Paris Turns Into a Winter Wonderland During Rare Snowstorm

Typically, Paris only gets snow 15 days a year—and it’s usually just a dusting. So when two inches fell in the French capital on Tuesday, locals and visitors were delighted to see the city transform into a winter wonderland and quickly shared photos on social media.

As a precaution, the Eiffel Tower has been closed and Meteo France, the national weather agency, issued an orange alert (the second-highest level of warning) for snow and ice in northern and central France. Truck traffic has been banned on one of the major roads in the Paris region to prevent a repeat of the February 2018 incident where 2,000 drivers were trapped for the night on the road after six inches of snowfall—the heaviest accumulation of snow in the city since 1987.

While drivers are being urged to stay off the roads as a safety precaution, it’s also turned Paris’s streets into a quiet and magical place—as seen in these photos shared on Instagram:

The weather agency says the snowfall should continue through Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this article.

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