The Holiday Season has arrived in
Paris
 Christmas markets, colorful lights on all of the shopping
streets, flocked pine trees, magical window displays at the department stores,
the giant Ferris wheel at the Place de la Concorde, open-air ice skating rinks,
and even the chilly weather to go with it! I went to the large Village de Noël
on the Champs Elysées last week to enjoy some vin chaud with a friend,
and I was happily surprised at how much the quality and variety have improved
this year (see the video from 2010's market). There are more artisans and fewer
junky electronics and Santa hats, better food options (with some oddly kitch
Americana going on), rubber sidewalks so you’re not walking in the mud, little
heaters to warm your hands, and an awesome new skating track that takes you
through an amusing tour of the wildlife of the Seven Continents…like It’s a
Small World except there’s a live DJ and disco lights at night. It’s a great
place to pick up holiday gifts (I got some fabulous holiday cards with cut-out
pop-ups of Parisian monuments) while stuffing yourself on French foods (I always
go for the sausages) and barbe à papa. Find the details of this market
and the other holiday events around town at the Secrets of Paris
Calendar.
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Radios for the Homeless
This holiday season
let’s try and spread a bit of kindness and joy to those living on the streets
with the gift of music and information. Secrets of Paris is supporting Les
Enfants du Canal’s “Operation 1000 Radios” to distribute 1000 dynamo-powered
radios to the homeless of Paris for Christmas. Each radio costs €15. Read more
about the important work of Les Enfants du Canal on our blog and consider making a quick and easy PayPal
donation.
Another way for
those of you living in France to help those in need is to order your custom
holiday cards from Ooprint.fr, who are donating 10% of all sales to the Croix
Rouge.
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A Man with a Van in Paris
Need someone to
help you move? Ever try and carry a futon through the metro? Can’t drive a
rental van because you don’t have a license (or know how to operate a manual
transmission)? Or, like my assistant Tara, did you just buy a bulky piece of
furniture from someone and get in a fight with the taxi driver who refuses to
load it on the roof? At one time or another we could all use a friend with a
van. Last week I hired Lucas from www.manwithavanparis.com to help me move a heavy load of boxes
into storage. He not only responded on the same day to my email, he was free the
next day and only charges €50 per hour (hors taxe) for small jobs with only one
mover (a bit more for big moves). He was on time and speaks perfect English (he
has mostly American clients and has been to Dallas, of all places). Highly
recommended! Lucas Tchwanto, tel 06 51 45 04
79.
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An Alternative to Taxis
If you live in
Paris or visit often, you’ve probably experienced the agony of waiting for a
taxi that never arrives, or that arrives full of smoke with a grumpy driver who
obviously took a coffee break with the meter running. Now there are alternatives
to taxis, private cars which you hire, pay for, and even follow via GPS, all on
your smart phone. One is SnapCar and the other is Chauffeur Privé, both which offer services slightly more
expensive (well, not always!) than a taxi but not as expensive as a regular
private car and driver. They have €15 minimums (and they give you the estimated
price before you start), so not so economical for short trips across town, but
at night, on weekends, and when you absolutely have to get to the airport on
time, give them a try.
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Join an Apocalypse Flash Mob
You know when you
see those YouTube videos of really cool flash mob dances that go viral? (My
favorite was the Michael Jackson tribute at Trocadéro) Well if you live in Paris
and feel like you’ve got the moves, you can join the Apocalypse Flash Mob dance
group Swing Oddity performing “La Fin du Monde” which will take place December 19th at the
inauguration of the newly re-opened Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie (30,
avenue Corentin-Cariou, 19th, M° Porte de la Villette). There are practice videos to follow as well as actual rehearsals on
December 9, 12 and 16. For more info check out the FB page.
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Angels of Paris
 Those of us who love Paris can never have too many books about the
city, and Rosemary Flannery’s labor of love, Angels of Paris (The Little Bookroom, 2012) is a gorgeous
little “Architectural Tour through the History of Paris” via the statues,
frescos, and bas reliefs of angels overlooking every corner of the city. Each
angel is photographed with the address of where you can go see it (so you can do
a little self-walking tour), and includes her painstaking research into not just
the angels themselves, but the historical and architectural context of where
they appear, whether it’s government buildings, museums, gardens, residential
buildings, or memorials. Rosemary is in Mary Duncan’s Paris Writers Group with me, so we have witnessed all of the
hard work that has gone into this book over the past few years, and wish it all
the success it deserves!
