Paris, Always in Season

The temperature: about 38 degrees. The skies: cloudy and dark at 5:30 p.m. The drizzle: persistent and occasionally sideways. It goes sideways when gusts of wind rip down the grand 19th century boulevards, rattling the department store holiday lights, numbing pedestrians’ noses.

This all seems a bit severe, especially if you live in Southern California. But do these conditions deter the ardent admirer of Paris?

Well, yes, they do. By the hundreds of thousands, foreign travelers stay the heck away from Paris when it’s cold. Government figures from 1998 show the number of foreigners checking in to Paris hotels peaking at 992,000 in July and plunging to a winter low of 577,000.

But look closely and you find that winter in Paris has almost as many selling points as it does twinkling lights and bundled-up old men peddling hot chestnuts on street corners. The bridges, department stores and monuments carry holiday finery and illumination (and, this year, millennial flourishes). The performing arts and museum exhibitions are in full swing. Game is in season, as is seriously rich hot chocolate.

And there’s something wonderful about sidling into a 19th century covered passage to browse through warm little bookshops, or stepping down out of the chill into a Metro station and finding a string quartet sawing away under the SORTIE sign.

Further, because it’s the off-season, you’re far less likely to be run over by a tour bus visiting its eighth country in six days.

Of all the reasons for visiting Paris in the off-season--you’ll find 17 in bold type among the paragraphs ahead--Nos. 1 and 2 would have to be money and more money. As long as you’re not traveling in the two weeks before and after Christmas, you save on air fare; you also save on hotels. Round-trip flights from California to Paris, which may run $850 and beyond in summer, often fall below $550 in November, January and February. New Year’s Eve aside, hotel rates often drop 20% in winter.

Even better savings can be had in discounted air-hotel packages from tour operators (see accompanying guidebook). The France Vacations package that brought me here advertised round-trip air fare from LAX and five nights’ lodging for as little as $589 per person, double occupancy, November through March. I paid about $1,100 because I came alone and, mindful of the windchill factor on a long walk from the Metro, upgraded from a budget hotel to one more centrally located.

More reasons? Take your pick:

Thinner crowds. Although this New Year’s Eve will be loud and densely packed with public revels, the overall tourist population dips deeply in the colder months. Some of the largest operators of European bus tours for Americans don’t even bother to offer trips from November through March.

The view at dusk from atop the Arc de Triomphe. It costs about $7 to climb up 164 feet inside the monument. In front of you lies the Champs-Elysees, lined with trees wound in holiday lights. The city reclines around you, boulevards stretching away on all sides, glowing with extra holiday decorations. The Eiffel Tower, dramatically lighted and outfitted with a millennium countdown clock, presides a few miles off.

Museums. In some cases their hours are shorter in winter, but something about those shrieking winds outside makes the warm, still confines of the Louvre just a bit more inviting. And don’t overlook the city’s less well-known museums.

One day I joined two Parisian friends on a Metro ride out to La Villette, a vast, ultra-modern exhibition zone set on a former cattle market and slaughterhouse site in the 19th arrondissement. Along with a big-screen theater, interactive science displays and a music museum, the site includes a hangar-size old market hall that holds temporary exhibits. The show we saw (it runs through Jan. 23) was “The Planetary Garden,” a broad briefing on worldwide environmental issues, set in a sort of global greenhouse, with some of the French explication translated into English. By the time I’d listened to the amplified sound of snails eating salad, I’d almost forgotten it was raining outside.

It also was raining when I ducked into the Musee Cluny (officially the Musee National du Moyen Age) in the 5th arrondissement. The museum is in a 15th century residence, which was built atop the ruins of 3rd century Gallo-Roman baths. The Cluny provides an intriguing glimpse into French medieval culture, from statuary and textiles to stained-glass window fragments and household items. The museum’s marquee attraction is a remarkable set of 15th century tapestries depicting a noblewoman, “The Lady and the Unicorn.” (A selling point for early risers: The Cluny opens at 9:15 a.m., 45 minutes earlier than most Paris museums.)

Museum restaurants are a convenient weather-beater. Not every museum has one, and some are no bigger than a snack bar, but some are worth looking into: In the Louvre’s Richelieu wing, with a matchless view of I.M. Pei’s glass courtyard pyramids, there’s the trendy Cafe Marly, where a bowl of minestrone isn’t cheap (about $8) but may offer the perfect pause while waiting for skies to clear. At the Musee d’Orsay, the rehabilitated train station that specializes in European art produced from 1848 to 1914, there’s a formal restaurant downstairs and the informal Cafe des Hauteurs upstairs, built around one of the building’s two oversized see-through clock faces. (Soup, salad and Evian, about $14.) In the recently reopened Musee Jacquemart-Andre, a mansion in the 8th arrondissement featuring a 19th century connoisseur’s collection of furniture and art, tea is served beneath fancy frescoes; the collection includes works of Rembrandt, Botticelli and Tiepolo.

