Christmas and New Year's Eve in Paris

Christmas in Paris is a long period. Already in the beginning of November the Christmas decorations are installed, for example in the Galeries La Fayette, and mid-november the Christmas markets start. And you have lots of them in Paris.

Christmas markets

The biggest and most famous one is the one on the Champs-Élysées and it opens first. Along the street on the trees lights are burning and everything is glittering and glowing. Lights and glitter is typical for Paris; everything glitters in Paris: the Eiffel Tower, Tour Montparnasse, the Congress Center and the shopping centers. On the Christmas markets you can find a lot of stands with clothes, partly self-made ones, every kind of decorational stuff, souvenirs and many, many stands with food from all around the world. You will find German Bratwurst and Glühwein, you will find Polish Pierogi, Greek Souvlaki and, hot Cidre and Beer and, of course, all the delicious French Food: Raclette Cheese Sandwiches and other variations of this, soups, waffles, crêpes, churros and other sweet stuff.

But there is not only the Christmas market at the Champs-Élysées, but also at the Trocadéro, La Défense, Tour Montparnasse, Quai Branly, Bir Hakeim, Montmartre, Saint-Germain des Prés, Notre Dame and many more. I tried to go to everyone, and I think I did pretty well. Some of them are very small, for example the one at Notre Dame, and I was a bit disappointed. If you want something big, you should always go to Champs-Élysées. I often met there with some friends to eat crêpe or drink hot cidre, or just to enjoy the atmosphere. But, don’t forget to bring money! First, because there are many nice things to buy and second, because it is really expensive. You might pay 7 euro for a Bratwurst.

Attractions

At the Place de la République is a huge glowing big wheel has been installed, from where you could see all the Champs-Élysées illuminated. At some places you can find ice-skating arenas, outside or inside. I once went at the Champs-Élysées, it was not too expensive, about six euro and you got ice skates. Another time, we went to the Eiffel tower. There it was for free, you just had to pay the entrance to the Tower and if you walk up, it’s only five euros. The arena was even smaller than the one at Champs-Élysées, which was already small and had some trees in the middle. For beginners it doesn’t matter, but for people, who are used to it, it was definitely too small and especially for the amount of people. You always had music with it and no time limitation, so you could have a really good time there. We normally went at night, when all the lights were illuminated and it was a special atmosphere, especially on the Eiffel Tower. Just imagine that: Ice-skating on the Eiffel Tower! Something you should do for sure, when you have the chance. The only thing that made the situation not completely perfect, was the missing snow. I mean, even in Germany it gets more and more rarely to have snow at Christmas, but in Paris it’s really not likely. But, I heard it should be possible to have snow this year and now we are all waiting for it, because snow in Paris would be the complete highlight. Right now, it doesn’t seem likely, because temperatures are going up to 10 degrees again, but winter is still long.

New Year’s Eve

This week the Christmas market of Champs-Élysées closed as the last one to still be open, but one week after New Year it was really time for that. Even the Galeries La Fayette already put down the Christmas decorations, only a few streets still keep them. Over Christmas I had been home, because for me it is very important to be with my family and already last year, we have not been complete. So, sadly, I cannot tell you anything about Christmas day in Paris. After the Christmas holidays I came back to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Paris. My best friend and sister joined me for that. New Year’s Eve in Paris is an experience you should not miss. The only thing that shocked me, was that there wouldn’t be a firework. In Paris! No firework! I got to know that, apart from the year 2000, Paris never had a big firework at New Year’s Eve. Other holidays, as the national holiday on the 14th of July, yes, but not on New Year’s Eve. That was new for me and made me a bit sad. But, ok, I could live with that, I already had another no-firework-new-years-eve in New Zealand two years ago.

So, what we did was meeting at a friend’s place for having dinner together. Everyone would bring something to eat and drink, didn’t matter if it was typical for our countries or just a simple dish. We ate a lot and very good and we had a lot of fun, singing and talking. At around half past ten, we headed in the direction of the Champs-Élysées. We started this early as the metro station close to it were closed for security reasons and we wanted to be there on time for the countdown. We found a nice spot for watching the light show on the Arc de Triomphe. The police was present all the time and everyone, who wanted to get in this zone was controlled. We had lost half of our friends in the masses of people, it was just impossible to stay together. Before midnight the Arc de Triomphe was lighted up and the Countdown was shown. We started counting the Countdown and at midnight everyone was crying: “Bonne année” and hugging each other. The atmosphere was great, everyone was more than happy and we all shared this moment with millions of people. Afterwards we went to a Bar, were we had reserved the night before. It is common here to go to a restaurant, club or bar, pay entry and get food and drinks for it. Actually, most of the Parisians are at these kinds of events and don’t even go out at midnight. It is mostly tourists that are gathering at the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe for celebrating. At this bar, we finally met our lost friends and received a bottle of Champagne. Once again, we toasted on the new year and then celebrated until the morning. We had one more drink inclusive and also breakfast, which means, typical French, a croissant and café. The music was mostly latino, that was why we chose this bar, we all love that, and we had one of our best nights in Paris.

The good thing was, that most of the metro lines, and most importantly mine, were continuing all night long and for free, so we didn’t have any problems of coming home. We actually didn’t sleep too long as we wanted to see the New Year’s Parade at the Chapmps-Élysées at 14 o’clock. Luckily, I live close to it. Sleepy, we walked down the road, which was closed for cars from yesterday night until 16 o’clock of this day, and watched the parade.

This New Year’s Eve will always stay in my mind. It was an amazing evening, with amazing people, which I call my best friends, some of them only knowing a few months.

If you would like some more information about Christmas and NYE in Paris, check out this post.

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