Avenue Montaigne - Paris New Year's Eve © French Moments

Last Updated: 18 November 2023

Hundreds of thousand revellers thronged the streets of Paris to welcome the New Year, especially in the districts around the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde. Let’s learn more about Paris New Year’s Eve!

 

Paris New Year’s Eve

For the first time since 2000, fireworks lit up the sky of Paris as more than 300,000 people gathered along the prestigious Avenue des Champs-Élysées waiting for the start of 2015. The avenue was closed to traffic so people could attend a light show projected onto the Arc de Triomphe 15 minutes before midnight.

Celebrations to mark the start of 2015 have taken place in Paris on the Champs-Élysées with the Arc de Triomphe providing a spectacular backdrop.

Despite being one of the world’s most visited cities, Paris refrained from putting on elaborate fireworks like those organised in London, Sydney or New York.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who took office last April, invited all Parisians and Paris lovers to celebrate the start of 2015 on the Champs-Élysées. The 600,000 euros light show used video mapping (or projection mapping), which turned the Arc de Triomphe into a giant canvas. The event paid homage to the city’s favourite monuments and made a few references to ecological themes. Fireworks were not on the agenda, but the organisers had kept the secret well and offered Paris a splendid finale.

This year something changed in Paris as the City of Light officially joined the global midnight countdown alongside New York’s Time Square, London’s banks of the Thames and Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. Vivement next year and Bonne Année 2015 !

Check out the entire light show and fireworks:

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About the author

Pierre is a French/Australian who is passionate about France and its culture. He grew up in France and Germany and has also lived in Australia and England. He has a background teaching French, Economics and Current Affairs, and holds a Master of Translating and Interpreting English-French with the degree of Master of International Relations, and a degree of Economics and Management. Pierre is the author of Discovery Courses and books about France.

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