5 Reasons to Visit Paris in the Winter

It’s Still Paris!

Whatever the weather, La Ville des Lumieres is magical. The city operates as though weather is not even a concern. Parisians are sitting out on café terraces, warmed by heaters and covered from the rain and snow, sipping on coffee, tea, and wine. The views are somehow more romantic, with landmarks peaking out from beneath a cloak of fog.

It’s very much a walking city, no matter the time of year, and you’ll find that all the same attractions are open.

Pro Tip: Dress in layers. You’ll want to be as warm as possible out in the elements, but once inside a café or shop, it can get quite hot. You’ll want to be able to shed some of those layers.

Skip (Every) Line

People tend to like to travel in the summer, for various (very good) reasons. Paris is the most visited city in the world, so you can imagine how crowded major attractions can get in peak season.

However, in early February the lines were almost non-existent. In fact, I don’t think we waited in line more than 5 minutes to see anything, and we really felt like we could experience monuments and engage with art in a more intimate and meaningful way.

Rather than it being a rush to get to the next site, we leisurely took our time soaking in each experience.

Cheap Flights & Hotel Rates

It probably goes without saying that travel to Europe during peak summer months will be much more expensive than travel during the winter. But something else to consider is the type of experience you get to have for what is essentially the same cost. $1,200 will get you a round trip flight to Paris anytime of the year, no question. But if you travel in the peak summer months, it will get you a coach class seat, perhaps with extra legroom if you’re a savvy deal hunter. In the winter, that same $1,200 will get you a premium economy seat on a major airline (like Air France, Lufthansa, or British Airways). The seats lie back much farther, allowing you better beauty rest; you are served a pre-flight cocktail and receive more personalized customer service, the bathroom is nicer and includes lotion (typically), and the meals are so much better.

The same goes for hotel rooms. It is difficult to find a hotel for less than $400/night in a hip neighborhood in the summer, but that same amount could get you a room at Le George V in February.

The only real question you need to ask yourself is: How hard would you like to ball?

FOMO-Free Days Spent Entirely Indoors

In the summer months, being outside on the streets of Paris is perhaps the best part of the trip. The only real drawback is that it can sometimes cause feelings of guilt to creep up around the prospect of visiting museums. The Louvre, for example, is so expansive and contains some of the most famous works of art that you could literally spend all day there for a week straight and still not see everything. Once the home of France’s royal families, this massive building contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 652,000 sq ft dedicated to the permanent collection.

Yeah.

So when we went to Paris in February, we picked Paris’ rainiest day to spend all day wandering the halls of the Louvre, stopping for a glass of wine and a snack in one of the museum’s many cafes, and took our time appreciating the works of art the way they were meant to be appreciated: in quiet, peaceful contemplation…150% guilt and FOMO free.

Le Vin Chaud

When you think of France, wine is among the first things to come to mind. One of the main benefits of being in a city as beautiful as Paris in the midst of crappy weather is the inherent excuse to duck into a café and warm up with a nice glass of wine. But in true Parisian fashion, they have thought of a way to keep you outside yet again. While walking along near any major attraction, you can find little carts (not that dissimilar from the coffee carts you can find in New York City) where the vendors are warming up tourists and passers-by with a selection of Chocolat Chaud, or Vin Chaud.

No matter where it’s served (Cart vs. Café) the quality of the wine has to be good for the drink to resist tasting bitter. The rule is: Never use wine for Le Vin Chaud that you would not serve at dinner.

Staying warm and wined is the key to making the most of your winter Paris vacation, and I promise you that this city will not let you down.