paris at xmas
 

we are a family of 4 (2 teens) spending 1 week over xmas in paris (staying at an apt in the 7th)

any suggestions for how to spend xms day as so many things are closed?

what should we do about restaurants xmas eve and xmas day?

thaks

ttt

The opera and ballet (at both Garnier and Bastille) perform the whole week, including the 24th and 25th. http://www.operadeparis.fr/Calendrier/

I took my sons ice skating at hotel de ville last Xmas. It was quite a treat.

We spent Christmas Week in Paris a few years ago and found it hard to find a place for dinner on Christmas Day outside of the very costly hotels.

A few cafes and bistros opened late in the day on Christmas Day.

Shopping on the 26th was very similar to that in States; i.e crowded with bargain hunters and returners. Most attractions kept Sunday hours on that day.

Dinner on Christmas Eve is hard to come by, as this seemed to be the major celebration of the holiday, more so than on Christmas Day. We were at a hotel with a concierge who took pity on the ignorant and got us a nice booking on the Ile St. Louis. If I were to do this again, I would be on the internet and finding a congenial spot that would confirm bookings by email.

I'd think that the XMAS windows and lights on Boulevard Hausseman would be nice, as well as the lights on Champs Elysee

My response is in general to 4bams and specifically to Jeff 801. I, too, plan to be in Paris during Christmas and am interested in the same subjects as you. Addressing the question of restaurants to Jeff80, how would you go about your Internet search? There are thousands of restaurants in Paris and I'm having difficulties determining which are open, especially on Christmas Day. Two restaurants have come to my attention and I believe that they may be possibilities, but I do not know if they are really open on December 25: Au Pied de Cochon, near Les Halles, and Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon. [By the way, Sylvia Poggioli, a correspondent for NPR, has a piece in the November 30, 2007, Web site about Le Train Bleu.] I suppose that the best course would be to e-mail them. I hope that I have a fall-back, in that I am staying at a very nice hotel. Surely, it is serving meals on the 24th and 25th. ZZ

See Mr. Bean's Holiday, now out on DVD, for a scene in Le Train Bleu. It involves oysters.

As a teenager, my father and I spent Christmas in Paris and we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner at one of the (two?) restaurants in the Eiffel Tower. While I don't particularly remember the meal, the view and company was something to cherish for a lifetime.

I think the Eiffel Tower is open on Christmas Day, other than that, I might just enjoy walking around, taking it easy, stopping in a cafe you may find open, things like that. There are concerts on Christmas Day in some churches (generally late afternoon to early evening) and I would do that myself. Just get a weekly entertainment guide at a news kiosk once you get to Paris, you'll find enough to do, I'm sure (eg, Pariscope). I know I've seen concerts on that date in prior years. If you don't like classical music (which is usually what they are, but might be sacred), that might not be for you.

I know Alcazar in St Germain is open for Xmas eve and day dinner. It's not cheap, of course, a lot of places that are open are going to have special menus and it will cost more than usual, and you may have to pay in advance or something. Sort of like NY's eve but not quite as bad. A lot of restaurants won't take reservations by email, if you are really serious about a place, I would call (or maybe your hotel could be helping you on that). Alcazar's menu is 90 euro per person www.alcazar.fr but it sounds nice, as there is music, also.

Here is another one with a Xmas eve menu at 75 euro per person, in the 1st arr. It looks nice, but I have no experience with it or Alcazar's in terms of quality.
http://www.marc-mitonne.com

The do have an email address (click on menu Reveillon de Noel at the left).

The Ciel de Paris at the top of Montparnasse Tower has a Xmas eve dinner at 100 euro, and that includes some music, also. I think they allow email reservations. www.cieldeparis.com

These are not cheap, but for a special dinner on that holiday, it would be worth the splurge to me. I imagine Le Train Bleu isn't going to be cheap, either. They do seem to have email reservations, but don't mention being open on Christmas or the eve.

For searching, I'd suggest doing a google search with these words:
paris menu reveillon noel

They call the special eves reveillon (both for Christmas and New Years, so that's why you should stick in noel). As an alternate, use the word carte instead of menu.

There are actually some museums that are open on Christmas Day in Paris -- I've read that the Pompidou center will be open, and the Jacquemart Andre, for two. That is probably not the best day to go, as if only a few are open, they could be packed.

If you haven't viewed it, the Paris Tourist Info website has tons of good information, and should be checked. They always list what museums and monuments are open on holidays. Here is another website that lists all kinds of info about Christmas
http://www.parisgratuit.com/

For example, it has a section on illuminations, the museums that are open, the markets, etc.

Two museums usually open on Christmas, the Pompidou Center and the Museum of Natural History, will be closed this year because their usual closing day is Tuesday.

