Pere Noel - Father Christmas!

We've been getting into the Christmas spirit already as Max and I head home this weekend to begin the celebrations!  Paul is off to Nancy again for a few days and will come over to Scotland on Thursday.  I'm dreading the flight home without Paul as I've put my back out and I'm having trouble lifting Max, never mind a case too!  

The office here organised a Christmas get-together for the families in the Recollets building.  It was a lovely wee shindig and a good chance to get to know the other families here as people come and go quite often.  Max had great fun - he gets really excited when with other children.  Here he is dressed as Pere Noel for our photo-shoot in the flat.  My pals Rachel and Meg came down with their babies and we had fun with our model babies!  Rachel's partner, Fabien is in a band here, "Darwin Bay" and we went out to see them last night.  Max's first gig!  He was sleeping in the baby carrier with 2 hats on and cotton wool in his ears, but I was still paranoid about the noise affecting his ears so stayed backstage with Rachel and her wee boy Oscar.  It was lovely to get out of the house in the evening with him as I don't think there'll be many more opportunities for that as he gets bigger.  Paul really enjoyed the gig and I enjoyed the blether!

Max insisted on dressing up as Santa for a laugh!

At the Recollets Christmas party - Max was given a big toy tortoise from Santa - all is forgiven after the eviction debacle!

Woo-hoo!  We're heading out and it's after 8 o'clock!  You can't see it, but I've got MAKE UP on!

Wee French Oscar is too cool for any dressing up as Santa shenanigans!

Meg with Ellie-Anne and baby Albert as Santa

I'm off to finish packing! x

Thanksgiving et encore des invites - Thanksgiving and more visitors!

One of Paul's pals on his IP (Ideals of Proof) project is an American called John Mumma.  As you can imagine, Paul's exhausted all possible puns from John's surname (it's Dutch, and should be pronounced 'Mooma', which is even funnier), none of which are worthy of THE BLOG.  Anyway, John Mumma's mama was over from Philadelphia for a holiday last week and we were invited to join them for Thanksgiving.  We had a great meal with the Mummas and another two American friends of John's - one of whom has Irish cousins who live close to Ballina!  Thanksgiving's a great thing and I'd like to start celebrating it every year - November's such a dreich month in Scotland that we could all do with the excuse for a huge hearty meal together.

Max as the abominable snowman

After some delicious turkey with all the trimmings, there's always room for pumpkin pie!

On Friday night, Max decided not to go to bed as he sensed that other visitors were coming.  He was still wide awake at half 9 when Granny B and Papa John arrived, slightly shaken from a typical Ryanair landing.  We walked for miles on Saturday around the Left Bank and eventually found Rue de Bac where there's a wee chapel for Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal so mum enjoyed learning all about Catherine Laboure.  We headed across to the Louvre and up the Champs Elysees to see the Christmas markets again.

The hat parade - it was cold, and the hat was only 3 euros!

On the Rue de Bac - smiles of relief as mum decides against staying for the 2-hour Mass in Ukrainian!

If I keep up this smiling caper, I'll get to stay up even later!

Max showing off after a good soak in the tub

Spot the antique!  Dad enjoys some window shopping on the Rive Gauche

Another Saturday night at the Arc de Triomphe - Paul and I experience deja vu!

Mum and dad at the Arc de Triomphe

On Sunday we went to Mass in Notre Dame and then had croque-monsieurs at a cafe on the Ile de la Cite before mum and dad went to see the Sainte-Chapelle.  We then strolled along the Ile St-Louis and walked all the way home.  Mum and dad got to witness how exciting our weekend nights are in Paris without any English tv, as we amused ourselves with logic puzzles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_and_torch_problem) and argued over the four-colour theorem!  Mum and dad spent their last morning in Montmartre, visiting the Sacre-Coeur and wandering around the art shops.  That came to a quick end when dad didn't stop an artist from drawing his portrait, who refused to tell him the price while he drew.  When he'd finished, he charged a ridiculous 60 euros and so dad tried to politely get rid of him by telling him he'd need to go to a bank.  The artist then insisted on accompanying dad to a bank and so a ridiculous chase down Montmartre commenced as mum and dad tried to escape from the artist.  They managed shake him off by ducking into a dodgy cafe in Pigalle.  We ended the weekend with a nice meal out at Porte Maillot, but the service was really slow.  Fortunately, we managed to scoff the lot before mum and dad's bus to Beauvais.