Christmas Day dawned bright and sunny (enfin!!!) and we started out the morning lingering over coffee in the flat, with a couple of phone calls to home… Neil presented me with this lovely original painting:
My two great loves – Cleo and macarons!!! This was painted by Carole at Paris Breakfasts – ironically, the person who wrote a blog post that led me to booking the macaron classes at Elysée Lenôtre!! It’s perfect!
Around noon, we headed out to meet Alicia for a big walk, taking in, amongst other sights, Notre Dame:
We headed back to our flat around 3pm to tackle the prospect of Christmas dinner in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. We did, however, have two essentials to any Christmas dinner – bubbles and poultry:
And Santa:
There really wasn’t much room so we had to take it in turns…
But managed a very festive looking salad:
The potatoes were “roasted” (fried) to perfection!
And the chicken even reheated wonderfully in it’s special microwaveable bag!
Neil was able to carve it even with poor utensils:
Couldn’t ask for more festive than that, right?
Since Cleo wasn’t around (sniff!) we were able to leave dishes around in places we wouldn’t have been able to. Seriously no counter space here!
Of course we enjoyed some good wine:
T’was a perfect meal! We ended off with some more macarons (yes, we’re still working our way through them!) and then headed out to catch an early evening showing of An American in Paris. What a great Christmas – noone argued, noone got drunk and said inappropriate things and we didn’t even feel that full. What more could you ask for?
Merry Christmas – I hope yours was as perfect as ours!
Wow! what an amazing and memorable way to spend the holidays!
Looks very festive to me! Is this flat your own or can it be rented to tourists like us? I'd love to book this flat for our next Paris vacation!!
you are one lucky gal. The post, the pictures and the experience…is heavenly! BTW I love the potatoes
Love your posts about Paris – enjoy your visit to Dinan, with its medieval architecture. Have a glass of calvados for me. Joyeux Noël et bonne année!
Looks lovely to me!
I am in awe of all your experiences on this trip!
What a memorable Christmas! I have never been to Paris, I am living through your pictures
What a perfect painting. Well done, Neil!
what a lovely Christmas day in paris! and what a pretty painting! so glad you had such a nice day.
What a lovely way to spend Christmas! Thanks for sharing.
Looks so lovely! I am glad you had a great Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
LOVE the painting and what a sweet, thoughtful gift. Looks like you both pulled together quite a nice dinner as well. Happy holidays, Mardi!
Hang on, you didn't even feel that full? Bah!
Merry merry merry Christmas, looks like some skilful tiny-kitchen manipulation
More drooling and thanks for the mention Mardi
Carolg
Simply Life – thanks, it was!
Jen – I WISH we owned a flat in Paris… I have a couple of places we stay at if you are interested… Some are more kid friendly than others…
Jhonny – yep the potatoes were a bit hit!
Debbie – thanks! We LOVED Dinan!
Nataysha and Natalie – thanks. I am glad you can live a bit vicariously though the posts!
Martha and Best Family – yes he did well with the painting!
Unplanned, Travel Eat Love, Fresh Local – thanks for following along!
Megan – it's amazing what you can do in the kitchen with so little!
Conor – well we didn't feel full THAT day but there were plenty of other days when we did to make up for it!!!
Paris Breakfasts – thank YOU for the gorgeous painting!!!
Mardi's right: we DIDN'T feel that full. Hence our picking up the pace on days following. Can I just say my wine pics were gorgeous? (And my staged photo of corks.)
Funny re Carol's painting: I had no idea that her blog is the one that got Mardi to that macaron cooking school. The internet is a funny thing…
(Thanks again Carol, btw!)
Hi Mardi – I tried to comment earlier but it froze so I am coming back now to say how adorable your Carol watercolor is! Congrats! I love her work!
Congrats on Top 9 today too!
LL
I enjoyed your post. I, too, spent this Christmas in Paris. Love your painting. Your Cleo looks a lot like my Sammy. Your Christmas repast also resembles the one I threw together in my rented apartment. What a lovely day and lovely memories. http://joyeuxnoelyall.blogspot.com/
Lori – thanks for your comment! Carol's stuff is great!!
Cathy – I love Paris at Christmas too! Glad you had a great time.