Bonne Année!

There is a beaucoup of updating to be done! Le Noel was terrifically fun. Having everyone uber-cramped into the apartment turned out to be a blast. Along with ourselves, we packed in my best friend Buddah, his wife Molly, my sister Hennessy, and Jessica's brother Gene and proceeded to do it up in style.

I for one was a little surprised and impressed with all the presents and the cheer. We even had a little Christmas tree. The French don't put their trees in water (link, compliments of my buddy Jeff), but rather nail it to a stump, and it got so dried out that the day after Christmas, I decided to drop it out of the window rather than drag it through the apartment to the curb. I kid you not... EVERY needle on the tree exploded off it when it hit the pavement. All that was left was a completely barren collection of sticks. I guess that doesn't sound that impressive, but it was. My favorite present was the stuffed Monkey from Buddah and Molly, appropriately named "Monkey."


The rest of the week between Christmas and the New Year was spent sightseeing. Among other things, we headed out to Versailles for a little touristing. Versailles is pretty interesting trip back in time, and basically represents the best of France's glory days under the Sun King Louie XIV. You get the smallest sense that the French feel a little wistful for the heydey of the Louis years.


And then it was off to the Champs Elysee for the Nouvelle Annee. I won't tell you who, but one person in our group had a little too much to drink and left a "projectile deposit" on the Paris metro. Maybe you can figure it out from the pictures and I'll let you guess in the comments section. The Champs is a pretty cool party, and if you're ever in Paris for New Years I highly recommend it.