Madhouse Diaries : Brest wishes for Christmas from Brittany !

For the first part of our Christmas festivities, we headed down to see Madhouse Daddy's family in Brittany and we went to check out the Christmas market in Brest on Christmas Eve.

Sophie finally found a shoe big enough to fit her whopping size 8/9 feet !

I loved the XXL clothing on Santa's washing line !

There were some traditional stalls selling festive things like Glühwein and we bought some German chocolate-covered gingerbread.

And there were some more exotic offerings such as these Moroccan slippers. These are the genuine article because we saw exactly the same ones one holiday - unfortunately you can't haggle the prices here though !

Madhouse Daddy bought me a pair or red ones for Christmas.

The main shopping street has been turned into a tramway which made us do a double-take !

There were lots of Christmas-themed decorations dotted about town such as this letter to Père Noël.

Not quite sure how the big elephant fits in with the festive theme but it was very impressive.

As were the athletic Santas swinging around on ropes in the shopping centre, handing out sweets and posing for photos.

This one didn't even need a fake beard !

If you ever see a French sailor walking around, touch the pompom on his hat and it's supposed to bring you luck. These ones are filled with chocolates though !

When we got back, the younger Madhouse kids went to look out of the window to see if they could spot Santa's sleigh in the sky.

Then there was a ring at the doorbell and it was time to go down and discover the presents. (The presents are opened on the evening of the 24th in France, then we all sit down for a big meal, followed by another one on the 25th!)

One happy smiling face.

Two happy smiling faces.

Three happy smiling faces.

 Even bigger smiles when they found One Direction in their presents (not in person, unfortunately !).

We even managed to get a photo of the five of us !

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your families.

Linking up with December's Out & About linky.