How to Celebrate the New Year in Paris

What a year Paris has had! The city certainly weathered some political storms during 2024, but it also had plenty days in the sun. Paris hosted the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and caught the world’s attention again with the recent reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. Now it’s time to say goodbye to the good old 2024 to usher in an even more promising year.   

Typically, New Year’s Eve revelers meet up on the Champs-Élysées where the pedestrianized boulevard becomes a thronging communal celebration with the the Arc de Triomphe as the focus of the evening’s sound and light shows.  

This Grande Soirée du 31 de Paris will be hosted by radio and TV presenter Stéphane Bern – he’s famous enough to be immortalized at the Musée Grevin. The wide array of musical acts will not only be caught on giant screens along the route, but also broadcast on France 2, so no one will miss a beat. There will be singers, rappers, pop icons, and blasts from the past including: Eddy de Pretto, 80s pop star Lio, Dany Brillant, David Hallyday (the composer, singer and “nepo-baby’”), Jean Louis Aubert, Cerrone, and Chimene Badi with a choir of 100 backup singers.  

Dancers from the Moulin Rouge and the Paradis Latin will be strutting their stuff and their feathers, and the famous French circuses Phénix and the Folies Gruss will wow the crowd with magical feats.   

At 11:50 pm, a light show will be projected onto the Arc de Triomphe and then the countdown to midnight begins, culminating in a majestic 10-minute fireworks display.  

The pyrotechnics can also be viewed from the area surrounding the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro. A somewhat quieter vantage point is the view from Sacré Coeur, which always offers a magnificent view over the city.  

But what to do on the first day of the New Year? After the revelry is over, resolve to go out and and continue the celebration by taking in what Paris has to offer on January 1st. The city still retains its festive glow, and Paris version 2025 can be appreciated while floating down the Seine, listening to music in a historic church, seeing a play or opera, or hitting one of the amazing galleries or museums.  

The romance of the Seine hasn’t dimmed just because it’s the day after. Sail down the river amid the glow of holiday lights. There are many bateaux cruising the Seine on January 1st offering elegant New Year’s Day feasts. More Champagne is on hand, I’m sure. Bateaux Mouches, Vedettes du Pont Neuf, Bateaux Parisiens, et al.  

Concerts 

Listening to classical music in a historic Parisian church is a memorable way to start 2025. Concerts are also held on the Eiffel Tower!  

The Helios Ensemble will be performing Strauss at Saint-Sulpice. Ensemble Royal de Paris will be performing Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart at Église Saint‐Julien‐le‐Pauvre  

Similar concerts are held at the delightfully restored Église Saint Germain des Prés, where the man of the hour is Bach. Part of the repertoire at Saint Eustache will be Bachs’s Tocatta and Fuge. That would define the word awesome.  

The sounds of Chopin can be heard at the monumental La Madeleine.  

There’s a concert at the Eiffel Tower, where Vivaldi and Strauss can be enjoyed  in the Salle Gustave Eiffel with a glass of champagne. I’d act fast on this one. The tower itself is open every day of the year.  

Museums 

If you have resolved to spend more time with culture, then you can start as early as New Year’s Day. These museums are open for your edification.  

• Quai Branly Museum 
• Musee d’Orsay 
• Montmartre Museum 
• Jacquemart-André Museum 
• Musée de l’Orangerie 
• Maillol Museum 
• Cinémathèque française 
• Atelier des Lumières – Asterix 
• Dali Paris 
• Château de Versailles 
• The Grévin Museum. See who you can recognize from the night before. I know Stephane Bern is there, as is David Halliday’s dad, Johnny. 
• How the evasive Banksy manages to have a museum in the 9th arrondisment of Paris, I do not know, but their gallery is open on January 1, 2025.  
• The Pompidou Centre. Not only is the Pomidou Centre open, but to coincide with the Surrealism exhibition which runs until January 13, a bulle de reves now nestles on the terrace of the museum’s restaurant Georges. This bubble of dreams is a temporary dining experience which pays tribute to the work of the likes of Louis Aragon and other Surrealists. The transparent and heated igloo offers panoramic views of Paris, original tea-time pastries and signature cocktails named after the major players of the Surrealist movement.  

Monuments 

The Eiffel Tower is open every day of the year.  

Notre Dame will be open, but please make a free online reservation. The wait for those without reserved timeslot may experience a wait of two hours or more.  

The Conciergerie 

Sacré Coeur Basilica. The churches of Paris are open every day. 

Performance 

The jazz club Baiser Salé ( Salty Kiss) presents Countdown by singer Speranza Galez . Inspired by John Coltrane’s iconic piece of the same name, Galez presents unique and offbeat concerts where math = music, as she counts down the numbers 12 to 1.  

At the iconic Bastille Opera the vibrant ballet Paquita, set in 19th-century Spain, comes alive. Mime is entwined with breathtaking choreography and dazzling costumes.  

Theater 

For those with a facility in the French language there is literally embarrassment of choices in the theater. The Théâtre de la Gâité Montparnasse is staging a play,  L’Embarras du choix, which was nominated for the best comedy for the 2022 Moliere awards. Thirty-five year old Marc worries that time has passed him by. Paralyzed by making the wrong choices he seeks help from the public, and the audience.  

An event that crosses language boundaries is Le Siffler. The “whistler is Fred Radix who whistles to Mozart, Satie the Beatles to Ennio Morricone. Taking place at the Theatre de la Gaite.  

A multi-award winning play portrays the trials and tribulations of Edmond Rostand. Edmond written by Alex Michalik tells the tale of how Rostand’s classic Cyrano de Bergerac came into being. The energetic comedy blends humor and tenderness. At the Theatre du Palais Royal, a playhouse originally built in 1687 by Cardinal Richelieu, a talented cast portrays Edmond Rostand himself, Sarah Bernhardt, and the cast of the first performance of Cyrano de Bergerac. It becomes a play within a play.  

Theatre de la Huchette offers two plays by Ionesco on January 1: La Cantatrice Chauve and La Lecon. A spectacular one-man play is Robinson, looking at the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe and his relationship with Friday in a new light.  

At the Grand Point Virgule four women meet in a department store and realize that despite their opposing lifestyles, they have one thing in common that no woman can escape: Menopause!  

The love triangle À Nos Actes Manqués is on stage at  La Divine Comedy in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.   

Le Duplex is a comedy involving four good neighbours, who become embroiled in an apartment expanding takeover.  At the Theatre de Paris. 

Happy New Year. Enjoy your day!