Glad to be of service, ShadowFacts. Hope you have a good trip!
I thought it might be pleasant to post a follow-up to this thread, since I was asking for advice and got some good recs from helpful Dopers.
First thought: we had a splendid time, so I would definitely encourage anyone else thinking of Paris in December to give it a go!
The forecast initially looked downright dismal (rain every day) but it turned out to be not that bad at all. One day (out of 7) was very wet and lousy, the rest were partly cloudy, periods of light showers, with some sun mixing in. Temps generally in the mid-to-high 40s, sneaking into the low 50s a couple days. Not spectacular weather by any means, but also not prohibitive for doing most things.
The big issue for us was the nationwide strike (NY Times link). Holy crap do the French take their strikes seriously! If you haven’t heard about it, it’s massive and looked like it could have been a huge impediment for us, but we managed our way around it. (Thankfully, long haul flights were not majorly impacted, so we got in OK, but border patrol was lightly staffed so the line was endless.) We had to take a car to/from the airport but that was on Sundays so we avoided the horrific traffic. And we had to cancel a day trip we were going to take by train. Other than that, we just walked and rented electric scooters instead of taking the subway and all was well. Thankfully we had booked a hotel in the center of the city, so we were well placed for walking.
The upside of the strike + time of year was that there were no lines for almost anything. We walked up to the Eiffel Tower, got a ticket within 5 minutes, and were up to the top 10 minutes after that. We had skipped doing that last time due to the lines. Never had a problem getting a table at any restaurant we wanted. “Less tourists” was one of the main reasons we wanted to go in December, so that part worked out great.
The holiday lights were as amazing as advertised. We visited several xmas markets and they had great building light displays around - just gorgeous. Great food, great shopping, great museums, few tourists - it was well worth it, even with the strike hassles. Thanks again to everyone for the advice!
You’re a more intrepid traveler than I, ShadowFacts. We bailed on our “Paris in December” plans because of the protests and anticipated related impact, etc.
Yeah, it was touch and go for a while there and we were watching the news very closely leading up to our flight. We contacted our hotel for advice and tried not to book anything non-refundable in advance. I think if we had not been flying in and out on Sundays, we might have decided to bail. Thankfully, once we got there, everything turned out just fine with only minor disruptions to our plans.