The Lederman Kitchen

Christmas is a big deal over here in Ireland, and in Europe in general.  Christmas.  Not "The Holidays".  Just Christmas.  The excitement that leads up to it is amazing. The lights, the music, the shopping, the Christmas lunches, Christmas drinks, Christmas dinners, Christmas Do's (Parties).  Friends put on their best Christmas Jumpers (ugly Christmas sweaters) and do a 12 Pubs of Christmas pub crawl.   The Temple Bar at Christmas Everything is decorated on the streets and in the shops.  The shops stay open late and the restaurants have Christmas menus.  Companies pay employees early in December (everyone gets paid once a month here), so they have some extra money to spend.  There are Christmas trees everywhere, even at our gym.  We've had a "countdown to Christmas" in our office since the beginning of November.   I spent some time around town trying to capture some of the lights and a bit of Dublin around "The Holidays"....

Brian and I were in Paris just over a year ago on our honeymoon.  On that trip we saw all the must sees - the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay.  We saw Notre Dame, Sacre-Coeur, and everything in between.  We exhausted ourselves from walking everywhere and fighting crowds.  So a few months ago, when we booked a weekend trip back, we couldn't wait to go and just enjoy the city. We had a fantastic weekend of breakfasting on croissants, strolling the streets, admiring the architecture, exploring some new neighborhoods and enjoying life in Paris. Happy to be back in Paris! View from our apartment in Saint-Germain des Pres The street we stayed on My favorite Parisan breakfast (only one of those is mine) Beautiful produce at Le Bon Marche The Musee D'Orsay.  It's so cool they used the old train station. Walking along the Seine Just once I set the camera on self timer! Paris! Pont des Arts Bridge w...