Stores show off their goods in Passage Jouffroy

When should I visit Paris?

By Ian Packham

You can make a sensible case for summer being the answer to the question ‘when should I visit Paris’. After all, it has the best chance of good weather and the longest days.

But you can also say that spring is a brilliant time to visit since the city is flooded with flower blossom. And fall, when the foliage turns a multitude of oranges. And winter too, because of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Check out our seasonal breakdown to uncover when you should visit Paris, whether you’re looking for great weather, seeking out the calendar’s top events or are keen to discover the most budget-friendly time of year.

Summer

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The summer season in Paris roughly corresponds with June through to the beginning of September. Typically described as the ideal time to visit Paris, the temperatures aren’t the only thing to soar.

As the official start of the high season, so do hotel and flight costs, which are some of the highest of the year. On the plus side, July beckons in T-shirt weather, albeit with an umbrella in hand – there’s a chance of a light shower even now.

This doesn’t stop hundreds of thousands of people pouring onto the Champs-Élysées for the Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, marked by a grand military parade, fly past and fireworks behind the Eiffel Tower.

From then on, Parisians tend to leave the city for their summer vacations on the French coast. But you don’t have to leave the city to enjoy the coastal feel, with beaches appearing on the quais (banks) of the River Seine, concerts filling the air with music and open-air movie screenings taking over parks late into the night – usually in their original language.

It means that by August a languid air takes over Paris, with no one wanting to do anything very fast – which is just fine for anyone looking to get in the holiday mood. It makes it a wonderful time to cruise along the Seine, people watch from a café terrace or picnic in any of the 150 main parks too.

Fall

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The start of fall sees temperatures drop away a little, and rain showers become heavier than they have been. But beyond that, fall really is a great time to consider visiting the French capital.

Why? Well, it’s still warm enough in September to continue exploring the city’s parks and gardens. They begin taking on fall colors as well as being the sites of two major September events – the city-wide Fête des Jardins (Garden Festival) and the historic Fête à Neuneu funfair in the Bois de Boulogne.

The fall color is usually at its best with the arrival of October. With hotel prices falling away again and visitor numbers dropping alongside the mercury – temperatures peak at 16°C – October is another month great for avoiding the crowds.

The change in seasons is even celebrated at the Fete d'Automne, whilst the Contemporary Art Fair arrives at the Grand Palais to add to the buffet of permanent art collections, from the Musée d’Orsay to the Orangerie Museum.

The start of the low season, November sees some of the lowest visitor numbers of the year, but it’s still not a bad time to visit Paris. Come prepared for the wintery weather, and the city’s charm and authentic feel is sure to keep you as warm as the hot chocolates and the winter restaurant menus.

To brighten the days there are several public holidays and festivals to look forward to – not least the start of the Christmas period.

Winter

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By the beginning of December Christmas is in full-swing. Main avenues shine with festive lights, Christmas markets hum with the sound of Parisians enjoying each other’s company and the arrival of several ice rinks makes for one of the more unusual things to do.

Believe it or not, few travelers get to see any of this exuberant feasting. It makes a Christmas in Paris all the more special.

Kicking off with a very literal New Year bang, January is one of the cheapest months to go to Paris, with some excellent deals on hotel stays. Set firmly within the low season, the city’s major attractions are less crowded than other times of year. However, with 30 million annual visitors, there’s no month that can be described as totally crowd-free.

Wrap up well – temperatures are stable at 2 – 7°C – and you can catch the Festival of Lights at the Jardin des Plantes and an armful of bargains in the winter sales.

Although February has similar temperatures and low season prices to January, it actually has the least rainfall of any month, making it one of the best times to visit Paris on a budget. That said, Valentine’s Day sees low season prices go out of the window for anywhere with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Spring

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Waving goodbye to winter, March sees a massive increase in the number of visitors, although accommodation prices remain good compared to the summer months.

Temperatures remain on the chilly side, with lows of 5°C and highs of around 12°C. Levels of rainfall are still very much on the low side too. Heralding the warmer months to come, it’s in March that the early spring bulbs begin to flower.

Whilst still in the shoulder period between low and high seasons, spring sees Parisians planning outdoor events with much more certainty than had been possible so far in the year. Step anywhere near the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of the city and you’ll be enticed by the bright lights of the Foire de Trône funfair, which traces its history back to AD 957.

April usually also sees the Easter public holidays and the associated arrival of chocolate eggs in storefront windows. Meanwhile, May is another great month to visit Paris – and if the growing crowds in the Louvre are anything to go by, it’s not exactly a secret either.

