Sapin de Noël...Flocking the Parisian Tradition

Ho! Ho! Ho! Joyeux Noël! It was flurrying again in Paris last night. Then it got windy and the flurries turned to cold rain. Winter is here, no doubt, and it's not hard to try ignoring this weather with a little holiday fun. Mr. Hall and I are spending our first Christmas together in Paris, no travelling, no relatives, no visitors (we did all that last year).

Decorating Procrastination So far, we haven't gotten very far in the Christmas decorating. We bought a few colorful balls for the tree at Eglise Saint Nicolas des Champs' Christmas Bazaar (they call it a braderie), some edible chocolate ornaments wrapped in foil from Marks and Spencers', and...well that's it, so far. We were down in Mougins, which is between Antibes and Nice, and there was a very large Marché de Noël, but instead of buying decorations, we ended up with artisan nougat, garlic-flavored goat cheese, Corsican wine, and fois gras (yeah, we're big suckers for local delacacies). Oh, and lavander-filled sachets for the closets, because you can't go to Provence without getting lavender. But still, no Christmas decor.

Fuzzy Black Trees We've got the stockings from last year, and a few cards that have already arrived. Around Paris, the flocked and au naturel Christmas pines (called sapins de Noël) have appeared at the floral shops and outside a few supermarkets. I've never been a big fan of flocking. I think it ruins the pine scent. I've seen quite a few of them here, and not just white, either. There are blue, red, and black ones in front of a few places. I'm not making this up.

New Country, New Custom All I know, is that it has to be a small tree, to fit in the elevator and into our apartment. You won't see too many 8ft. Pine trees in Paris for sale. Maybe in the countryside. What you do see a lot of, are those old-fasioned "stands", the two pieces of wood in a plus-shape, nailed to the base. A piece of log cut into halved semi-circle, flat side down, tree placed into a hole in the rounded top. I haven't seen any of the metal ones with the screws we used back home, which is fine with me. But how to keep it alive when you can't water it? There are quite a few "live" trees sold, which would also solve the "Is it straight?" problem. I'm rather curious to see which one Mr. Hall chooses. By the time you read this, I will have had my wisdom teeth surgically removed, so I don't expect I will be there to pick out a tree (but I'll let you all know the differences between French and American dentistry in a future article).

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