Lights up on the Champs-Elysées

The Christmas lights are up on the Champs-Elysées! It looked so beautiful tonight.

One year, I think it was 1999, some creative person decided to change the usual glorious-but-classic white lights in the trees along the grand avenue. Instead, unbelievably hideous white gauze wraps covered the trees like an enormous tent-caterpillar  infestation. I think it was supposed to look magical when lit up in colors at night, but the gauze turned gray almost at once and in the daytime it looked as if the avenue were under tarps, while at night the dim lights made it look somber and eerie. Everyone complained about the dustmop trees, and the Boxing Day tempête (which was a mini-hurricane, winds "at the extreme of possibility" for Europe) tore the last shreds of their dignity away. The rags sat in the trees like toilet paper until they were quickly and ignominiously cleared away in time for the Year 2000 celebrations. I felt sad for the person whose idea it had been; no doubt it was conceived as something spectacular and chic. I didn't like the idea at all, but I admire the French for their willingness to try (and subsidize) something a little different.

For example, the ice skating rink at the Eiffel Tower in a week (7th December to 1st February)! You can't bring your own skates and skate for free, though, the way you can at the Hotel de Ville's rink that opens this Saturday until the end of February. This year, there will be a children's rink and a sledding slope too.