December 8th

Today was the day of the Paris Christmas Markets! I'll say this now, it was freakin' awesome!!!! Exclamation points to the max!!!!!!!!!!! Kate, Paula, and I grabbed the 9:11 am train, met our friend Jonathan at St. Lazare, and headed off to the La Défense Christmas market. I like that part of Paris, a lot actually. I could live there because it resembles a city. There are skyscrapers made of glass and steel. Not as beautiful as the Chicago skyline, obviously, but it was a refreshing view. The Christmas market also reminded me of Chicago because it looked like German fest. The only thing missing was a Vienna Beef hotdog stand. Sigh, home I will see you soon enough. Right now, it's shopping in Paris!!! The markets did not seem to end. They had such a variety of merchandise there literally everything from candles and ornaments to fast paced pitches for cooking  utensils. I nabbed some gifts for friends and family, but wasn't able to satisfy my quota. Luckily, I am again saying something in advance, our train tickets were not marked by the conductors. This allows us to use them again. We are going to use them again this upcoming Saturday to visit more markets. Today we only, and I say only loosely, explored two markets. They were just absolutely massive. The only flaw to the day was the fact that no one knows how to walk in a crowd. People, on crowded sidewalks it is necessary to form rivers; a stream East/North and a stream West/South. That ensures that traffic moves. Do not scuffle about at random paces. It makes Mary frustrated. That is always bad. Besides the ignorant crowds of people who clearly are not from cities screwing up the sidewalk paces, the day went smoothly. There was a wonderful highlight as well. Paula and I rode a huge Ferris wheel at the end of Champs-Elysée together. Paula had never been on a Ferris wheel before, what a first time. We were able to see so much of Paris during a sunset no less. It was breathtaking, literally breathtaking. I am just, I'm not sure, blissful? Yeah, blissful that we were able to do that together. Paris you aren't Chicago, but you're definitely a beautiful city.

P.S. All caught up on blogs suckers!!! Love, MareBear