Scenes of Christmas

I've been wanting to go to the Strasbourg Christmas market for years now, and had decided that THIS was going to be the year. But then we had a look at ticket prices and it was just too darn expensive. I was pretty bummed until C suggested we take a detour through Germany on the way back and check out one there. I asked my customer for advice, and they suggested we go to Aachen.
After several fast starts - we couldn't figure out why the GPS kept switching the town name from Aachen to "Aix-la-Chapelle" (really though, the two are nothing alike!), we finally made it. The Aachen market was fairly small but very picturesque and quite different from the French ones I've been to. First of all, most of the French ones sell very little actual Christmas-related items. And with the exception of raclette sandwiches, they all sell basically the same food you'd find at any other time of the year. Whereas the German one had mostly only Christmas stuff and some new-to-us treats. And as a bonus - they sold mulled wine in a real mug that you got to keep at the end of you wanted.Another thing I've been wanting to do for a while is check out the Christmas lights in Paris:They were indeed beautiful, but with the exception of the above pictures, they weren't that Christmasy - most of the window displays were like this:Or like this:It was still a fun night out though - just be sure to dress warmly!