The French run up to Christmas

Well….with fairly non-wintery weather in Bordeaux Christmas felt weird…it was cold but that was it!

BritGirl visited the Christmas Market in Bordeaux a number of times, beautiful wooden huts all offering different arts/crafts/jewels for presents, very pretty….and of course “Vin Chaud” – a form of mulled wine which BritGirl couldnt resist…. one simple route to feeling Christmassy!!

BritGirl’s younger sisters came to visit for a weekend…which meant a trip to the market, more vin chaud and………a Christmas Tree! Yes, BritGirl is now the proud owner of a real Christmas tree all nicely decorated in tinsle, baubles and drippy white papery stuff…unfortunately, BritGirl forgot how much mess real trees make and is forever finding pine needles across the flat!!!

However will BritGirl’s boyfriend manage to get rid of that tree in the new year without reaching the bottom of the 60 odd steps from BritGirl’s flat to the ground with a simple spine of tree and all the needles carpetting the ground nicely?!?! Hmmm… one suspects it will be messy!!

Christmas shopping was fine, French shops wrap presents for you which is always unbelievably pretty and saves BritGirl an enormous worry about her poor and childlike wrapping skills! However, presents are not always easy to find….surprise surprise, everything is in French which BritGirl doesnt think friends and family back home will be too impressed with…..although she does have to admit one of her friends was quite pleased with the pile of sweets and snails that he received for Christmas!!!

Lots of sighs and grumbles were had as a result, but thanks to the internet and lots of looking around, French Christmas shopping done – another task to add to BritGirl’s list of new French things!!!