In the words of Audrey Hepburn, Paris is always a good idea… even when your trip is marked by glacial temperatures that never break 30ºF and a fateful vomit-related metro incident to kick off the new year.
Isabelle Cialone / The Hoya | The Christmas market in the Tuileries Garden
When my dad announced a year ago that the whole family would be schlepping to Paris for winter break, I was ecstatic — who wouldn’t be? I spent months imagining the taste of fresh pastries and the warm, wafting scent of bakeries hard at work early in the morning. What I did not imagine was how painfully cold it would be. Though the cold didn’t disrupt my dreams of fresh French bread and pastries, it did mean I ventured outside of our Airbnb a regrettably low number of times once I landed in the city of light.
The times I did brace myself and bundle up, I discovered a Paris that was entirely new from the summery, sunny city of my youth. Everywhere we went, there were rows upon rows of tents or booths boasting locally-made, artisanal goods ranging from scrumptious cheeses to handcrafted jewelry — the famous European Christmas markets. The largest one I went to transformed the Tuileries Garden into a wintry wonderland with vendors, rides and lots (and lots) of warm mulled wine, which is apparently a delicacy, though it made me somewhat queasy to even think about.
Admittedly, browsing the Christmas markets filled up lots of my itinerary, but no trip to Paris is complete without gorging yourself on rich, delicious food that your stomach regrets later (unrelated to the vomit incident, I promise). Among the various restaurants that my parents treated us to — all of which I highly recommend, but are also well beyond my own and most other college students’ budgets — were La Coupole, a true Parisian institution, and La Truffière, a gourmet restaurant boasting a menu where every course has truffles, even dessert. Because my siblings are picky eaters, we did not order the truffle menu, but I nonetheless enjoyed a delicious scallop dish and a glass of rosé from the comically large tome that serves as their wine menu. At La Coupole, I had my first ever Yule log; if the inch or so of snow we got while in Paris didn’t succeed in putting me in a festive spirit, that dessert certainly did. I also reminisced on the first time I ever tried snails, coincidentally at the same restaurant. Once you get past the mental aversion, they truly are incredible.
Isabelle Cialone/The Hoya | The scallop dish I enjoyed at La Truffière in the Quartier Latin.
Fortunately, you don’t have to break the bank to eat well in Paris, nor do you have to be too experimental an eater. Even the most touristy or simplistic of spots in Paris are, on average, delicious. Between absurdly rich meals, I gave my wallet (and stomach) a break with classic French dishes like chèvre chaud — a salad with warm goat cheese — and croque madame — a hot ham, egg and cheese sandwich — at whichever brasserie I happened to be walking by when hunger struck. And, of course, you can’t forget about the bread; you can get the best baguette of your life for less than three dollars at one of the thousands of bakeries dotting just about every street in Paris.
Another Paris staple is its museum scene, which (usually) offers a wonderful reprieve from the blistering cold. The Rodin Museum, though partially outside, was my favorite museum visit of the trip. Primarily featuring sculptor Auguste Rodin’s sculptures (like the famous The Thinker), the museum, which is located in a mansion with a sprawling garden, also features numerous paintings by Rodin and others. It’s a great place to warm up while appreciating art, or, as the three other tourists in the special exhibit showed me, a great place to pose for Instagram posts and pretend you know something about art…
Isabelle Cialone/The Hoya | Some of the paintings on display at the Musée Rodin (Rodin Museum).
Perhaps the only real downside to my trip was how packed the metro can be as people flee the freezing streets, especially on New Year’s Eve. If, like me, you end up stuffed into a jam-packed metro car at 11:30 p.m., I advise you to be vigilant — not for pickpockets, though that can be a problem — but for unusual bustling coming from within the belly of the car, because it can mean the catastrophic moment of ruin for your brand-new suede jacket, complete with chunks of tomato and something suspiciously green.
Vomit incident aside (and the odds that that happens to you are, I hope, incredibly low), Paris in winter truly is lovely, if you can get over the cold. It is both a wonderful place to be and completely different from the way it is during any other season.
Dining and Cooking