Celebrating the Season: Paris

Today we're kicking off our month-long effort to showcase the best of the holiday season in cities around the world. We've asked local experts for the essential ways to celebrate the holidays in their cities: the places they'd take their friends and family, the best ways to make merry, and events no one should miss. From the lighting of New York City's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to a midnight service at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, visitors and locals alike come together to celebrate the holidays and the New Year, and we encourage you to share your own favorite traditions with us as well.

Adrian Moore, Concierge
Four Seasons Hotel George V

• The restaurant Pharamond serves the seasonal dish Bouchée a la Reine--a sort of vol au vent puff pastry filled with mushrooms, sweetbreads, and a delicious earthy sauce, served only in wintertime at this gorgeous 18th-century traditional French bistro. Also, fresh oysters are a very holiday type dish, and there is an excellent, fresh selection at the nearby Brasserie Stella or served with a glass of Champagne at outdoor markets. 
  

• The iconoclastic chocolate-maker Patrick Roger always has a spectacular window display.

• The holiday window display by Karl Lagerfeld at Le Printemps department store (with Chanel dolls).

• The Marché de Noël (Christmas Market) at the bottom end of the avenue des Champs-Elysées.
  

• The open-air ice-skating rink in front of the Hôtel de Ville (Paris town hall).

• The food stores Fauchon and Hediard, located around the Place de la Madeleine, both have beautiful window displays (cakes, fruits, foie gras, holiday dishes).

• La Grande Roue, a gigantic ferris wheel that is at the Place de la Concorde for the holiday season, with excellent views of the rooftops of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.