One of the busiest months of the year when it comes to tourism levels, part of the reason is the ever-improving weather together with hotel prices still substantially below the high season peaks.

A further quirk of visiting Paris in May is the fact it’s technically the wettest month of the year, although there’s not a great deal of difference – just 22 mm or less than an inch – between May and February. No wonder then that May is chosen for the first rounds of the French Open, and not one, but two jazz festivals.

How to save whatever the season

Whenever you decide you should visit Paris you can save on attraction admission to many of the city’s top sights with Go City. Then check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook to share your vacation snaps with us!

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Couple holding a heart-shaped umbrella in front of the Eiffel Tower.
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Things to do in Paris when it Rains

Paris is that rarest of creatures: a city that’s beautiful both inside and out. Sure, you came here to stroll those swoonsome parks and boulevards arm-in-arm with your beau (or belle), to hand feed each other fresh fruits and fromages from the famous street markets and, of course, to pledge your undying love (and snap some selfies, natch) on the Pont des Arts. But there’ll be more than enough time for all that nonsense after it stops raining. In the meantime, don your most fashionable trenchcoat and ankle boots and dive into our guide to the best things to do in Paris when it rains, from world-class museums and galleries to chic shopping arcades, cozy cafés and subterranean mausoleums. The Best Rainy Day Museums and Galleries in Paris If you’re looking for something to do on a rainy day in Paris, the extraordinary museums and galleries that pepper the city should be your first port of call. There are well in excess of 100 across the city’s 20 arrondissements and here, for your delectation, are some of the finest. The Louvre This one needs no introduction, but we’re going to give it one anyway. With somewhere in the region of eight million annual visitors, the Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum. Unsurprising, perhaps, when you consider that it just happens to contain the Venus de Milo and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, alongside many other priceless treasures; a collection that charts the whole history of humanity’s artistic endeavors. It’s the kind of place you can easily spend an entire day (indeed, it’s estimated that it would take 200 days to view all the art on display), so shake off your umbrella and settle in for the long haul. Musée d’Orsay Just across the Seine, Musée d’Orsay’s relatively compact size makes it a little more manageable for the casual art enthusiast. Step through the doors of this stunningly converted Beaux-Arts railway station for the planet’s largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art. We’re talking pieces by many of the movement’s masters: Monet, Manet, Renoir, Rodin, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Degas, Gaugin... the list goes on and on. Musée du Vin You might think you’ve died and gone to the grape beyond at the intoxicating Musée du Vin, where atmospheric vaulted cellars set the perfect scene for a glass of the good stuff. Discover the history of Champagne- and wine-making in these subterranean limestone caves, once used by the Order of Minim friars in the 15th Century, before sampling the delicious spoils of the museum’s own vineyard. Musée National Gustave Moreau This one’s a cracker, especially if you’ve just dragged yourself in from the rain-soaked streets with zero prior knowledge of what to expect. Spoiler alert: it’s not like the other museums. The former Moreau family home, this eye-popping extravaganza of 19th-century Symbolist art is dedicated to the life and works of Gustave Moreau, known for his somewhat trippy compositions featuring mythical creatures, otherworldly flora and hallucinatory hellscapes. Printed guides containing often rambling commentaries from the man himself, as well as a quite spectacular spiral staircase, add to the disorienting nature of the place. Musée Édith Piaf You’ll regret rien about a trip to the fascinating Musée Édith Piaf, a tiny apartment in the 20th arrondissement that was once home to the legendary