Bonnes fêtes tout le monde!

And finally, in the spirit of Christmas, I will take you on a grand tour of the Montreux Christmas Market. Of everything in this little city, this market is by far the most magical. Each little wooden chalet glows against the black lake, and the sound of Christmas carols (in English and French) and live street music light up the already sparkling night. I would go into painstaking detail about every vendor, but I'd like to save some for the imagination. After all, that's what Christmas is all about, right? The beauty of the imagination and believing--two things that there can never be enough of in my humble opinion. And the Christmas Market? Well, I found it to be the embodiment of Christmas spirit for more reasons than I could list. Who knows. . . Maybe one day I'll come back here with a family of my own. With everything I love so much about Christmas in one place, how could I resist?

This photo was actually taken at the Christmas Market in Morges, but I thought it was just too appropriate not to include.

The grand eating pavilion surrounded by stands with foie gras, dried meats, fondue, pizzas, pretzels, crêpes, waffles, churros, cookies, chocolates, and of course, vin chaud.

The tea corner. But this tea is special. Really special. Black tea with rum. . . and lots of rum. Sounds kind of strange if you haven't tried it, but I can tell you that after a couple of these, you'll be plenty warm. Oh yeah, and by the way, that is a legit log house. I'm pretty sure that a family of four could have lived very comfortably there.

If I had no self control before, well, it went out the window here.

Nougat and fudge and chocolate oh my!

My favorite vin chaud stand. Mostly because the men working it were adorable and so so friendly. And I would be that happy too if was working there with huge cauldrons of bubbling wines at my disposal.

The same stand, with the same adorable (now shirtless) men roasting chestnuts for an eager crowd. Drooooool.

One of three full scale houses built for the market. Just the market. God I love this city.

The ferris wheel (duh) and the Canadian village to the right. And yes, that is a tepee with a real crackling fire inside.

Full scale house #2.

The center pavilion with more stands selling crafts and gifts, fine Christmas delicacies and more delicious food than you could ever imagine.

So what do you think? Christmas in Montreux, 2010?