Simply hot blogfest - see part of my collection

Okay this is my entry for the Simply Hot Blogfest. Seeing as it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere it is thought people are hugging coffee cups of their favourite brew. But what is your favourite coffee cup is the question? I like these simple blogfests as you learn something about people.

Well I moved my entry to my Pichets in Paris site as I am posting my Publication Party on L'Aussie Writing. Sometimes it's just handy to have more than one blog.

When I travel I collect coffee cups. What do you collect? I pick up a cup in every country and the quest for a cup leads me to interesting places at times. I wrap them in bubble wrap and lug them around, getting more annoyed as my luggage gets heavier and heavier. But getting home, unwrapping, and putting them up in my specially-made cabinet is fun.

Here is a photo of the top two rows of coffee cups. The next two rows contain, ahem, shot glasses, beer mugs and the like.

Enjoy my mug shots!

If you're like me you're scrunching your eyes trying to read the countries/cities so I'll help you out - Top row - London, Ireland, Switzerland, Verona, New Zealand.

Bottom row - Paris, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Spain

I love them all, especially the Paris mug on the left. Here are three angles to show the scenes.

And when the thirst is really on, only the mega Starbucks cup from Paris Champs Elysee will do. Glug. Glug.

Well it is simply hot over here in Queensland at the moment, but strangely I still drink my cup of coffee or two every day. Delish.

Enjoy checking out the other coffee addicts' cups here.

Let's go shopping in Paris this Christmas.

Some more Paris at Christmas shots.

Nothing quite like this in Oz. This is as much of the Christmas tree as I could fit in - La Fayette on the Grands Boulevards. It was so lovely to browse, get sprayed with French fragrances, sit in one of the booths looking down on all the Christmas frivolity.

And this would be nearer the bottom of this amazing tree. It'll be twinkling away but I'm not there to see it!

A lovely coffee at Starbucks, Champs Elysee after all that shopping.

A little rest on the steps of Sacre Coeur. What a lovely sunny day it was and didn't Paris look wonderful from this spot.

Back to the Arc de Triomphe for a rest between shopping, eating and coffee.

A little stroll along the Pont Alexander 111 is in order in the icy afternoon.

Looking back towards Pont Alexander 111. Someone had enjoyed a little Christmas celebration and forgot to clean up. Not me, I swear!

The fountain was freezing up. It'd be a lot worse this year with the snow everywhere!

 

I've told you in a previous post how much I love the Tour Eiffel, especially when it's in lights and twinkling. This is taken near the Arc de Triomphe roundabout.

Let's finish the night meeting up with Aussie family members at Place Teatre at Montmarte for a lovely warming meal and stroll around the Place and the souvenier shops.

Christmas in Paris in the past, unfortunately not in 2010

I have been blessed to spend two Christmas seasons in Paris and the Isle de Paris. I always get nostalgic for Europe when Christmas approaches as it is so refreshing to feel the cold, see the snow and enjoy a hot dinner.

In Australia Christmas Dinner should always be prawns and salads, but you'd be surprised how many of us in a fit of mental abberation, cook a roast! Sweat! Sweat! There is a lot of jumping in the swimming pool involved between bastings!

I hope you enjoy a Paris Christmas with me.

Champs Elysee is the place to be for gorgeousness, and that's not just moi! Ha! Ha! I'm dazzled as you see!

Getting used to the delightful lights. What a lovely night! I lived in my fur coat I bought at the Camden Place markets in London and my fur cloche sold to me by a couple of dames near the Notre Dame cathedral. Would have frozen otherwise.

A stroll through the Galleries during the day. Gallerie Vivienne is one of my favourites - oh that art nouveau!

Caught heading into the Gallerie de Champs Elysee for my (shh) Starbucks! I like my cafe with lots of milk and the French think it's against the law after le petit dejeuner! A surprising number of Parsiennes shared a lounge with us. Lucky weren't they? I swear I didn't have Macdonalds while I was in there! But I bought some lovely tee shirts and gifts for the family sweating at home.

Hey, I just can't get enough of those lights and shop dekkies! Over the top! Even the cars screeching around the Arc de Triomphe roundabout look cute tonight.

Hmm. Got to catch a show at the Moulin Rouge, but not tonight in my jeans! Eewwwhhh...

Off to Notre Dame later to join the thousands of other worshippers in midnight mass. Cool! (It was too!)

Oh, sharing this only made me more homesick for Paris.

Au revoir, sniff, sniff...

I'll be posting more as I'm able...