Parisian chanteuse. The carefully curated collection of Piaf’s personal belongings here includes photographs, fan mail, platinum records and her famous black dress. Tours are by appointment only. Afterwards, brave the rain to visit the Little Sparrow’s final resting place in nearby Père Lachaise Cemetery. Check out our full guide to the best museums and galleries in Paris here. Rainy Day Shopping And, if museums don’t float your rainy-day boat, perhaps Paris’s legendary opportunities for retail therapy will. There’s everything from luxury mega-malls to grab-a-bargain flea markets and highbrow bookstores to keep the incurable shopaholic entertained, and these three are absolute wet-weather must-dos... Galeries Lafayette Haussmann A trip to the iconic Galeries Lafayette Haussmann can feel more like a religious experience than a mere shopping trip, thanks to its ornate galleries, five-story atrium and soaring glass-and-steel cupola. A cathedral to capitalism, it houses an A to Z of household-name and designer brands; 65,000 square meters of retail space that runs the gamut from Armani to Zadig & Voltaire, punctuated by bistros, cafés, salons and more. Once you’ve shopped til you’re (nearly) ready to drop, hit up the roof terrace (with your just-bought Prada parapluie, natch) for restorative widescreen views across Paris. Pro-tip: Galeries Lafayette also runs a variety of achingly Parisian add-on experiences including a catwalk fashion show and a macaron-making class. Booking is essential. Undercover Shopping Tailor-made for rainy days, Paris’s covered shopping arcades are an atmospheric throwback to more gentile times. Stroll beneath stained-glass ceilings, browse old-school wood-fronted stores and admire intricate mosaic tiling, ornate stucco clocks, and iron-and-glass domes and canopies in these masterclasses of 19th-century architecture. There are 20 or so of these elegant covered passages to explore around the 1st-9th arrondissements, each promising a tempting variety of bakeries and bistros, plus any number of chic boutiques, antique emporia, watchmakers, jewelers and bookstores, where great stacks of antiquarian books pile precipitously in corners and defy gravity on groaning, overstocked shelves. A Bonanza for Bookworms If ye delightful olde Librairie du Passage bookstore in Passage du Jouffroy has whet your appetite for yet more bookish pursuits, you’re in luck! Paris is an absolute mecca for book lovers, not least in the storied streets of its characterful Latin Quarter, a bohemian enclave on the Seine’s left bank once frequented by Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce and other such literary luminaries. Sit out the wet weather devouring a classic in one of the district’s hip café bars, popping out between showers to bag some more books in the semi-legendary treasure trove that is English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Or wander down the Seine to find the Bouquinistes of Paris: a veritable army of booksellers that line the left bank, offering up a smorgasbord of antiquarian tomes, literary classics, childrens’ books, poetry, graphic novels, pulp fiction, art and more. And That’s Not All... No need to let a little rain dampen your sightseeing spirits. A Citroën 2CV tour is a great way to take in the city sights without necessarily setting a foot outdoors. Fun rain or shine, these whistlestop tours take in all the major landmarks and can cram in as many as three passengers at a time. Take the edge off any potential discomfort by booking one of the champagne packages. Or dodge the downpours by heading underground into the secret city that is the Paris Catacombs – a vast network of bone-chilling tunnels, passageways, sewers and secret chambers. This epic labyrinthine ossuary contains the mortal remains of some six million Parisians, relocated here from overflowing Paris cemeteries in the 18th and 19th centuries. So perhaps not one for a first date. If all else fails, simply do as the Parisians do when it rains: find a cute streetside café, order a croissant and a café crème and find yourself a prime seat for people-watching by the windows – at least until they fog up. Save on rainy day activities in Paris Save on admission to Paris attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Père Lachaise Cemetery
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Outdoor Activities Paris