It looks as though the Paris Zoo at the Bois de Vincennes will be open, in addition to all the good ideas you received from Christina and the other posters.

CW

Zambezi, I think Le Train Bleu is a better choice for Christmas Dinner. It is larger and has, if memory serves, a more flexible carte than Au Pied du Chochon. I suspect they have a web site. There are many web sites that can link to restaurants and you may need to make some choices as to arrondisement and type to narrow it down.

My favorites include Paris Notes and France Today. The Passport Newsletter has a list of restaurants by arrondisement, but I am not certain if you can access that without joining.

BTW, the Opera Bastille is doing Tannhueser for its holiday selection. I don't know what is on at the Opera Garnier.

If you have an historical interest, there is a very well reviewed Benjamin Franklin exhibit at the Caranavelet until the end of March.

While we found taxi's rare on Christmas Day, the metro ran a full schedule and we had no trouble getting around, once we figured out which Metro exit to us.

BTW,My GPS has a walking feature, and I would be interested if anyone has any experience using something like that in a European city. Even though I find getting lost a lot of fun in most cities, particularly Venice, it would be nice to be able to navigate quickly on a cold or wet afternoon.

There's a compendium of posts about Paris restaurants at Christmas on eGullet's France forum (http://tinyurl.com/yndbso and click on the Eating, Shopping and Staying link). The latest post is from 2005, but it gives some idea of what types of places are open, and you can look for websites. I notice that Thoumieux on rue St-Dominique in the 7th is on the list of restaurants that are open Christmas Day. It's a classic brasserie, and we've enjoyed it as much for the atmosphere (the waiters are straight from central casting) and the people watching as for the food, which is good solid southwestern fare (they have an enormous and very tasty cassoulet). You can check out the menu on their website (www.thoumieux.com), which also has an online reservation form.

Hi, 4bams,

have I missed something? - you're in an apartment. you have a kitchen.

for the price of an over-priced dinner for one , you could have a feast. Champagne, foie gras, or oysters, a bird [I bet you could get a pre-cooked one] cheese, a posh pud. there are wonderful dellies which would make a suitable package up for you.

go for a post prandial stroll, get out the monopoly or scrabble, [or if luggage is full, a pack of cards] put on the telly [no queen's speech but I bet the french have something equally cheesy] and put your feet up.

just an idea,

regards, ann

Well put, Ann. I would settle for such a Christmas in Paris, anyway.

I agree if you are there on Sunday find a market and get some food to cook in. Or find a market street and buy some prepared food on the 24th. Or go to Picard's and get some frozen selections. It's very good and fun to pick and choose from the selection. They even have trays of hors d'oerves!

I saw lots of restaurants open for dinner on Christmas Day (in the 17th eme). Christmas Eve things close early. We ate at an Asian restaurant near our hotel.

On Christmas Day, the bus tours were running, we went up the Eiffel and we came upon a flea market to the west side of town.

thanks for all the good advice- I thinkd we will eat in on xmas day with yummy takeout- I can't see anywhere that the rodin museum is closed on the 25th, and maybe we will do a walking tour of an are and go up the eiffel tower. perhaps if there is time we can check out one of the churches too- seems that there is lots to do even though it is a holiday!

It sounds like a wonderful trip. Happy holidays.

Check out the Virgin Megastore to see what concerts are going on Christmas Day. I was there in 2000 and we went to a concert at the church on Ile St. Louis. It was a Russian Choral group and they were fantastic. It was at 5PM Christmas Day night and we bought the tickets earlier in the week at the Virgin store. We just happened to wander in there and saw the notices.

If you are in the area, it could be a good idea to stop into a ticket outlet like Virgin, (and your teens will probably enjoy looking around it, anyway) but there is no reason you have to in order to find out about concerts or get tickets. There are lots of concerts that they don't sell tickets to, for one thing, but all concerts in churches will be listed in a weekly entertainment guide, anyway. So I really suggest you spend a few centimes and buy one (Pariscope or l'Officiel des Spectacles), it will be a lot easier and more comprehensive and you can plan in advance that way. Also, some are free, so of course, they wouldn't be selling tickets.

I don't think the Rodin Museum will be open on Christmas. Most museums are closed, only a very few are open. Often they do not mention this explicitly on their website, it's just assumed you know a museum is closed on major national holidays (generally Dec 25, Jan 1 and May 1). For example, if the Rodin Museum website says open every day but Monday (their weekly closure day is), that doesn't really mean they are open every holiday. They were closed May 1st, for example. The Paris TO website doesn't seem to have the museum/monument opening list for Christmas up yet, wonder why, they have in prior years and for other major holidays. In any case, the list on parisgratuit says Rodin is closed, and I would believe that. The Jacquemart Andre museum is open most holidays, for some reason.

