Aachen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), Germany - 28 November 2006

 

A hop and skip away from Maastricht in the Netherlands was Aachen, Germany, where some friends and I spent a day of sightseeing, eating and shopping. The festive spirit at Aachen's Christmas market was all-consuming with colorful Christmas lights, holiday trinkets and decorations, handmade crafts, heart-warming wine, and local food like wieners and Christmas sweets. What a great way to kick off the holiday season!

Paris, France - 25-26 November 2006

A familiar landmark - La Tour Eiffel

'Ooh-la-la...Pa-ree!' C'est bon la vie en Paris. Personally, I find most Parisians to be contradictory: self-assured yet passive/melancholic, contemporary yet traditional, authentic yet pensive, sweet and bitter... They have much to be proud of - Paris is after all the capital of a national culture that is steeped in a long history of conquests that have contributed abundantly to the world's literature, art, science and modern inventions. Some pics of my weekend sojourn in Paris below:

Above: At the Lourve; for those who recall, the Lourve was a focal point of The Da Vinci Code book/blockbuster

Above: The Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace in the Lourve - a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory)

Above left: The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci in the Lourve; above right: Venus de Milo in the Lourve

Above: Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1787) by Antonio Canova in the Lourve

Above left: An ING Direct Cafe - so cool!; above right: Borat was a hit amongst some of us - here, a poster of Borat in the Paris subway

Basilique du Sacre-Coeur

Arc de Triomphe