Christmas: The Final Chapter

Well we told you about our travels during Christmas, and that brings us back right here to Chaumont.  We arrived back at the apartment sometime in the afternoon of Christmas Eve day, and we had many preparations before the big day.  We went to the store to buy our supplies for Christmas dinner (and Christmas Eve dinner), came home and showered, whipped together a quick dinner, and (Derek) received John and Jen from the train station around 19:00.  We quickly ate dinner and then headed downtown for a Christmas Eve service at Chaumont's famous Basilica.

We were a few minutes late, so we ended up sitting in the waaayyyyy back and couldn't really see anything that was going on.  It was sometimes a struggle to understand the French through the crackling of the speakers and the southern-like accent of the black priest.  Luckily, there was a brochure to guide us through most of it, and we were gladly able to join in singing with the organ (and trumpet!).  Also, this is a very olllddddddd cathedral, i.e., no heat, so we were freezing the whole time.  The best part, however, was during communion.  Of course we're not Catholic, so we just laid low during that time when the regular Catholics got up.  However, we were treated to a wonderful song in the background: "Winter Wonderland."  It was hilarious!  During the time of receiving the "body and blood of Christ," the organist and trumpet player were jammin' out to "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland."  Maybe in French this is a religious song, but we definitely didn't see a correlation in English.  In the end, we were glad to be able to witness a traditional French Christmas mass.

La Basilique de Chaumont

Not only did we have a Catholic experience, but we also had the opportunity to celebrate all 8 nights of Hanukkah with John and Jen.  They certainly enjoyed themselves, although we did have trouble staying awake until the candles went out on nights when we returned to our hotel around 11 p.m. We would all be in our beds with the lights out after saying the prayer, struggling to keep our eyes open and make sure we didn't burn down the hotel.

Cheers for Hanukkah!

So Christmas Eve wrapped up with a few rounds of Skip-Bo and, of course, reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  We didn't have the book with us, but miraculously we discovered a version on YouTube with pictures, read by none other than Perry Como himself!  (If you don't know Perry Como, he was a very famous singer from Brittany's hometown of Canonsburg, PA who sang the original Mr. Lonely.)

Finally, the day we had been anticipating for what seemed like months: Christmas Day! We started the day with a delicious breakfast of French toast.  Below is our attempt at a candid eating shot that really just turned out to be lame due to the angle, 3 out of 4 of us were in pajamas, our boring living room, etc.

And after breakfast came present-time! We weren't very hopeful, but miraculously Santa DID find Chaumont! He left some candy (and fruit) in our stockings and got us Carcassonne--a super awesome game!  We have a feeling John and Jen tipped him off  :) But seriously, thanks to John and Jen for the awesome gift which provides much-needed entertainment.

Next it was time to get to work for dinner. The menu was one very similar to that of Thanksgiving with a few variations: Chicken, rolls, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and salad (we'll get to the dessert later).  We each found something to work on and got busy!  We decided not to eat traditional French-style because we didn't really know how to prepare anything.  If we had, we would have eaten any of the following: foie gras, mussels, escargots, frog legs, and/or more bizarre dishes.  However, traditional French was a must for dessert!

John recommended we try stuffing the skin with a butter and herb mixture and that is exactly what we did!  Well, Derek did most of the dirty work...

Derek and Jen worked hard on pre-buttering the buttery rolls before they were baked

And the finished products!

One of favorite parts was the sweet potatoes. They don't have much of a marshmallow option here in France, and our grocery store only sold pink ones.

Are you drooling yet?!

Time to explain the dessert.  The traditional French dessert is a bûche de Noël or "yule log" as we say, though not very often, in English.  All of the pâtisseries (bakeries, usually with breads and pastries) here display a wide array of bûches de Noël during Christmastime. There are many different flavors, all with unique decorations (mostly edible) on top.  We just got a simple chocolate bûche that was deellliiccciiouuusss!!

The next (or next to next) day, Derek treated us all.  Using the extra dough from the rolls, he made homemade cinnamon rolls (recipe by our new food hero, Pioneer Woman)!

The best part was the sauce-it included maple syrup and coffee which really gave the rolls a unique taste

For the rest of the week we mostly played games 24/7, but we did have the chance to get to visit Chaumont a bit.  The main attractions/only attractions in Chaumont are (1) the viaduct and (2) vieille Chaumont.  The viaduct is basically a bridge that was built in the second half of the 1800s and is still used by trains today.  It's HUGE and actually pretty famous.  Vieille Chaumont is the old part of Chaumont.  The buildings are quite charming and there are remains of a castle that used to be here until it burned down. Here are some pictures:

The viaduct

Right by the bottom of the viaduct, which actually has 3 layers of arches

The front of the basilique, in the vieille ville

A view of the outskirts of Chaumont from where the castle used to be

The actual donjon (dungeon) of the old castle!

See the staircase sticking out from the building?  They are unique to Chaumont (we think) and each one is marked.  There are 27 in the city, and one day we plan to find all of them!

Derek and John playing at the park

This is the one road of our centre ville (downtown)

This is an old place where women used to do the laundry.  It's a very interesting system and it's still here after all this time (not in use anymore though, of course)!

John and Jen left on New Year's Eve day and continued on their way to Paris.  We spent a calm but enjoyable New Year's Eve with Thomas, Marie, and another friend from church, Etienne.  After eating and hanging out for a bit, we went downtown for the countdown as well as a light show that was playing on the façade of town hall.  We heard distant voices counting down somewhere, but we basically made up our own countdown.  As we walked around the city after midnight, one might have thought there were a bunch of people partying and celebrating in the streets.  But really, there was a group of girls banging pots and pans with someone's drunk dad, a couple of boys carrying around a traffic cone, an owner of a Chinese restaurant & friends setting off fireworks, and us.  And the same people just kept walking around and around and around in circles.  We finished the night by playing a few rounds of Cluedo (French Clue) and then called it a night.

So, our Christmas holiday was full of friends, food, and fun--which is possible to find even in Chaumont!  Now it's February (we know, we're so bad at keeping up with this blog!) and we're preparing for our trip to Rome/Paris with Brittany's parents and Derek's mom.  Can't wait, only 3 weeks until departure!