There is a concert at the Madeleine on Christmas for one thing (at 4) that is free (organ, I think). There is also a vocal ensemble there at 11 am, which is free. There is a concert at St Germain church at 3:30 which is a free will offering, and another free one at Notre Dame at 4:30 pm. So there are a lot that are free. There is a paying one at St Ephrem at 6 pm.
Those are a few I've seen listed.

Here is a follow-up on Le Train Bleu. The restaurant is open on Christmas Day. Lunch: 11h30 - 15h. Dinner 19h - 23h. I have this from the directoress of reservations. ZZ

Great up to date info on this site
http://tinyurl.com/2plg58

Our family (two DDs then 13 & 16) were in Paris a few years ago on Xmas. Like others, we found dinner Xmas eve much more difficult to find than Xmas Day. The concierge in our hotel (not fancy) helped us find Balthaazar in the 5th and gave us a coupon. It is part of the Cafe Flo bistros (local chain). We bought tickets to a Cirque du soleil show for the afternoon (using a coupon from the concierge) and had dinner at Le Relais d'Entrecote off the Blvd. in the 6th.

Aliska, I think you mean Brasserie Balzar. www.brasseriebalzar.com

Although they don't specifically say they're open on December 24 or 25, they do have an online reservation option and you could find out pretty quickly whether they're available.

Here is Christmas Day in Paris 2006 (maitai-style):

"DAY EIGHT: JOYEUX NOEL, THIS OLD HOUSE (JACQUEMART-ANDRE), WHERE AM I AND DINNER UNDER THE DOME

It was Christmas morning in Paris, but like every other morning Tracy and I put on our walking shoes and hit the pavement early.

We had thought about how much we had liked Le Florimond, so we walked over to the restaurant, only to see the sign that the restaurant would be closed for the rest of the holidays. I also was hoping to figure out what the name of that wine we drank the other night.

Next, we found a little place to grab some coffee and croissants (hardly anything open) and then walked through the area near the Eiffel Tower.

The only place we saw open was a Chinese restaurant, and as we passed by it about 10:30 a.m. a huge contingent of Chinese tourists were being whisked off a Tour Bus and into the restaurant. The entire scene made me think about the family in Christmas Story who ended up having their Christmas meal at the local Chinese place. I wonder if the restaurant was serving Chinese Canard as their Chinese turkey.

We walked up Avenue Rapp and saw a couple of our old favorite haunts, the Puryicard candy store and restaurant Clos des Gourmets (both closed, of course), a restaurant we had eaten at shortly after it opened in the late 1990s. We kept walking.

Tracy had picked up a brochure at our hotel shortly after we arrived in Paris that had some information about a museum we had never heard of before, but it said it was open on Christmas Day, so we figured, “Let’s go.”

We got ourselves back over to bd. Haussmann (our Pomze street) and headed for the Musee Jacquemart-André. This was our little “undiscovered gem” moment of the trip (many of you well-seasoned travelers already know about it, but it had never been on our radar before).

This is a mansion that was built in the 1870s and belonged to Edouard André and Nellie Jacquemart, hence the name. These two would have been able to do some great trip reports, because they traveled often to Italy and collected art that they would bring back and exhibit at the mansion.

Even after his death, Nellie made other trips to Italy and also to the Far East. In 1912, after her death, the art and the house were left to the city of Paris.

The free audio guide here was terrific, and Tracy especially liked the commentary because it talked a lot about the house, its history, how it was utilized, the couple themselves and the elegant parties they threw here. You could also learn about specific pieces of art, but to us, the history of the people and the home was the most interesting facet of the tour.

From Tracy, “I found the Italian art collection to be amazing. I loved how the doors in the entry parlor drop into the floor and the walls on either side of the parlor could fold back to accommodate more than 1,000 people. During the parties, musicians played upstairs in the balcony area, while people danced below.

“The amazing staircase was suspended in air. The architect had lost out on the design for the opera house, which has a similar-type stairway, but the museum staircase was deemed better and more amazing.

“The house is still used for private functions. Maybe we could renew our wedding vows here.” Boy, is she sneaky!

There was also an exhibit going on of golden treasures. There were television monitors that explained the exhibit in English with French subtitles, but we were getting hungry.

During the tour, our noses had been tempted by the smell of food wafting through the building, so after we dropped off the headphones and had lunch in the restaurant at Jacquemart-André. It was charming…and good.

Tracy had the Le Prince salad, which consisted of a mixed salad with curried chicken and carrots, raisins and grapefruit. I don’t remember what I had for lunch, because we split ½ bottle of Pommery Champagne, and I, as usual, took more than my fair share.

