Christmas in Paris…

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Champs Elysées, Christmas, Paris, sales season

The season leading up to Christmas is a light-filled, festive time in Paris that can provide an ideal backdrop for a romantic vacation or an enchanting holiday season with the kids.

Each year, elegant holiday lights adorn several neighborhoods, shopping districts and historical sites in Paris, ushering the city out of its November gloom.

Christmas/holiday lights displays on the Champs Elysées
The majestic Avenue des Champs-Elysées is flooded with lights every winter, with light-drenched trees stretching all the way from the Place de l’Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. Don’t forget to visit the Christmas market in the area while you’re at it.
Christmas Light Displays at Paris Department Stores.

The classic Paris department stores district near the Opera Garnier is awash with lights and elaborate window decorations every holiday season, generally starting at the end of November and throughout the January sales season in Paris.
For those of you who’ll be in Paris on Christmas day, remember that all of the city’s major museums and galleries will be closed. Many shops, cafes and restaurants are also closed all day on the 25th or are open only until the early afternoon.

An ice-skating rink is set up on the plaza outside of Hôtel de Ville (Paris City Hall). Christmas markets spring up all around the city, with their warm wood-roofed booths, vin chaud (hot wine), enchanting decorations and gifts, and gourmet treats. Chanukah celebrations like menorah lightings add to Paris’ holiday-season charm. There are also plenty of ways to celebrate a memorable Christmas in Paris.

With all the good cheer, Paris in December is nonetheless fairly relaxed, making the month an ideal time to take advantage of the city’s many sights and attractions. Take your time exploring museums, sipping cinnamon-infused hot wine, or attending a special holiday concert. Have a real retreat from the holiday madness back home and try taking Paris in frame by frame, like a painter would.

Foodie Christmas in Paris

The French celebrate with their blow-out meal the day before Christmas. In Paris, fresh oysters and creamy foie gras are on the festive menu, with delicate smoked salmon and hearty chapon (roast chicken), turkey or goose. Leave room for some chocolatey Bûche de Noël washed down with champagne.
In need of a spiritual uplift after all that shopping over Christmas? In Paris, a midnight mass must is the Eglise de la Madeleine (finishing at 12.45, you can still catch the last metro home). Or see the Christmas crèche at the oldest church in Paris, the pretty Eglise St-Germain-des-Prés, dating from the 6th to the 11th century.

Shopping tips for a trip to Europe…

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Christmas, clothing, European vacation, prices, shops

Check out American prices on items you think you may want to buy before you leave home.
Be prepared to drop a huge chunk of change if you want to purchase anything. You may find the same item in another shop on a lower-rent street for less.

Shop in street markets for the best prices, most open haggling, and most fun. The quality of the merchandise is more risky than that of shops, but you can get great deals on everything from designer knockoffs to bootleg tapes.

Shop around. Prices sharply vary from shop to shop, stall to market stall, and they usually vary inversely with their distance from any major tourist sight. Let the store owners know you’re comparing prices, and the asking rate may go down on the spot.

Designer clothing is not any cheaper in Paris or Florence boutiques than it is in Big City, USA. There are bargain-basement fashion outlets in European fashion capitals, of course, but they usually offer no better deals than you’ll find in the United States. Of course, there’s always that cachet of having bought those shoes in Florence or that dress in Paris.

Shop selectively. Don’t gobble up everything you see. Go for the items that truly bring out a country’s spirit, style, or culture. It may be a beautiful museum book, a compilation CD of the local pop hits, or a kitschy British Beefeater guard doll to hang on the Christmas tree. Just make sure it’s memorable to you.

Everything becomes cheaper as you move south. You could buy twice as much in Greece as you could in Paris or Oslo for the same money.
On most escorted tours, the guide will take or direct you to shops that offer “special prices” to people on your tour. 90 % of the time, the shop is feeding the guide a kickback. Usually, the store passes this percentage along to you by jacking up the prices. Although some guides do give honest recommendations, and even some of those kickback arrangements don’t adversely affect you via markups, it’s impossible to know when a recommendation is on the level. I’d take the cynical route and ignore any guides’ suggestions.

Know the VAT refund minimum for the country you’re in, and if your budget and plans are going to allow you to spend near or over that amount, try to do all your shopping in one store so you can get that refund—it’s like getting an automatic 20% (or so) discount.

Count your change, and make sure the receipt is complete and accurate. Don’t be rude about it, but make sure you haven’t gotten a rotten shopkeeper who’s trying to scam or shortchange you.

The receipt is important because you will need it for any VAT refund, plus in some countries, you must carry your receipts for any purchase (even a cup of coffee) away from the store with you (it has to do with the local government trying to foil tax cheats, but the laws affect you as well).

It may cost a bit more, but the longer you keep your more fragile purchases with you bouncing down the road of your trip, the greater the chances that your Waterford crystal will end up Waterford shards. You can save yourself time and hassle should something go wrong with a purchase being shipped home if you snap a photo of your purchases before they’re wrapped up. This photo makes excellent proof of purchase when it comes to insurance claims. If you find that you’re running out of room in your luggage, ship those fragile items home first, then mail home your personal stuff you don’t need, like dirty laundry, rather than entrusting all your purchases to the postal system.

Get a “Beware the Dog” sign in French, or pop into an Italian hardware store to pick up one of those lopsided hourglass-shaped carafes they use to serve table wine in osterie. That way, instead of going in a shoebox or display case once you get home, your souvenirs become part of your daily routine, and every time you open the back gate or have wine with dinner, you have a reminder of that great European vacation.