What is Halloween like in Paris? Magical? Spooky? Whimsical?
Answer: none of the above.
Halloween in Paris is…almost non-existent.

I remember last year in NYC on Halloween, I was riding the subway at night and everywhere I turned, so many crazy costumes. SO MANY. And leading up to Halloween, there are tons of candy sales, costume advertisements, and house decorations. But here in Paris, barely any of that. 🙁 People just don’t celebrate Halloween here. (Tomorrow is Toussaint, a national holiday honoring the saints. It is quite a somber tradition.)

However, I did stumble upon one costume shop nearby my neighborhood. This was quite a traditional Halloween costume shop like in America. Quite a rare sighting in France.

For celebration, today, Cali and I returned to a patisserie that we discovered yesterday just a few blocks away from our home, right off the Saint Placide metro stop. We came back to get ourselves one of these cuties. Yum!

A citrouille d’alloween. Aren’t they cute? And here are some more shots of the patisserie/boulangerie, called Thevenin (I think):

Later in the afternoon, while walking throughout Paris, I did see some kids dressed up. But not that many. At one point, I made eye contact with a girl sitting on the terrace of a café. Her face was completely painted to resemble a vampire or something. When she saw me, she made the finger motion telling me to come closer. That was very bizarre.

Happy Halloween, big or small. I had a very quaint and small celebration, just the way I like it. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the cake tasted like: it was very sweet and mousse-like. Not amazing. I wish it was more solid and cake-y than fluffy, but it was nice for a one time treat. And I am also in love with the second to last photo. It’s so cute! Ah!