Paris in Spring

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.

Holidays such as Easter join the beautiful springtime postcard of the city to offer many activities and events outside of the more typical things to see and do in Paris. If you want or you 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.

Paris is a city full of parks and gardens of great beauty and whose care is carried out with special care and pampering. It is in spring when these places look more beautiful mainly because of the flowering that gives passers-by 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, the Montsouris Park in the south of the city, the Belleville Park on the hill with the same name and with one of the best views of the capital or the Buttes Chaumont Park located in an old quarry east of Paris are some of the options to consider.

As the good weather lands in Paris Parisians take the opportunity to take to the streets and enjoy those pleasures they 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 visit in the streets of Montmartre.

If you ask a Parisian purebred what is his favorite activity in spring there is a very high probability that his answer is to have a picnic. It is a very typical postcard of Paris at this time of the year in places like in the fields of 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. These centrally located gardens have a very neat floral decoration and large lawns where to make the typical spring picnics when the weather is nice. It is an essential activity in the Parisian spring.

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 is an ideal time to visit the churches of the city, which are many and very beautiful. The Sacré Coeur Basilica, La Sainte Chapelle, the Madeleine church and of course Notre Dame are the most famous and beautiful of the city. Of course, the interior of the cathedral of Notre Dame cannot be visited after the great fire it suffered in 2019.

The typical alternative to enjoy Easter has more to do with the sense of taste than with the sense of sight. I'm talking about the famous chocolate eggs and bunnies typical of these holidays. Paris is a pastry city and in its streets you will find hundreds of pastry shops offering these chocolate delicacies.

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 throughout the country but it is in the capital where it is most enjoyed. On this night we have the opportunity to visit many museums and exhibitions throughout Paris for free.

In this event also participate the great museums such as the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay that also open their doors at night. All this is complemented by concerts and artistic and cultural events throughout the city in a perfect itinerary to enjoy the culture in a magical night of Parisian spring.

Spring is also a time of great sporting events. Two of the biggest take place at this time. The first one takes place at the beginning of April and is the Paris Marathon. This race gathers more than 60,000 runners and many more spectators around the race course that passes by such emblematic places as Notre Dame, the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower.

The other major event is Roland Garros. The French Tennis Open is one of the most important tournaments in the world of tennis, the most important 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.

When the trees are in bloom, the temperatures rise and the days are sunnier, strolling 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 recommended options is to rent a bike and ride around Paris taking advantage of the good weather.

With the Paris Pass tourist card you can take public bicycles and take the opportunity to explore the center or areas such as the Royal Palace complex, the Belleville district or even take the bike in the Bastille and discover the outskirts of the capital with places as interesting as the forest of Vincennes.

It is always advisable to know Paris from different perspectives. And one of the most beautiful is to do it with a cruise on the Seine River. Spring temperatures are perfect for it even for a cruise on the Seine at night.

On the way you will see monuments such as the Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, the 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. Here are the best options for cruises on the Seine.

Since as spring progresses it is increasingly 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, the Eiffel Tower. Also the highest but there are more alternatives such as the viewpoint of the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur, the Montparnasse skyscraper, the second tallest building in France, or even on the top terrace of the Arc de Triomphe. 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 the 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 the gardeners put special care in making them look spectacular. In these months you can also enjoy the show they do with the fountains of the palace playing with lights and music. A spring visit is a must.

The weather is one of the fundamental factors when deciding on which dates you are going 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 through about 15 in April. The minimum temperatures rise from 5 degrees in the first months of spring to a minimum of 10 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.

The spring months are the prelude to the beginning of the high tourist season in Paris which runs from the end of May until September. In general in the spring months the tourist influx is not massive, considering 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 week, since in this holiday period many take the opportunity to visit Paris and on those dates the demand and the influx of tourists increases considerably.

The prices of accommodations and tourist sites such as Paris depend especially on demand. Since in spring it is not yet high season the demand is not so high and therefore prices remain within reason.

The exception is at Easter, when many places are on vacation 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. That's why you should pack your luggage thoroughly and be prepared for various scenarios. What should not be missing in your suitcase is:

• Light and comfortable clothes for sunny and more spring days.
• Something warmer for cloudy days and evenings.
• Comfortable shoes for the long walks through the streets of Paris.
• An umbrella or raincoat in case you get caught in the rain.