In Photos: First Snow in Paris

Last week, Europe was hit with an unexpected cold chill, putting an end what I had been told was an unseasonably mild and manageable winter. It was so bad, it even caused deaths in countries in Eastern Europe and made the news in America (Boston.com’s The Big Picture has a spectacular photo gallery on it).

Paris saw only a light dusting of snow from this cold front: first on Sunday, then again on Tuesday (although the canal did freeze over!). It wasn’t much; however, after two years of living in Singapore and Australia — which is basically like living in perpetual summer — I hadn’t seen snow in quite some time, and was excited for even a little powder.

Besides, isn’t Paris supposed to be gorgeous in the snow or something like that?

What I woke up to on Sunday morning.

My neighborhood, early morning.

One of the much more, ahem, polite car doodles I saw in my neighborhood. Does anyone recognize the cartoon character? It’s annoying me that I can’t remember the name.

The Eiffel Tower itself was disappointingly devoid of snow, but at least the Trocadero still had some left in the afternoon (not much though, due to all the tourists).

A fountain near Rue Sainte-Anne completely frozen over.

A metro station near the Louvre surrounded by snow on Tuesday afternoon.

A wicked old-timey car parked off Boulevard Lefebvre. Not too much snow around it, but this was too awesome a find not too share.