I’m a frequent sufferer of the winter blues. While some
people delight in winter (you know the type...usually some doe-eyed girl going
“big snuggly jumpers and Christmas films and hot chocolate and snowmen!”), long
evenings, cold winds and permanently grey skies make me feel like crawling into
bed for about 4 months. In my naïveté, I had imagined winter to be an
altogether more joyful affair this year, simply due to the fact that I was in
Paris. Wrong. Winter sucks everywhere. Arguably even more so when you live in a
500 year old building with no central heating and just one mini radiator for
company. There was a rather sizeable hiatus in this blog – just assume I was
hibernating. Here are some pros and cons of a winter in Paris. Because winter
isn’t even interesting enough to warrant one fully written and paragraphed blog
post.
Pros:
1.
The metro is warm.
2.
You are spoiled for choice with museums and
exhibitions, cinema and shopping, so it’s not too hard to distract yourself
from the wintry hell that is your current existence.
3.
Miserable weather frightens the tourists away.
Winter is the only season where you’ll be able to walk on your own street
without feeling like you’re in a human traffic jam, and get into museums
without queuing for half an hour. Apart from the Catacombs. Stay away from the
Catacombs.
4.
Restaurants are far less crowded in January so
you can get a table without a reservation.
5.
Metro steps, lift-free apartment buildings and
general walking from place to place means you’ll be as fit as you were the
previous autumn by the time you finally put your trainers back on in spring.
6.
Working strange hours means you can sometimes
take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. This will not affect your sleeping pattern
whatsoever as every instinct tells you to just sleep all the time.
7.
Staying in bed and binge-watching The Mindy
Project all day is free. Therefore, you will actually have some money by the
time spring rolls around.
8.
At the risk of sounding doe-eyed, pitching your
camp in a cosy cafe with a huge coffee and a book is an agreeable way to pass a
few hours.
9.
If all else fails, you can take a leaf out of
the Russians’ winter survival book and drown your sorrows in cheaper-than-water
wine.
Cons:
1.
When the metro is busy, you will be crammed into
a space roughly the temperature of Delhi in July while wearing full winter
clothes. Exiting the metro and adjusting to the frigid air is even more
painful.
2.
You will need to sleep in 17 layers, lest you
should perish from hypothermia in your own bed during the night.
3.
Working strange hours means there will be
depressing days where you enter and leave work in pitch darkness.
4.
Puffer jackets are the go-to winter garment for
Parisians. This doesn’t really impinge on your life, but they’re just so ugly.
5.
Leaving your apartment to go and buy milk is the
biggest excursion you want to make.
6.
You will wear variations of the same outfit
every day for the whole winter. My go to was jeans (blue or black), boots (flat
or heeled), black long sleeved top (I have about 7), woollen jumper (I have the
same in two colours), coat (I alternated black and grey), hat and scarf (I
rotated 3 sets). They say you have to suffer to be beautiful. I can assure you
I did neither.
7.
Unless your friends come and watch bad TV with
you, you will not see them.
8.
Date night = making plans to go out for wine and
dancing, but actually staying in bed with tea and Gossip Girl.
9.
Eating everything in your apartment in lieu of
actual entertainment.
