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Xmas in the french capital might not be snowy white, but it’s hard to not be full with christmas cheer if you’re in the french capital in December. The City of Lights lives up to its nickname in a big way, as the trees that contour the Champs-Elysées are among the many trees in Paris that get covered with strings of lights, and the Eiffel Tower frequently gets the focal point of the nighttime skyline with its gleaming lights.

Actually, looking at the christmas lights in Paris is one of the best stuff to do when you’re visiting the city in December. The top places to go to explore the Paris christmas lights are along the aforesaid Champs-Elysées, along the Rue Montorgueil and Rue Mouffetard, in the Place Vendome, in the windows of the huge department stores (as well as the renowned Galeries Lafayette), and at the Notre Dame Church. It’s at Notre Dame that you’ll additionally get to check out Paris’ Christmas tree, and even if you’re not a religious person you might do worse than to attend a Christmas Eve service in the famous church. You can reach all of these sights from Appartment in Paris

A further Christmas custom in Paris is the temporary ice skating rinks that get set up all over the city. The locations every year may change, but there are frequently rinks built in the place near the Paris City Hall, also known as the Hotel de Ville, and close to Montparnasse. They tend to go up in mid-December and stay open over March, so even if you’re visiting the french capital after Christmas you can however take a spin. Generally speaking, to go ice skating in Paris on these temporary rinks won’t cost you anything, but if you need to rent the ice skates that’ll be one or two euro.

Attending a service in one of Paris’ many churches can be a really amazing method to spend Christmas Eve, even if you’re not a super-religious person at home. And you don’t even have to speak French to get the most out of a service – there are numerous English-speeking services all over the city you can take part in. Unluckily, the website for the Catholic churches of Paris appears to be totally in French – so you might need some assistance from a French-speaking friend to translate it and find the English services, or you can just ask the Paris tourism office or in your Hotel in Paris when you arrive in the city. Besides to attending Christmas ceremony in Paris’ churches, you might furthermore want to make a visit of the churches for the period of non-service times in order to visit the many nativity scenes they’ve erected for the season.

Christmas in the french capital, on top of the rest of France, tends to be a family celebration – which means that rather than giong out for dinner and celebrations with friends, Parisians are more likely to be eating huge meals in cozy apartments with family and partying in private. Nevertheless, for a voyager, the french capital at Christmastime can even now be dreamlike – there’s a feeling of silence that you might not find in Paris at any other time of year (though don’t think the streets will be abandoned or anything), and there’s something about the manner a city feels when it’s preparing for a family celebration that lets it feel cozy… No matter what the temperature is on the streets.


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