10 things to see and do in Paris in springtime

Spring in Paris is undoubtedly one of the best times of the year to visit the French city. This is thanks to a very pleasant climate with mild temperatures and a great variety of events and activities typical of these months. If you want or are going to travel to the historic city in spring, in this post I share with you a list of the best things to do at this time and all the useful information about it.

As the good weather lands in Paris Parisians take the opportunity to take to the streets and enjoy those pleasures that can not experience in much of the year. I'm talking about something as simple as having a coffee on a nice terrace. A luxury only reserved for spring and summer, since the rest of the year temperatures do not accompany.

To enjoy it one of the best places is the Montmartre neighborhood. In its steep streets are dozens of typical Parisian cafes with their small terraces and beautiful facades. One example is the café des Deux Moulins, near the Moulin Rouge, which was the setting for the famous film Amelie.

But there are many more that I invite you to know and, not to miss anything, the best option is to book a guided tour of the Montmartre neighborhood that, I assure you, will not leave you indifferent.

In mid-May, almost to say goodbye to spring and welcome summer, takes place one of the most magical nights of the year in Paris. The night of the museums is celebrated all over the country, but it is in the capital where it is most enjoyed.

This event also involves the major museums, which open their doors at night that day, and the activity is complemented by concerts and artistic and cultural events throughout the city, in a perfect itinerary to enjoy culture on a magical night of Parisian spring.

Many Parisian museums, such as the Louvre, usually participate in the Night of the Museums, but if you are not in Paris on that date or do not like to stay up late, you can always visit them during their regular hours:

• Book skip-the-line tickets for the Louvre museum: the largest in the world, with 35,000 objects and works of art such as the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo.
• Book tickets for the Musée d'Orsay: which houses hundreds of works by the most important artists of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, such as Van Gogh or Matisse.
• Book tickets for the Yves Saint Laurent museum: where you can see the most legendary creations of the iconic French fashion designer.
• Book tickets for the Picasso Museum in Paris: home to 5,000 of Picasso's masterpieces, as well as his own personal collection.

If you choose the Easter vacations to travel to Paris, you can take the opportunity to experience these festivities in Parisian style. In this sense, there are two ways to enjoy it:

From a more religious point of view, it is an ideal time to visit the churches of the city, which are many and very beautiful:

• The Basilica of the Sacré Coeur.
• The Sainte Chapelle, whose tickets I recommend you book online.
• The church of the Madeleine.
• Notre Dame, whose exteriors you can admire by hiring a tour of the Ile de la Cité, Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle and La Conciergerie prison in which you will receive explanations about its architecture. Unfortunately, the Cathedral cannot be visited inside since the fires of 2019.

On the other hand, the typical alternative to enjoy Easter has more to do with the sense of taste than the sense of sight. I'm talking about the famous chocolate eggs and bunnies typical of these holidays. Paris is a pastry city and its streets are lined with hundreds of pastry shops offering these chocolate delicacies. If you have a sweet tooth, booking a tour of the pastry shops of Paris can also be a great plan, right?

When the trees are in bloom, the temperatures rise and the days are sunnier, walking around Paris is a real pleasure. Doing it on foot is always recommended, but it restricts the distance we can cover. That is why in spring one of the best recommendations is to rent a bike and ride around Paris taking advantage of the good weather. For this you have several options:

• Book the Paris Pass tourist card, with which you can take public bicycles and ride around the center or even discover the outskirts of the capital with places as interesting as the Vincennes forest. There are so many advantages of the Paris Pass, I recommend you to read this post to find out everything.
• Book a guided bike tour of Paris, with which for 4 hours and accompanied by an expert guide you will visit the most important monuments of the French capital.

It is always advisable to know Paris from different perspectives. And one of the most beautiful is to do it with one of the best cruises on the Seine. In fact, the weather is so nice in spring that you can even cruise the Seine aboard a night cruise on the Seine River.

