Christmas approaching

Christmas was approaching fast.  Europe changes quite a bit over Christmas as people get ready for the festivities.  In Germany, the Christmas markets are a wonder to behold, with food and activities for everyone.

In France, the Christmas markets are a bit more muted.

I was in Paris to visit Maya and Adam and they suggested we go and look at some of the Christmas preparations.  We hopped in their car and they told me that we'd be heading to Le Defense.... that seemed very strange to me.  Le Defense is probably the least French place in all of France.  It is outside of the limits of "Paris", and is probably the main business district for Paris.  It's where all the big companies are headquartered and there really isn't all that much to the place.

It turns out that every year, there's a big Christmas market that gets set up at La Defense.

It's not as a good as the epic German ones I've seen, but living in Australia meant that I was starved of any of these events more generally.

It was still very early in the "Christmas season" so the market turned out to be relatively empty.  Thankfully the stores were all already open so I was able to get my fill of the food and random sights.

The all of the cooked cheese was particularly enticing.  I stared down the wheels of raclette being grilled before I settled on a big plate of tartiflette.

I'm fairly sure I can get most of these foods in Australia, but it really isn't the same without the cold weather.