Paris offers plenty to entertain the outdoor enthusiast year round. Alongside its scenic canals, hundreds of pavement cafés par excellence and impressive program of summer festivals and outdoor theater, the City of Light boasts more than 500 green spaces, running the full gamut from tiny public squares to painstakingly manicured formal gardens and acres of wild, sprawling woodland. Hire a bike, try your hand at pétanque, or join the locals in a spot of people-watching over espresso and pain au chocolat. Read on to discover our pick of the finest outdoor activities Paris has to offer. Soak up the Views Paris is a city that just begs to be admired, photographed, sketched and painted. From the cobbled lanes of Montmartre, to the grand bridges that span the Seine, soaring monuments in steel and stone, and its bruised sunset skies, Paris’s vistas are rarely anything less than utterly captivating. Get a bird’s eye view of the city aboard the Ballon de Paris Generali. This tethered helium balloon in the Parc André Citroën soars 150 meters into the sky, affording fantastic views of all of the city’s landmarks. Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous (and fit), why not take the stairs – all 674 of them – up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower? A glass elevator does the rest of the hard work for you, raising you to the open-air observation deck that’s – gulp – a knee-knocking 276 meters above terra firma. A glass of Champagne at the bar may take the edge off. You’ll also be relieved to hear that you’re not expected to take the stairs all the way back down again. Take the cute funicular railway from the cobbled streets of boho Montmartre up to the Sacré-Cœur. There are worse ways to while away an hour or two than sitting on the stone steps of this beautiful basilica at sundown with a hot, sugary crepe, soaking up some of the city’s most wonderful widescreen views. Bateaux and bicycles Getting around on two wheels is a relatively easy and relaxing way to explore Paris, thanks to an excellent network of dedicated cycle paths and a fairly reliable bike rental system in the shape of the Vélib' Métropole. You can get daily, weekly (or longer subscriptions) that allow you to pick up and drop-off bikes at hundreds of rental stations around the city, giving you the freedom to sightsee at your own pace. Dodge the Segway tours wobbling their perilous way around the major attractions, swerve the camera-toting tourists dawdling in the Marais and make for the pleasant routes that meander alongside picturesque Canal Saint-Martin, with its romantic footbridges, laidback café culture, shabby-chic brasseries and secluded, tree-lined quays. Heading north, the scenery takes a distinct turn for the industrial, with twin cinemas that face off across the Bassin de la Villette. Pedal just a little further and you’ll reach the Pont Levant de la rue de Crimée, the last remaining hydraulic lift bridge in Paris and a relic of the canal’s extension at the end of the 19th Century. You might even be lucky enough to see it in action, rising up gracefully to allow boats to pass underneath. If pedal power sounds too much like hard work, there are plenty of bateaux that will let you enjoy the sights of Paris from the water – ideally with your feet up and a glass of something sparkling in your hand. Take a sunset Seine cruise to see the city in all its glory, as monuments including the Eiffel Tower, Pont Alexandre III and the Notre-Dame Cathedral light up atmospherically against a dusky pink sky. Summer in the City “I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.” So sang Ella Fitgerald in 1956. Granted, Ella also declared her admiration for Paris in fall, winter and spring in the song, but can you bask on golden sands by the Seine in January? Non! Paris Plages runs from July to August every year and sees the riverbanks of Trocadéro Gardens, Parc Rives de Seine and the Bassin de la Villette transformed into sandy beaches, complete with palm trees and parasols. Grab a delicious pistachio ice cream, pull up a deckchair and enjoy a flavor of the French Riviera in the heart of the city. A hot favorite with locals, Parc de la Villette is one of the largest green spaces in Paris. It’s also something of a cultural mecca, crammed with concert halls, theaters and museums, as well as a series of bright red metal follies designed by architect Bernard Tschumi – there are 26 to find across the 137 acres of this massive playground. In summer, the park bursts into life with a busy roster of open-air events, including the popular Villette Sonique music festival. Meanwhile, movie mavens make a beeline for the park’s Cinéma en Plein Air festival, where popcorn-toting viewers gather on blankets and deckchairs on the lawn for classic films under the Paris sky. Best of the Rest Make like Henri Lacroix and bring your A-game to the parks of Paris. Whaddya mean you’ve never heard of Henri Lacroix? He’s only one of the greatest pétanque players the world has ever seen – thirteen times a world champion no less! Take on the local hipsters and old folks at this ancient boule-throwing contest in locations including Place de la Nation and the stunning surroundings of the Luxembourg Gardens. If all that isn’t enough to whet your appetite, why not head to Montmartre’s Place du Tertre to have your least flattering facial features wildly exaggerated and recorded for posterity by a local caricaturist? Go scavenging for treasures at Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, Paris’s labyrinthine open-air flea market, or pay your respects at lavish celebrity tombs in the vast Père Lachaise Cemetery, where permanent residents include Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Marcel Marceau. Finally, there is no outdoor activity more Parisian than perching elegantly at a tiny pavement café table, and peering inscrutably through dark glasses at passers-by over your café crème. Overflowing ashtray of lipstick-stained Gauloises butts optional. Save on indoor and outdoor activities in Paris Save on admission to Paris attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Moulin Rouge
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Indoor Activities in Paris

