Noël comes anon.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Okay, so it doesn’t look like the typical Northwest Christmas season. There’s no snow, the sun is still shining. And even though I have succumbed to my winter routine of the twice daily cup of peppermint tea, it's not all that cold here in the south of France. Morning jogs are still possible and people still sit and read in the park. However, based off how bundled up the locals are, this is their version of winter.

Weather aside, the Christmas spirit is rampant. Aix-en-Provence is known as the city of markets yearround, and it does have the wonderful Christmas markets to prove it. There is a main shopping strip called Cours Mirabeau. It's one of the streets connected to that beautiful Rotonde Fountain I've mentioned before. It's impossible to feel grinch-like walking down that street, lined with trees strung with Christmas lights, the sound of children laughing flowing from the kiddie rides and the smell of candied apples and waffles simmering in the air. The actual vendors are pretty neat too. There is a wide variety of gift ideas. There's the typical Provençal gifts, the stand with the massive gingerbread cakes, a magic shop (which always has a crowd of people), and a photography stand with gorgeous pictures of Aix and the surrounding region.

I really lucked out with markets though. Not only have I lived in Aix and had the opportunity to stroll through some of the most famous market places in France three times a week, but I also had the opportunity to go to the Christmas Capital of the world: Strasbourg. This city on the border of Germany has world famous Christmas markets and is dripping with touristy holiday cheer. It's really quite magical. Like going to Disneyland. I don't know what it is about electrical Christmas lights, but they just make you feel like you're in a fairyland. Yes, as my more eco-savvy friends would point out, it is a complete waste of energy. But ready for my Mastercard answer? That feeling you get when you look down an avenue strung with beautiful holiday glow is priceless!

Strasbourg is a city in the Alsace region of France. This has a lot of really interesting history, since it has been passed between Germany and France several times, and has also been conquerred by the Huns and the Swedish. Christianity was brought there by Irish monks. It is also the seat of the European Union. So it has tons of cultural influences and is quite a cute place to visit. It was here that the Gutenberg printing press was invented. Perhaps because I grew up in Spokane, through which the Spokane river flows, I have a thing for cities with rivers. Naturally, one of the factors in the aesthetic appeal of Strasbourg is the river that surrounds centre-ville. It's so pictoresque! I love the bridges.

We also visited Colmar, well known as the birthplace of Bartholdi, who designed the Statue of Liberty. This had all the Christmas charm as Strasbourg, but with fewer tourists and smaller. There was a fantastic museum there though called the Unterlinden. It took us hours to go through. There is so much there. I think the most prominent for me was the collection of early Christian paintings depicting stories of the saints and the life of Christ. They are chock-full of symbolism, and I'm appreciative for the audio guide that pointed it all out. One instance, there was a definite trend that many of the paintings had a golden background. This symbolizes timelessness. The number of symbols used to express the Virgin Mary's purity bordered on being excessive (lilies, unicorns, gardens, fences, pink, and many, many more). I am a sucker for symbolism though, and my personal favorite was in a painting of Christ on the cross. At the base, there was a lion and her cubs. Medieval tales tell that lion cubs are stillborn and are resuscitated when the mother lioness breathes on them. It represents how Christ's sacrifice is like that life-giving breath. One painting that really stuck out to me was La Melancolie by Lucas Cranach. He was buddy-buddy with Martin Luther, and this work is about his ideals. It was based not so much on melancholy itself, but on how one avoids it.  

I'm not sure how to gracefully close this entry, but I would like to return to the subject of Christmas. I am grateful for how long the Christmas season is. To me, the weeks leading up to Christmas are usually more fulfilling and exciting than Christmas Day itself. I've also learned, you can only feel a certain amount of holiday spirit basking in the glow of Christmas lights, munching on Christmas goodies, singing carols, making gingerbread houses (or Speculoos holiday creations in my case), and in gift wrapping. I don't mean to say those are bad practices. I am quite fond of Christmas traditions, but Christmas means so much more. I don't want to disrespect the meaning by making a corny concluding note, but I hope this holiday season we will be able to turn our thoughts to the reason for all this hubbub. It's more important to spend time with your family than fretting about the gifts for them. Take those quiet moments to contemplate the greatest, one-sided gift of all, directly from Heavenly Father. Try to go outside of yourself and rather give of yourself. "Love is spelled T-I-M-E." 

God bless! And Merry Christmas!