paris at xmas

can anyone advise what paris is like around new year? looking to go somewhre but a sun holiday is turning out to be crazy price and the canaries is only option... you may not even get the sun for the week.

anyway now looking into going to a city for 4 nights. paris flights are the cheapest. its our wedding anniversary so would like something nice and romantic... any suggestions. i heard prague etc just too cold at this time?

thanks in advance

New Year's Eve (or St Sylvestre as they call it) is quite a big event with lots of fireworks & a general party atmosphere - which is in contrast to the more restrained family orientated Christmas period.

We were there for new year a few years ago and enjoyed it but beware - a lot of places will close up at around 5 or 6 pm - especially bars.

Paris can be murderously cold at that time of year also - but that just means you get to duck into nice cafes on a regular basis for a chocolat chaud!

If you're planning to do any shopping while there you should note that most shops and shopping centres shut for the few days around New Year also.

thanks for the replies. my husband went ahead and booked it not knowing i'd posted on here. now i'm worried it'll be like a ghost town. but sure think our hotel is nice so we'll just hang in if so.

It won't be a ghost town, but it's a bigger holiday than christmas so a lot of people spend the time with families. If you're there for NYE itself it's great, they do a firework display from Place Concorde and you can be guaranteed it won't be an early night! Very very busy night in the city.
I think Musay d'Orsay closes for a few days around that time, but the other big ones are open. Check websites for anything special you want to do maybe.
Book well ahead (maybe even phoning ahead now) if you want to eat out on NYE also. A place I always wanted to try was the roof restaurant of the Tour Montparnasse - around 50 floors up, would be a lovely place to eat and see the fireworks at midnight.
Enjoy it!!

We went to paris last year for new year and to be honest Id never go at that time e of year again. It was extremely cold, we had to wait in line for 4 hours to get up the eiffel tower as there were thousands of tourists there. I had been there in feb before and alot more people there at ny.
We thought the new year eve celebrations were terrible. We were advised not to go to the champs elysee so we went to trocadairo(sp) square thinking there would be organised fireworks but there wasnt. There was then an almost riot trying to get into the metro which was eventually shut down by the police so we ended up having to walk back to our accomodation which took 2hours. Ive never been so afraid in my live. Almost everywhere was closed on new years day. My advice would be not to go into the city on new years eve unless your staying there.

I lived in paris for a year in 1994 and i remenber christmas very well.beautiful.very cold and it was snowing.

phew glad to hear that clever clogs. dont mind the cold. was in nyc last january and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. not interested in shopping when in paris just eating drinking and being merry... and a bit of romance as its our wedding anniversary on new years eve!

We were in Paris last year, between Christmas and New Year (not including New Year's Eve). Whilst we were there, all of the museums etc were open. It was a lovely time of year to visit.

I'll reconfirm that it is quite cold - so bring the thermals (even if they're not the most attractive look for the wedding anniversary

i was living on the 16th stop.rue de la pomme.about 10 min walk from the Champs Elise . Its an expensive place for shopping.but food and drink is much the same as dublin.