I could have spent longer, but my joints wouldn’t let me. I’ve got a couple of hundred photos to sort through of the museum and garden, but until then, here are some shots of the neighborhood.

Parisians—and the French in general—love their dogs. (So, apparently, do the Germans. My hotel had several four-pawed guests; they also took public transportation with their humans. None of that service animals only stuff.) I noticed this one waiting for his human to get his hair done:

Street parking, as you might imagine, is an issue. Take a look at this lineup:

I have to say that I wonder not only how those vehicles got parked, I wonder how any of them gets out:

In this instance, that smart car probably has room to pull away; I dunno about the minivan behind it. (If you look closely, you’ll see the latter has already had some scrapes and is being held together with what looks like duct tape:

I loved this little window garden, although I suppose there’s always a risk of a passerby filching your herbs:

Paris—like other EU countries—is big on recycling. I noticed this plea on all the neighborhood collection points, asking the green-minded to also be mindful of the residents and not to throw their bottles between the hours of 10pm and 7am.

On one receptacle there was also this declaration:

Paris has a unique qualifier to daily life, something it holds onto fiercely. Here's a reminder:

A memorial to an "unknown French Forces of the Interior" (résistance) killed during the insurrection against the Germans ahead of Allied liberation. Still remembered.
 

And people slapping up bills and posters is such an old problem, I guess, that this building has “defense d’afficher” carved into the stone:

At least with some success, because I didn’t see any signs that any had been pasted up.

And going to the store

While we’re on the subject of the Christmas season in Berlin, I’ll drop a few lines on my visit to Kaufhaus des Westens, the iconic Berlin department store that’s the second largest such (after London’s Harrods) in Europe. (Well, with Brexit, I guess it’ll become the actual largest, eh?)

The concierge at the Radisson Blu my first day sniffed at the notion—aside from the food hall, he said, there’s nothing particularly special about it. And Harrods has a much better food hall. Well, okay, but I’d been hearing about KaDeWe (as it’s known) for donkeys’ years. I didn’t care about the big shopping malls he directed me to, I wanted to see the granddaddy.

Besides, it gave me a chance to ride the metro and tram system.

The store was built in the first decade of the last century, which is evident by some of the exterior features:

Kaufhaus des Westens was originally owned by a Jewish firm. Under the Third Reich it was “Aryanized”, then it was obliterated in bombing during the war, and it only gradually grew to its original size and more. It’s now owned by a Thai conglomerate.

The holiday window displays had too much glare to get a good shot; you’ll have to trust me when I tell you that this involves little ornament men grilling sausages hanging from a stick:

A regular old window has... this:

The big display on the ground floor (cosmetics and luxury goods) was impressive:

Note the festive, traditional Christmas music.

Here are some of the elements:

This one reminds me of Notorious RGB:

As I was getting closeups of some of the ornaments, an older woman told me that if I wanted some photographs, I should go to the fifth floor. Turns out she was right: that’s where all the ornaments are for sale, viz:

These wreaths were…different:

And this poor guy has already had a hard life:

Then I went to the food hall, which is on the top floor. Yes—it’s not Harrods, but still, plenty of restaurants, including this, which struck my fancy:

And my favorites:

(The lipsticks are Laurent-Perrier.)

And some of the foods; stuffed dates:

Stuffed figs:

And, from the patisserie:

Yep, KaDeWe was well worth the visit.

Going to the markets

About those Weinachtsmärkte… I went to six of them, and here are some selected thoughts and images.

First, not to sound like a cranky old codger, but—with the possible exception of the one at Schloß Charlottenburg—the ratio of eating-and-drinking stalls to actual Christmas things to buy was off-the-charts high. At the rote Rathaus market, it must have been four to one. I guess people go to the markets to eat and drink and socialize these days?

Also, a lot less Christmasy merchandise (ornaments, candles, etc.) and a lot more crafts things. Perhaps the assumption is that people just buy their decorations at the department stores?

(Admittedly, the last time I was at a Christkindlmarkt was in 2003, in Munich, so I’m out of touch.)

It took two tries to get to Schloß Charlottenburg; I was out in the area around 1300, but turns out it didn’t open until 1400. So I went back.

It was beautiful and charming. I had my obligatory Glühwein, which never tastes as good anywhere else but at a Christkindlmarkt:

That’s got a lot more complicated, too—red, white, cherry, blueberry…too much, people! And bratwurst. I noticed that the menu items are way expanded over The Old Days: now stalls with Finnish, Italian, Hungarian and French offerings. And cocktails to go with all those options! (Including one called the Lumumba, which called to mind how Patrice Lumumba died and made me a little queasy.) 

And the ubiquitous espresso drinks, which appear to have infiltrated all of Europe:

Also—there are enclosed stalls, which I imagine go at a premium to the vendors inside the heated structures.

In other markets, the enclosed rows were for sit-down dining. Seriously, the Weinachtsmarkt experience is all about the eating.

Schloß Charlottenburg was the only one that had live music (at least while I was there). Here’s a sampling:

There were three angels making the rounds:

Followed occasionally by three cops:

And there was a small fun fair for die Kinder:

As I left, I could see the Christmas tree in the dome of the Schloß:

On to the City market:

With traditional German Christmas fare:

I liked this claim:

Over at the Gendarmenmarkt, it struck me that a lot of the eatery stalls were essentially corporate sponsorships. Two I recognized were one from the Hyatt and one from a nearby restaurant.

Also, another tradition: Christmas grill and cheese fondue:

And this just cracked me up:

This was something new on me, soup:

And a disco ball on the concert hall:

Here's a whole lotta Stollen:

Moving on to Alexanderplatz, I realized that this Käthe Wohlfahrt has had a presence in most of the Weinachtsmärkte.

Her stuff appears to be all Christmas kitsch. Not as bad as Thomas Kinkade, but up there.

I was fascinated by this climbing Santa.

Not fascinated enough to buy one, but still.

And the market closest to me, at der rote Rathaus (which is where the Prater is), there was this merry-go-round (not in operation while I was there):

I quite liked the variety of steeds:

Up above was a sleigh and foursome of reindeer:

Not, strictly speaking, from the German tradition, but I guess it’s fairly universal.

What struck me was that there was a ladder up to the unoccupied sleigh, and it appeared to be on a guy wire. I wondered if Santa makes an appearance flying over the Weinachtsmarkt?

Well, that’s it from the Christmas fairs. I’m a little disappointed that much of the charm appears to have been co-opted by eating and drinking excess, but times move oh, eh. I am tickled by the kiddie rides that appear at many of the Märkte. Those are fun for everyone.