We then ducked into their nice, little gift shop, and Tracy bought a bunch of butterflies (not live ones). Tracy again: “Butterflies were quite the decoration in Paris this year. We saw them in white, pink, red, gold, black and pale blue. They were displayed in front windows and on the tree in our hotel lobby.

“The only place we saw them for sale was at the museum gift store, and the lovely Tracy (man, how she sneaks these comments in) came home with pink, red and gold butterflies – 1.30 euro apiece.”

The rest of the afternoon we just wandered somewhat aimlessly (but in a good way), and there was not a lot going on. Then up ahead, we saw a bunch of people, and the entire area was bustling with people. We had made it back to the Jewish Quarter in the Marais, and it was hopping full of people.

I was thinking of grabbing something else to eat, but I had a couple of more wardrobe malfunctions earlier in the day, so I didn’t want the local populous to think I was some sort of meshuggener by flailing away in my misguided attempt to get out my wallet.

As soon as left the area, it was quiet again until we reached the next multitude of people. Out in front of the Hotel de Ville, it looked like a Dorothy Hamill (one of my first true loves after my unrequited love affair with Peggy Fleming years before) reunion.

Tracy asked (jokingly) if I wanted to get out on the ice and try it. Since I had not ice-skated since the Nixon administration, I deferred.

On this afternoon, we had also thought about going to the Pompidou, but the line had been rather long, and for me to go back to the Pompidou, it would have to have been a much shorter line. We also stopped in some other “art” exhibit near the Marais, which looked like half art exhibit, half bad flea market, but it was nice to go inside, because it was chilly.

Our Christmas dinner on Christmas night was at Bofinger. It was when we got off the metro at Bastille, that Tom’s Tuscan Tours (please see 2005 trip report for details) got a little derailed. I had forgotten to bring the address, and at the Opera Bastille (a place I knew it was fairly near), there were about eight or nine options on which way to head.

Now a sane and raisonnable person would, of course, ask one of the people standing nearby which way Bofinger was located. Not I. In a moment of temporary insanity, I decided I could figure it out with that GPS system of a brain installed in my stubborn head.

For the next ten minutes, I did my best Keystone Kop imitation as I headed one way, then another and then another again. After ten minutes, Tracy was tired of this movie and said, “Please ask somebody.” Good idea.

Trying to be as French as possible (of course, they had probably seen me do my cartoon act for the past ten minutes), I went up to a gentleman in front of the opera. In my best really bad French I said, “Oú est Bo-fahn-jay?”

He looked at me and said, “You mean BowFinger.” Yeah, that’s the place. By the way, there were lots of restaurants open in this neighborhood. I know that because I saw them all on my ten minute joy walk.

We were now 20 minutes late for our 8:30 reservations, and we walked in the door. “Bonsoir,” I told the Maitre’di. “We are Mr. and Mrs. Late People.” He could not find our names.

I then told him our reservations were for 8:30. He said, with a little bit of an attitude (which I like), “Oh, you should have made them for 9.” He then gave us a quick “I’m kidding” look and directed us to our table located under the belle epoch ceiling. It was quite cool and, even better, there is no smoking in this section (although smoking in restaurants did not bother us at all on this trip).

A large number of Americans presumably dine here, but on Christmas night it was mostly occupied by French families, lovers and a couple who we surmised were either on their first date or heading for divorce because they talked about as much as a couple at a Marcel Marceau convention (now that’s a reference I didn’t see coming).

I liked the traditional French waiters, the room and the experience. Dinner was fine, but, once again, it wasn’t one to write home about.

It was more escargots for me, while Tracy had an arugula, egg and bacon salad. My beef in peppercorn sauce wasn’t bad, and Tracy had a Napoleon of seared scallops with Parmesan crisps on a bed of cornichons.

Dessert was good. We had a chocolate mousse cake with caramel on a cookie crust.

For drinks, we had started with some champagne, then a bottle of 2003 Chateauneuf de Pape L’Orateuers (or at least that’s we wrote down) with dinner, and for some strange reason, I had another Irish Coffee after dessert. Interestingly, or maybe not, at home if I have caffeine after 2 p.m., I’m a mess trying to sleep. In Paris, I can drink one at 11 p.m. and sleep like a baby.

Our waiter told us that Bofinger can serve 1,000 or so people on a very busy day, and on this Christmas they were above 700 for the day. The kitchen stays open until 1 a.m.

When we looked at the Eiffel Tower after exiting the metro stairs, we could only see a little of its base through the thick fog. I remembered I had not taken a picture of it at night with its upside down Christmas tree glowing, and I only had one more night in Paris."

((H))