Retail rivalry. On that museum’s street, the grand Boulevard Haussmann, is another winter selling point. Near the Havre-CaumartinMetro station stand the Galeries Lafayetteand Printempsdepartment stores, which have been battling for the hearts and billfolds of shoppers from adjacent street corners since the turn of the century. At Christmas, the battle moves to their display windows, where elaborate scenes entertain passersby. (I’d say Printemps is the winner this year, with witty, kinetic holiday scenes under ever-changing stage lighting.)

Covered passages, tea salons and hot chocolate. Once you start looking, the city is full of teahouses, and many of them are tucked away into covered passages that date to the 19th century or earlier. They make a fine alternative to the sidewalk cafe scene, which in winter is a cruel exercise.

The 2nd and 9th arrondissements are especially thick with these refuges from the weather--glass-covered arcades with tiled walkways lined by antiques shops, galleries and dealers in rare stamps, postcards and other arcana. A few, like the Galerie Vivienne, have been so thoroughly and opulently refurbished that they hardly seem old. Others, like the Passage Jouffroy (which dates to 1846), seem as if they were never new. Note, also, that one end of the Jouffroy leads across the street to the Passage Panoramas (stamp collector heaven), the other to more diversified Passage Verdeau.

“Twenty years ago the passages were forgotten,” says Philippe Bidal, who took over the Ho^tel Chopin in the Passage Jouffroy in 1992. “Since 10 years, the passages of Paris have been appreciated again. But when they renovate completely the old galleries, it’s not the same.”

For a cup of Earl Grey and a scone (about $7) in Galerie Vivienne, try the smoke-free A Priori The, where I witnessed a tousled young writer as he crafted a paragraph in longhand, then immediately called a friend on his cell phone to read it aloud.

For dangerously rich hot chocolate ($6 a cup), a wide selection of teas and atmospheric location, try La Cour de Rohan in the covered Cour du Commerce-St. Andre on the Left Bank, or its equally atmospheric rival two steps across the passageway, La Jacobine Restaurant and Salon de The. Once you’re seated in a cozy spot, consider a little history: In this passage in 1790, the good doctor Guillotin perfected his head-severing machine by practicing on sheep.

The food. I didn’t go chasing after Michelin stars, but one night I gorged on Basque cuisine in L’Auberge Etchegorry in the 13th arrondissement. One afternoon while gallery prowling on the Left Bank, I snacked happily under the handsome tile facade of Fish, la Boissonnerie. Another afternoon I cast aside the search for intimate dining rooms and headed for the massive scale and Belle Epoque frillery of Le Train Bleu, built above the Gare de Lyon train station to impress visitors as they arrived for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Prices are hefty, and ties are preferred on men in the dining room. But if you take coffee and profiteroles in one of the red leather club chairs in the adjoining Big Ben bar, as I did, you can look rumpled yet see the same frescoes and breathe the same air for less than $15. (Whether in restaurants or teahouses, be prepared for smokers on all sides. Though nonsmoking sections are mandated in most places, they’re usually the worst seats by any other standard.)

The Place des Vosges. The ground-floor arcades of the elegant 17th century buildings that surround this stately square remain lively year-round, sheltering passersby from the elements. The square’s posh galleries, stores, cafes and restored mansions--and more of the same on surrounding streets--can easily fill a day of dawdling. At the Ho^tel de Sully, a 1625 manse now run by a national historic commission, visitors can paw through a trove of volumes on French architecture, design and travel in a ground-floor bookstore. (Also on the square, the Victor Hugo museum, home of the author from 1832-48, is scheduled to reopen Dec. 21.)

The hotel as womb. When days are short, nights are long, and a hotel’s comforts matter. Working with the limits of my air-lodging package, I landed in the Ho^tel Richmond Opera. It was centrally located, near the 1875 Garnier opera house (whose current scaffolding is due to be removed in June). It was comfortable (once I figured out how to control the heating system), moderately English-friendly, ample in space but essentially empty of character. For a good night’s sleep, yes. For a honeymoon, no.

If I were honeymooning and free to spend $320 a night, I might try the Pavillon de la Reine, the only hotel right on the Place des Vosges. Even though its exposed beams and other historical flourishes are faux (the interiors are less than 20 years old), they were expertly done, and the place seemed to radiate calm and privilege.

