My First Christmas In Europe

So much more Christmassy than in Australia

My first trip to Europe was a last-minute rescue mission to Nantes. Stacey had been living there with her boyfriend for a few months and was suffering SAD. We didn’t know what that was — I just thought she was feeling depressed because her boyfriend went to work early every morning and she was alone all day; no friends close by and definitely no one who spoke English. She had no French but could speak Japanese after 10 years in Japan. She had spent many winters in Japan but she had a whole circle of expat friends and spent almost every weekend snowboarding at Hakuba. But no one spoke Japanese here either. Even though the days weren’t rainy, they were grey and cold and even when the sun did shine, it had no warmth in it. It was totally strange to me. But I loved it!

I only stayed 3 weeks as I had to fly home using my frequent flyer points and the closer it got to the end of the holidays the fewer seats were available. I had to fly home on New Year’s Eve because there were no later flights in January. Midnight happened while I was somewhere over Germany. It was very weird. There was an announcement and all the Germans clapped. This plane was full of Germans flying to Australia. I’d never seen people clap the New Year in. I asked cheekily, “Where’s the champagne?”

Champagne was indeed served — Piper Heidsieck — and it just kept coming. Germans must not be fond of champagne because I didn’t see anyone near me drinking it. I drank copious amounts — it’s not every day I get to drink champagne! — I had the aisle seat — never again. I had two young German backpackers beside me who insisted on going to the toilet one at a time. At first, I got up and stood in the aisle every time, but very soon tired of this so told them to just climb over me!

I am totally off the track here!

My first Christmas in Nantes

So I am away from home and miss my sister’s bountiful Christmases — she’s a home economics teacher and a wonderful cook. Last Christmas, there were 22 salads so I didn’t have any pork, turkey, ham, chicken or prawns. I just ate salad! I’m off-topic again!

But I was spending Christmas with my eldest daughter, Stacey and her Brazilian-by-birth boyfriend, who has lived in France since he was a teenager. I get a chance to speak French but he speaks so quickly I have difficulty understanding him.

He goes off to work every day and Stacey and I go exploring Nantes. We walk a lot, catch the tram into town and usually, the bus home.

Here’s my story of the trip to France if you haven’t already read it.

“Max and Stacey surprised me by jumping on the train to grab my suitcase. I didn’t even recognise her — I was so tired. I was so happy to see her there and not to have to try to find her. We caught a taxi home which was a long way or at least it seemed like it. Max had cooked a delicious meal of soup, oysters and roast pork and vegetables which we ate with a bottle of French red wine. It was heaven to get to my warm bed in the basement. I have no idea how long the whole trip took but more than two days I think.”

When I awoke, Stacey had a very ordinary French breakfast for me — a fresh baguette, with thin ham and pâté and of course, coffee. It was market day in Chantenay, her suburb, and the market stalls literally set up on the side of the street once a week. By midday, they’re packed up and you wouldn’t know they’d ever been there. We bought fresh fish, fresh meat, fruit and veggies and some Chinese food for lunch. We were completely ripped off on the Chinese food. I thought he said “deux euros” because he was packing up and just giving us what was left because he wanted to close up, but no, he had charged us dix-sept euros. (17) We hadn’t paid that much for the rest of our purchases! You live and learn. Stacey never bought Chinese from him again and she lived there for more than two years!

After eating the very expensive Chinese meal with a bottle of wine — it’s de rigueur en France — we went for a walk along the river. Nantes is the birthplace of Jules Verne and if you didn’t know that before your visit, you will definitely know it afterwards. There’s a Jules Verne Museum in his childhood home which looks down the river to the sea and many of his stories were born from his wonderful imagination. More on Jules Verne and L’Ile des Animaux (The Island of Animals) at another time.

I’ve written about the first time I saw snow when we came out of the shopping mall. As well as groceries, we bought a set of gold-rimmed glasses — 6 red wine, 6 white wine and 6 champagne flutes for €14 — bargain! So we had a lot to carry!

Christmas Markets

The next day we went to the Christmas markets and saw some amazing food stalls. I had never seen some of these foods and asked Stacey to take a photo. One stallholder got very upset with her for taking a photo of his meat and really started to abuse her loudly in French. I couldn’t understand what the problem was apart from the fact we didn’t buy any of his overpriced meats. Most of the stalls were too expensive so the only thing she bought was a Christmas present for me — a Russian fur hat like the one Lara wears in Dr Zhivago — but it wasn’t cheap —€60! I still have that hat and love it!

On Christmas Eve, Max had cooked pheasant with prunes, pears, bananas, sweet potato and parsnip. It sounds weird but I can tell you it was delicious.

Christmas Day

I woke up early and it was sunny — really sunny — so we decided to go for a walk to the park after eating some sushi Stacey made for an early lunch — not at all like in Australia where the big meal is lunch on Christmas Day even though it’s usually hot as Hades.

We arrived home at about 4 pm as it was starting to get dark and cold but Max’s two grown-up children hadn’t arrived yet. Finally, they turned up around 8 pm. I think these late dinners are normal for French people. I had eaten all of the prawns and drank most of the champagne by then! So then the exchanging of gifts takes place — in Australia, it’s the first thing we do on Christmas morning.

Max had bought Stacey and me beautiful woollen felt hats like fancy berets — you’ll often see photos of me wearing that beret — I feel so chic wearing it. Very sadly when I arrived home in 2015 or 2016 I left it in the laundry and it was eaten by silverfish, but gees, I loved that beret!

Max had cooked pheasant again and kangaroo ( heavens only knows where he bought that!). It was all melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Then ta-da! I brought out the plum pudding, Foster’s UHT custard and long-life cream I had brought all the way from Australia. Thank goodness it was worth the effort carrying it all that way!

So, that was my first Christmas in Europe — Nantes, France with my daughter and Max. Unbelievably, Christmas the following year, we spent with Stacey and Max again, but this time I was accompanied by my sister and niece and another friend. That was part of my 4 and half month “trip of a lifetime” where we had 3-month Eurail passes. We clocked on in Bergen and clocked off in Paris almost the full 3 months later!

This trip was to be my sister’s and my “last hurrah” so to speak. We’ve both returned several times since then! I’m definitely addicted.

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