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Many towns in France have Christmas markets.  They usually have different booths with handmade crafts, food, toys etc.  When we went to the one in Clermont, we took Makenna to see Santa and get her picture taken.  She loved it!  We also went to one in an old medieval village called La Sauvetat, about a 30 minute drive from us.  It was so pretty and interesting to see.  They had many different shops selling things like homemade Christmas ornaments and decorations, crafts, chocolates, cheese, hot wine (which Ryan and I tried and it was not good) and jewelry.  We also saw a welder and someone literally roasting chestnuts on an open fire.  At the end, there were 2 men in costume (I think they were supposed to be “guards of the village”) and they were marching around and shouting.  I took their picture and suddenly they decided to put on a show and start saying things to me but of course I had no idea what they were saying!  There was also a small band walking around playing music.  It was a really neat experience!