If you’re trying to hold to a $100-a-night limit, I found one newfangled option and another old-fashioned one. The small Hotel Beaumarchais opened in 1996 on an 11th arrondissement street (Rue Oberkampf) that’s become a magnet for shops, clubs and cafes catering to the young and hip. The old-fashioned option, a guidebook favorite for many years, is the Ho^tel Chopin in the Passage Jouffroy. Flanked by a wax museum and an old bookshop, the Chopin is small--35 compact but tidy and quaint rooms--but exudes charm: The meandering hallways are adorned with paintings by the owner’s mom.

Concerts, clubs, shows and recitals. With days going dark so early, evening entertainment assumes an important role in winter Paris. It need not be expensive. One night I caught the Metro out to Place du Trocadero, just across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, to hear a free church recital of Beethoven, Debussy and Shostakovich by an adept young piano-cello duo.

Another night I ventured into Barrio Latino, near the Bastille Metro stop, a four-level restaurant and nightclub that opened this year to capitalize on a new Parisian craze for all things Latino. At midnight on a Friday, Cuban music boomed and the young crowd was packed elbow to elbow. (If I were 22, I’d have loved it; at 38, I mostly worried about egress in case of fire.)

Still another night, I raced out to St.-Julien-le-Pauvre, a tiny medieval church just across the Seine from No^tre-Dame, to take a chance on a concert of Bach suites performed by a cellist and a Persian percussionist. I’ve liked what little Persian music I’ve heard, and I suppose I was hoping for a new rhythmic spin on an old master. Instead, it sounded to me like one guy playing Bach, and another guy doing a lot of rattling and scraping. Despite the $16 ticket cost, I sneaked out early. But I nevertheless was rewarded for trying something different.

About a block from the church, close to the river, I came across a raging Latin jazz quintet at the raucous Cafe du Petit-Pont. Soon I was sorted out with a drink and a snug seat in back, happy as a tourist on a summer night.

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GUIDEBOOK

Paris, in Winter, When It Drizzles

Getting there: Many carriers offer connections to Paris, but only American, Air France and AOM French airlines fly nonstop from L.A. Restricted coach-class winter fares (usually excluding the 10 days leading up to Christmas) begin at $518 round-trip on AOM French, $520 on American.

Air-hotel packages: I used France Vacations, telephone (800) 332-5332, which in November listed air fare and five nights’ hotel for as low as $589 per person, double occupancy. The bottom-end figure has since risen to $619. Among the outfits offering similar packages are Air France Holidays, tel. (800) 2-FRANCE, Jet Vacations, tel. (800) 538-0999, New Frontiers, tel. (800) 677-0720, and United Vacations, tel. (800) 32-TOURS.

Christmas to New Year weeks are generally excluded from discount offers.

Getting around: Consider buying a pocket-size city map, Paris par Arrondissement, about $6 at any newsstand. It’s more convenient, more detailed than most fold-out maps. Also, pick up a copy of Pariscope, the weekly that lists shows and events and has an English-language section.

Where to stay: English is spoken at the lodgings named here--generally, the greater the price, the larger the vocabulary. Off-season rates start at $320 for a standard double in the 55-room Pavillon de la Reine, 28 Place des Vosges, 3rd arrondissement, tel. 011-33-1-4029-1919, fax 011-33-1-4029-1920, Internet https://www.pavillon-de-la-reine.com.

The 3-year-old Hotel Beaumarchais, 3 Rue Oberkampf, in the 11th arrondissement, has 33 rooms in bold colors and modern minimalist design that may lead you to forgive the small bathrooms; doubles run about $95. Tel. 011-33-1-5336-8686, fax 011-33-1-4338-3286.

The Hotel Chopin charges no more than $90 for its 35 rooms; 10 Blvd. Montmartre, 46 Passage Jouffroy, 9th arrondissement; tel. 011-33-1-4770-5810, fax 011-33-1-4247-0070.

Hotel Richmond-Opera, 11 Rue du Helder in the 9th arrondissement, charges about $140 nightly for a double room; tel. 011-33-1-4770-5320, fax 011-33-1-4800-0210.

Where to eat: L’Auberge Etchegorry, 41 Rue de Croulebarbe, 13th arrondissement; local tel. 4408-8351; chef’s menus $30-$40, a la carte main dishes less. Fish, la Boissonnerie, 69 Rue de Seine, 6th arrondissement; tel. 4354-3469, serves Mediterranean main dishes for $9-$16. For a grand meal or just good gawking: Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon train station; tel. 4343-0906). Main dishes run $20-$40.

For more information: French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills, CA 90212-2967; tel. (310) 271-6665 or (410) 286-8310 (France-on-Call hotline), fax (310) 276-2835, Internet https://www.francetourism.com.