France: Snow in Paris

Paris, February 5 2012

When I woke up ths morning, that's the surprising sight I had: there was frost all over the window!

It doesn't snows in Paris very often. In fact, this was the first time we had snow since the begining of the winter.

The winter 2011-2012 has been quite crazy actually. Until ovember temperatues were really high. I remember I attended an outdoors BBQ on October 1st, and people were wearing shorts.

I read and heard several times that the winter 2011/2012 was the warmest winter in France about a 100 years.

But in february 2012, a massive cold wave took Europe by surprise, covering it all with snow.

Well, I love the way snow makes things look!

I love snowy landscapes and I love cities covered in snow.
So, it was the perfect day to take some pictures of the city... and to test my girlfriend's new photo camera.

Here we go!

It didn't take long to realize that we were not the only ones enjoying the snow.
Not only kids were engaged in battles of snowballs...

And everyone found something to write or to draw: on the floor, on the windows of the cars.

Couples and romantic people drew hearts a little bit everywhere.
You often hear that Paris is the city of love, but when you see so many hearts in the snow, well, you think that this might be true.

Yes, I was with my girlfriend. No, I didn't draw any of these hearts! I just photographed them.



We took the subway until the station Bir Hakeim, where the Eiffel Tower is located.

Boats on the Seine River were covered with snow, which is a rare sight here.

We crossed the Bir Hakeim Bridge until the middle, from where there is a stunning wiev of the Eiffel Tower.

There, a couple of journalists from the TV Chain France 2 asked us if we were tourists. When we responded that we lived here they asked us a couple of questions for their journal. Those were like why were we here, and why is Paris so special under the snow.

It took me quite a long time to take this picture: there was a lot of people crossing the Bir-Hakeim Bridge.

The subway goes in the upper central part, and the bridge shakes every time it comes.
There's a pedestrian walkway under the railway, which is from where I took this shot.

From there, one alley goes along the Seine River. It's called Allée des Cygnes.
Many people were wandering, Jogging or walking their dogs.

Altough the Eiffel Tower is just a few meters away, there are not many tourists around.

We continued our walk until we got to the Eiffel Tower.

There was a quite long line to get in. If I was tourist visiting Paris, I don't know if I would have waited for at least an hour in the cold to get in...
But well, I can't criticize, I know how it is when you really want to see something and you don't have much time. When travelling, I have also done things that others wouldn't do. How about taking some dangerous mountain roads in Tajikistan during the winter?

The ice cracked on every footsteps, as we walked on the Champs de Mars.

When we got into the residential area, we had a glimpse of the problems that people were facing to park their cars...

We continued our walk toards the Hôtel des Invalides, hoping that there still would be some daylight when we arrive.

We finally arrived to the Esplanade des Invalides, almost at dusk.

A few guys were playing football nearby. Not even freezing temperatures would discourage those sportsmen.

As the sun was setting down, we decided it was time to get back home.

Kids play with balls of snow but of course they can't get them in the subway.

We found this huge ball of snow on a litter bin at the entrance of the metro, on our way back home.

We were tired, we were cold, but we spent a wonderful afternoon, that ended with a warm cup of tea.

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