The complete guide to magical chalets, vin chaud, and where to find the giant Christmas tree.

Paris doesn't do Christmas markets on the scale of Strasbourg or Vienna, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in atmosphere — and in spreading them across enough neighborhoods that you can build an entire evening around wandering between them.

Where to go

• Jardin des Tuileries, for the classic postcard version with a ferris wheel
• Champs-Élysées, for scale and sheer festive density
• Smaller neighborhood markets in the outer arrondissements, for better food and shorter queues

If you only have one evening, pick one large market and one small one rather than trying to see everything — the smaller markets are where the actual charm tends to live.