Even the sexiest of cities can occasionally have their allure dampened by a downpour, and Paris is no exception. Fortunately, France’s capital is awash with amazing things to see and do indoors – and beneath the streets – when the weather messes with your plans. From cabaret to the catacombs, church tours to cheese and wine tastings, there are more interesting indoor activities in Paris than you might expect. You’ll find a selection of our favorites below. Galleries and Museums Centre Pompidou This cultural mecca’s ‘inside-out’ architecture – all exposed air ducts and pipework in bold primary colors – make it something of a work of art in itself. Visitors can admire the view from a glass-covered external escalator that ascends all six stories. Inside is no less awe-inspiring: the Centre Pompidou houses a cavernous public library, a center for music and acoustic research and, most notably, the National Museum of Modern Art, a collection rivaled in scope, variety and quality only by MoMA in New York. Step inside to admire world-famous works from – deep breath – Picasso, Pollock, Matisse, Magritte, Bacon, de Kooning, Warhol, Sherman and many, many more. Musée du Quai Branly Paris does an impressive line in quirky building exteriors, and the Musée du Quai Branly, set on the Seine’s banks in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, is no exception. Its green wall of vegetation, designed by celebrated botanist Patrick Blanc, covers much of the building’s facade as well as some of the interior. There’s enough foliage to fill a dozen Instagram feeds and that’s before you even get to the astonishing collection of indigenous art and cultural artifacts from around the world, including a monumental medieval Moai head from Easter Island and a brightly decorated Volkswagen from Mexico. Rodin Museum Gallic legend Auguste Rodin is that rarest of creatures: a sculptor who became a household name. Visit the former hotel where he lived out his last years and which now homes many of his finest pieces as well as showcasing some of his own personal collection of artworks by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet and more. A number of busts as well as career highlights including The Kiss are exhibited inside the Rodin Museum while out in the delightful jardin is where you’ll find his Monument to Balzac and The Thinker brooding among the perfectly sculpted trees and hedges. Going Underground The Paris Catacombs Did you know there’s a secret city deep beneath the streets of Paris that runs to over 130 kilometers of tunnels, passageways, sewers and secret chambers? Not for the faint of heart, the labyrinthine ossuary that comprises the Paris Catacombs lies 20 meters underground and contains the mortal remains of over six million Parisians, relocated here from overflowing Paris cemeteries in the 18th and 19th centuries. Brave the 1.5km circuit through this maze of tunnels for a truly bone-chilling experience. Musée du Vin Grape aficionados will find much to enjoy in the vaulted cellars of the Musée du Vin, not least the part at the end where you’ll get a chance to sample a glass of the good stuff from the museum’s own vineyard. Before that, you’ll learn the history of wine- and Champagne-making in the atmospheric surroundings of these underground limestone caverns, originally used by Order of Minim friars in the 15th Century. Retail Therapy Covered Passages There are 20 or so covered passages to explore in and around Paris’s Grands Boulevards. Designed to attract the city’s more discerning shoppers, these elegant Parisian arcades are masterclasses in 19th-century architecture and engineering. Their many decorative features include glass-and-iron canopies and soaring domes, intricate tiled floors and old-fashioned wooden storefronts. Inside, you’ll discover chic boutiques aplenty, alongside antique emporia, cute cafés and bustling brasseries. Passage du Jouffroy is one of the city’s most popular arcades, with its gleaming geometric tiling, ornate stucco clock and delightful 19th-century Librairie du Passage bookstore, where new and antiquarian books pile up precipitously in corners and defy gravity on the overstacked shelves. There’s even a tiny wax museum, which has been operating here for nearly 150 years. At 190 meters, Passage Choiseul is the longest of Paris’s covered passages. Grab a pain au chocolat and stroll past watchmakers’ windows, jewelry stores and much more along its narrow length. Galeries Lafayette Galeries Lafayette Haussmann elevates your shopping trip from mere retail to a near-religious experience. Marvel at the ornate galleries and cathedral-like five-story atrium that’s topped with a remarkable steel-and-class cupola. Designed by glass artist Jacques Grüber in the early 20th Century, this soaring 43-meter-high masterpiece is the building’s pièce de résistance, flowering out magnificently from the rooftop. There’s a terrace up here, too, from where widescreen views of the city skyline – including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Sacré Cœur – reward those with a head for heights. Tours are available. Inside this chic Paris mega-mall, there are 65,000 square meters of big-name boutiques to explore, with luxury brands from Armani to Zadig & Voltaire, plus a Decléor spa, hair salons, Chanel treatment booths and 20+ cafés and restaurants. If that’s not enough to keep you entertained all day long, Galeries Lafayette also offers a range of none-more-Parisian bolt-on experiences including a catwalk fashion show and a macaron-making class, where you’ll learn to make the delicate French fancies, before tucking into your creations. Booking is essential. That’s Entertainment Life is a cabaret, old chum, and nowhere more so than in Paris. No visit here would be complete without experiencing at least one of the dazzling array of cabaret and risqué burlesque shows on offer. Naturellement, the Moulin Rouge with its iconic red windmill is the best-known (and arguably the best), but there are dozens more to choose from, running the gamut from old-fashioned crooners, can-cans and audience sing-alongs to high-octane acrobatics and modern dance. Whichever show you opt for, expect lavish costumes, bags of energy and a healthy dollop of high camp. Cinephiles are also spoilt for choice in Paris, where the majority of cinemas screen movies in their original language with French subtitles, meaning language needn’t be a barrier to catching a classic or enjoying the latest blockbuster. Settle in at atmospheric old picture houses including the Louxor, a stunning century-old mash-up of Egyptian and Art Deco design, and the Grand Rex, home to one of the biggest screens in Europe. Pro-tip: the French word for ‘popcorn’ is ‘popcorn’ so you can even leave the phrasebook at home! Save on indoor activities in Paris Save on admission to Paris attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak

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