Christmas is everyday in Paris.

This year I am on totally independent vacation time with the place to myself and a chance to explore Paris solo. The city is absolutely breath-taking this time of year and every little shop or boutique bursts with pre-Christmas shopping. There are fantastic window displays at the Galeries LaFayette full of dancing marrionettes, and lavishly decorated store-fronts at Samaritaine and Printemps department stores with shimmering lights that reflect in the Seine. The Champs-Elysees is dressed in lights with fur trees planted at La Place de la Concorde drizzled in snow and lights to color the wintery sheen. Two public skating rinks have been installed at the Hotel de Ville and La Defense as well as a winter wonderland of sorts, with sledding and skiing for the public at the Stade de France - normally home to the country's prized football matches.

I doubt it will be a white Christmas in Paris, more likely a grey, misty rainy day or one of brisk cold with sunbursts beaming through cumulous clouds. Every window of every mom-and-pop store attracts the eye or the nose with the sites and smells of French artistry and gastronomy galore. Entering into a store in France is not a passive experience. You are sensually bombarded and feel encapsulated in the very essence of what it is you came to buy. On my walk home from the metro at Rue de la Pompe, I am obliged to pass by a traiteur chinois, a boulangerie and two patisseries with exquisitely prepared delictables beckoning from within window displays, two boucheries with rotisseries roasting delicious meats right before your eyes, a wine shop, a fromagerie from whose door you get whiffs of peeks at unctuous goat cheeses and rustic creamy Camemberts, as well as three fruiteries with visual explosions of colors and textures of every fruit or vegetable imagineable. All of this is at your fingertips in any typical French neighborhood. In Paris, Christmas is everyday with all it's effervescent beauty. A truly moveable feast, as Hemingway so lovingly named it.

Happy holidays to one and all. In closing I must admit it feels pretty good to spend my euro dollars in a country whose government I am not at odds with. I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the people and culture of France. Please know that I am alive and well in Paris, looking forward to continuing my journey on French soil in 2005.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. May we see the end of war and the beginning of a long reign of peace on earth.