L'Illustration, No. 2500, 24 Janvier 1891

January 1891 cloaks Paris in a thick veil of ice, turning shop windows into opaque panes and slowing carriages to a tentative crawl. A wandering observer laments the disappearance of glittering displays, noting how frosted glass transforms the city’s streets into a forest of frozen ferns. Cafés and theatres become sanctuaries from the relentless wind, while Parisians huddle by hearths, craving any respite from the chill.

The paper chronicles the nationwide freeze—tramways stalled in Lyon, snowstorms battering Toulon, even the desert of Algeria succumbing to unexpected blizzards. Amid these reports, a Russian officer, Alexandre Iwanowitch Winter, arrives on foot from St. Petersburg, recounting his arduous march, the wear on his boots, and the thin line between endurance and suffering. The issue also honors the recently departed composer Léo Delibes, recalling the lightness of his ballets and the lingering charm of his operatic melodies, which offer a warm counterpoint to the bitter season.