Santa’s commercial Christmas helpers
In the staunch Christendom that is France, Christmas is duly celebrated in all its religious splendour: the tolling of the church bells, overflowing Christmas Eve services and little manger scenes beneath sparkling Christmas trees. Clearly, though, even a Catholic nation such as this can’t resist a little festive commercialism. In the heart of the sixth arrondissement, the annual Christmas markets of St Sulpice and St Germain have popped up in all their tastefully chintzy glory. Scour the booths for handcrafted leather gloves and winter-warm hats, strange little figurines that make for useful stocking fillers and - my personal favourite -aromatic loaves of gingerbread. For immediate gratification, though, you can’t look past a spicy glass of vin chaud, yours for just two euros. For best effect go after dark, when strings of twinkling lights transform the atmosphere from merely commercial to purely enchanting.
Details: Metro Saint Germain or Saint Sulpice