Along the way you will see monuments such as the Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, the Grand Palais or the Eiffel Tower.

You can choose to accompany your cruise with a dinner on board or choose from several options and combinations.

Since as spring progresses it is becoming more and more common to have clear days and skies one of the best options to take advantage of this fact is to see Paris from the heights from the best viewpoints in Paris.

The most famous of them is, of course, that of the Eiffel Tower. It is also the highest, but there are more alternatives such as:

• The viewpoint of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica.
• The Montparnasse skyscraper, the second tallest building of its kind in France, and for which I recommend you book your tickets in advance.
• The top terrace of the Arc de Triomphe, whose tickets you can also book online.

Paris is even more beautiful from the heights.

The Palace of Versailles is one of the essential excursions to do if you travel to Paris. The charm of the place is not only in the palace, but also in its gardens. Considered one of the most beautiful in Europe and the world, the royal gardens of Versailles look especially beautiful in spring.

The floral decoration is tremendously beautiful at this time and gardeners put special care to look spectacular. In these months you can also enjoy the show they do with the fountains of the palace playing with lights and music.

Booking tickets for the Palace of Versailles, the gardens and the estate of Marie Antoinette is a spring visit is a must.

Paris is a city full of parks and gardens of great beauty and whose care is carried out with special care. It is in spring when these places look more beautiful mainly because of the flowering, which gives walkers a very colorful and beautiful postcard.

There are dozens of parks and gardens perfect for a pleasant spring stroll:

• The Tuileries Garden, between the Louvre and the Place Concorde.
• Montsouris Park in the south of the city.
• Belleville Park, on the hill with the same name and with one of the best views of the capital.
• The Buttes Chaumont Park, located in a former quarry east of Paris.

If you ask a pure-blooded Parisian what their favorite springtime activity is there is a very high probability that their answer will be to have a picnic. It is a very typical postcard of Paris at this time of year in places like the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower.

But among all the options in this sense that we can visit in the French city, the favorite for Parisians, and my personal recommendation, are the Luxembourg gardens, which have a very neat floral decoration and large lawns where to make the typical spring picnics when the weather is nice. An essential activity in the Parisian spring.

Spring is also a time of great sporting events, and two of the biggest take place at this time:

• The Paris Marathon takes place in early April and gathers more than 60,000 runners and many more spectators around the race route, which passes by such emblematic sites as Notre Dame, the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower.
• The French Tennis Open, or Roland Garros, is the most important tournament on clay, and always brings together the best tennis players on the planet. It is held in late May and early June at the Stade Roland Garros complex in Paris.

The weather is one of the fundamental factors when deciding when to visit Paris or another city. In this sense, spring has plenty of arguments to convince you.

In the months of March, April and May the hours of sunshine increase progressively and with them the temperature. From a maximum of just over 10 degrees in March, we move to an average of 20 degrees in May. In general, it is a very pleasant climate with very mild temperatures.

The only downside to spring, and it is a common issue in almost every month of the year, is the rainfall. May is one of the rainiest months of the year and in general it is almost impossible to avoid rain in spring.

In general in the spring months the tourist influx is not massive, taking into account that Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world, and not find too many problems to find accommodation.

The exception is Easter, as in this holiday period many take the opportunity to visit Paris and at that time it does increase considerably the demand and the influx of tourists.

The prices of accommodations and tourist places like Paris depend especially on demand. Since spring is not yet high season, the demand is not as high and therefore prices remain within reason.

The exception is Easter, which is a vacation in many places and the demand for accommodation rises considerably. And with the demand, prices go up as well.

In spring you can experience everything from sunny and pleasant days to rainy and windy days. Therefore, you should pack your luggage thoroughly and be prepared for various scenarios. What should not be missing in your suitcase is:

• Light and comfortableclothes for sunny and more spring-like days.
• Something warmer for cloudy days and evenings.
• Comfortableshoes for the long walks through the streets of Paris.
• An umbrella or raincoat in case you get caught in the rain.