It's Beginning to Taste a Lot Like Christmas...

Lunch today was a big old ham-and-melted-raclette sandwich and a cup of vin chaud in the shadow of the Grande Arche at La Défense. I decided to get out to that part of town during my break for some quick pictures, and got distracted by the pretty big Christmas market that is bizarrely positioned in the center of all the skyscrapers.

Of course, coming from Chicago and after numerous trips to Manhattan, La Défense's office buildings aren't very impressive. It's more the shock of entering the subway at Etoile, lined by Haussmanian apartment blocks, and then exiting at La Défense under a huge monstrosity of white, late-80s futurism.

Then add an olde time-y Christmas market, smelling like gingerbread and mulled spices, and the effect is astounding.

The sandwich, though? Fricking delicious. I watched them scrape the melted cheese from huge round wheels positioned under heating lamp onto my ham baguette, and then wandered around and laughed to myself about the French lyrics to familiar Christmas songs.