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American Library in Paris Book
Award
Speaking of books about Paris,
now there’s a way to cut through the pile of new ones that appear on the shelf
each year (and inspiration to finish your own): the American Library in Paris has announced a new Paris Book Award “given to the best book of the year in
English about France or the French-American encounter.” The winner gets €5000,
plus flight and accommodation in Paris (assuming the author doesn’t live here)
for the award ceremony in October 2013. Nominations are open through June 1st,
2013 for books (print only, it is a library after all) published between July
2012 and June 2013. The short list will be announced in September. Plenty of
time to sharpen your pens and get writing!
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Quick & Easy Train
Tickets
The SNCF has made a
nice effort in improving their services, but sometimes you just need a quick
train ticket, no hotel options, no rental car, no ads, no extra options. The
quickest way to do this is through Capitaine Train, a travel agency that has created a
super-simple site for buying train tickets without adding anything to the
official price (they get a commission from SNCF). Wouldn’t it be nice if ALL
service sites were this simple!?
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New Services at La Poste
I feel like I’m at
the post office every day doing one thing or another, even though much can be
done on their website. And now La Poste has added a bunch of innovative new services to their
repertoire:
- Timbre Vert
offers less expensive postage that’s eco-friendly (mail travels by train and
truck, not plane), delivery of letters within 48 hours in France metropolitan
for €0.57. They also come in “Beaux Timbres” (commemorative and decorative
stamps) and pre-stamped envelopes (€0.74).
- For your holiday
mailings, there are now PostExport Surprise giant padded envelopes for small
gifts up to 750 grams for a flat fee of €12.50 worldwide (optional fee for
tracking); Lettre Max Festive are small cardboard mailers for small packages in
two sizes up to 2 kilos for under €20, tracking included worldwide; and
Colissimo boxes decorated by school children for the holidays to send your
larger packages overseas starting at €11.70. Check the website for all of the sizes and
prices.
- Timbre en Ligne:
You can now pay for your stamps online and print them directly on your envelopes
or mailing labels at home.
- Lettre en Ligne:
I love this. You can now email a letter to La Poste until 7pm and it will be
printed, put in a envelope and mailed no later than the next day, from €0.99
(depending on the number of pages and where you mail it). It could be faster and
cheaper than sending a document by Fedex!
- Garde de
Courrier: For €19 La Poste will hold your mail for up to two months while you’re
on vacation. No need to ask the dog walker to empty your post box each
day.
Lettre Recommandée
en Ligne: You can upload and pay for any letter to be sent recommandée
right from their website.
- Digiposte is a free, high-security storage cloud for users to
store up to 3Go of documents that are then accessible throughout the world if
needed (great for saving scans of personal documents and ID cards).
- You can also get
holiday themed stamps, holiday cards benefitting UNICEF and kids can mail their
letters to Santa at “Père-Noël – POLE NORD” by December 20 to get a reply (be
sure to include your return address!) See their Holiday Offers site here.
- And, as usual,
don’t forget La Poste sells pay-as-you-go phones, and their Livret A savings
accounts (at 2.25% interest, tax-free) have raised the platform to
€19,125.
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French Shopping Sites
Looking for unique
holiday gifts “Made in France”? Here are a few that caught my eye:
- ReineMere.com is “chic et écologique”, with a fun selection of
kitchen supplies and environmentally responsible décor objects. I like the Cuillère à Coin.
- L’Exception.com is a sort of indie French designer clothing
concept store on line, with a few exclusive designers and many unique, if
pricey, outfits and accessories for men and
women.
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Winter Tours and Itineraries with Secrets of
Paris
If you’re coming to Paris
between now and March 31st, have a peek at our selection of private winter tours. We have a good selection of historic
walks, neighborhood walks, flea market tours, orientation tours and special
themed tours in addition to the museum tours and custom itineraries. Note that,
because it’s darned chilly and often wet in winter, that all outdoor walking
tours over two hours are only done with a driver to keep everyone cozy and
warm.
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The Holiday Season has arrived in Paris
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Your comments are welcome! Thank you,
Nina