Best time to visit Paris: spring or summer, autumn or even winter? Weather by months, number of tourists, prices 2023 in hotels and on excursions. At what time of the year is Paris the most beautiful, how to organize your travelling correctly, do everything in time and don’t miss anything (important) – found out good Time for Trip.
Paris has been a real magnet for tourists for centuries. During spring and summer, golden autumn, in the day and even in late evenings, the streets of the French capital are flooded with a diverse crowd.
In some months, the pressure and fullness of this river are maximum. In others, walking citizens have the opportunity to look around and at the same time not collide with the “colleagues” going ahead.
That makes it possible to enjoy long walks through the streets, to feel the charm of the city on a sparsely populated boat trip along the Seine. Without standing in a crazy queue to get to the best museums in Paris, to see the masterpieces of the Louvre and Orsay not from behind, but as it should.
A skeptic will say that this does not happen, and all these are real miracles. As after all, the French capital is incredibly popular whole year long. And every traveler who is going to visit it firmly believes that every months of the year – absolutely best time to travel to Paris.
But we will answer that every rule has exceptions. And to make sure of this, you only need to choose the right time of your trip!
Spring
Wake-up and refresh time. Naturally, Paris does not stay away from this inspiring process and enters the spring quite energetically. Immediately abandoning such usual attributes for the center of Europe as snow and ice.
Someone will grumble that +5-10 degrees Celsius at noon is not the limit of a traveler’s dreams. But you must agree that such weather is not so bad for wandering through the city streets and excursions. So you obviously won’t be bored – there is something to do in Paris in March.
It should be remembered, however, that at the beginning of spring in the north of France at night it can be not just cold, but also frosty. Rains aren’t too rare, 4-6 rainy days in a month are still quite a lot. But in comparison with winter, there are noticeably more sunny days.
Again, if you are a romantic by nature, you will certainly notice that there is a certain freshness and anticipation in the atmosphere. And literally with your skin you can feel the promise of the imminent arrival of a really warm time and the frantic awakening of nature.
This usually happens in Paris in early April or late March. The sun will finally begin not just to illuminate, but also significantly warm, cherries and plums bloom, and young foliage appears on the trees!
April
The French themselves, as well as foreigners, arrive in the city in large numbers. Yes, why not?! After all, Easter holidays are one of the best times to go to Paris!
The weather usually only heats up such aspirations. After all, starting from the second decade of April, the air temperature in Paris during the day reaches +20 and even +22 °C. Although at night the atmosphere still cools down to not particularly optimistic +8-12 °C.
One way or another, but in the reviews you will not find negative remarks from those who visited this city in the middle of spring. On the contrary, they are overwhelmed with positive emotions.
May
Further-more! And not so much in the sense of the weather, but in the growing interest in visiting the “world capital”.
Moreover, in May France celebrates two national holidays: Labor Day (1st) and Victory Day (8th), held with a large gathering of curious people.
And although the weather not so optimistic – it’s excessively rainy in Paris in May – the city is flooded with crowds of tourists. Prices are booming, places in hotels and even suburban guest houses are running out, and an attempt to take a picture of a deserted street even at midnight is obviously doomed to failure.
From our point of view, it is obvious that it is better not to visit Paris during this period. Although, of course, you have every right to your own opinion.
- Actual weather forecast for 4 days see here – meteofrance.com/…/paris/75000
Summer
Moreover, trying to see the French capital at the end of spring doesn’t look like the most unreasonable decision in light of what is happening in it during the hot summer months. Since there are even more tourists in Paris in June and July, and hotel prices are completely detached from reality.
If you didn’t have time to book an apartment or a room in advance, that is, 3-4 months before the trip, then in the summer you will face a serious overpayment. Even if you agree to stay on the outright periphery!
If you organize an independent trip to Paris during this period, you will get a reason to completely lose faith in the “City of Light”. And then tell friends and acquaintances how stuffy, hot and cramped it is. In general, you didn’t like it very much.
Although in August Paris is sunny and very hot, the streets are emptying. The French go on vacation en masse – some to Brittany and Aquitaine, and some to the Cote d’Azur. And foreigners don’t intend to spend the most golden summer time on the melting streets of the metropolis, when there is an bright opportunity to go to the sea.
Is it worth catching your chance at this period? We wouldn’t – seeing even the top attractions of Paris in the heat isn’t the best entertainment in the world!
Fall
September is generally a very good time to visit Paris. As this month is not as hot as summer ones, but the weather will give a few reasons for discontent. Since it will be warm and light enough, and the number of rainy days fits into an acceptable range – usually no more than 5-6 per month.
In September 2022 in Paris, for example, air temperature sometimes reached +30 °C. And there is no reason to believe that in 2023 it will be somehow fundamentally different.
At the same time, it is impossible to say that you will have few competitors, and you wander around the street in proud solitude. Rather, on the contrary!
But on the other hand, there will be more opportunities to see something unusual things. The fact is that in Paris on the third weekend of September there are Journees du Europeennes Patrimoine. During which, frankly interesting places like the Elysee and Luxembourg Palaces and the metropolitan City Hall, which is housed in the Hotel de Ville, open for visitors for free.
Throughout October, the weather in Paris still gives warmth and frequent clear days. Allowing you to almost not limit yourself in any way in terms of long walks around the city and cruises on the Seine on an open-top boat.
But in November it is cold and damp in Paris, this month is a real prelude to a cloudy and gloomy winter. The sun periodically disappears completely, it often drizzles from the sky, and the temperature drops simultaneously with the mood of Parisians and visitors.
It rarely comes to frost, but +2-4 °C on the thermometer on a November morning is a common thing!
Winter in Paris
Winter is the period when nature goes into hibernation. But man has already distanced himself enough from the roots to ignore the eternal laws. And therefore, even in the cold period of the year, it retains its capacity and a certain activity.
However, December, January and February in the French capital are interesting to a relatively small number of travelers. If we exclude from consideration the short period during which the celebration of Christmas and the meeting in Paris of the New Year falls.
In December, the local weather is frankly penetrating to the bone: it’s rainy, windy, cold. At the same time, the air temperature rarely leaves the range of +5-10 °C. But the sunny days aren’t enough, and it pours from the sky often and persistently.
In January and February, it gets a little colder in Paris, and frosts occasionally occur. Sunny days from this no longer become, but precipitation in the form of icy rains, sometimes, acquire a salvo character. And they tend to overflow the Seine.
January is also therefore not a good time to go to Paris, because this month the city is waiting with tension for the next “Flood of the century”. For more than 100 years (the previous one happened in 1910), forecasters have been discussing this topic and assessing probabilities.
And the latter is so different from the statistical error that there is a well-established plan for the evacuation of the Louvre treasures to Picardy!
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