Paris is a great city to visit any time of year, but autumn is really one of the best times to come. In France, it’s actually considered the start of the year. The French don’t say “back to school”, they say la rentrée, which means the return – the return to school, from long summer holidays, and of all kinds of cool events. Parisians are also at their happiest (the effect of those long holidays), so there are great vibes all around the city. What’s more, from September through mid-October, the weather is usually AMAZING – sunny and not too hot – perfect for strolling and exploring the city. You can make the most of the season by doing some of these fantastic things to do in Paris in autumn.
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Take a peek inside cool sites normally closed to the public
If you’re coming to Paris the third weekend in September, you really have to check out European Heritage Days, or Les Journées du Patrimoine in French. One of the best things to do in Paris in autumn, the event is held on the third weekend in September, so this year it’s September 21-22. The event offers you the chance to visit a whole bunch of really amazing sites that are usually closed to the public. These include historic mansions, artisanal workshops, theaters… even the President’s House, also known as the Elysées Palace, but it always has totally crazy lines, so we recommend visiting other places instead.
You can find a list of participating venues on the event’s website, which we suggest scanning the map before you arrive in Paris as some of the best places require advance booking. The Marais has a lot of historic mansions that open their doors (and without needing to book), so focusing on this area is a good option if you want to just go with the flow and see what you come upon.
Image Courtesy of Jardin Albert Khan
Track down some beautiful fall foliage
You might be thinking autumn equals pretty fall foliage in Paris, well, unfortunately, the color show isn’t as amazing here as it is in other destinations. BUT you can find some nice colorful leaves – if you know where to look for them. While the Tuileries Gardens can be nice at this time of year, you’ll find more colorful trees in the Luxembourg Gardens. These are usually at their prime in October when you can find some super pretty yellow leaves just above the Medici Fountain – this spot also has a great view towards the Panthéon in the distance. Another attraction of the park at this time of year is the gorgeous orange and yellow chrysanthemums usually planted on the terrace right behind the Luxembourg Palace.
A few other top places to see fall foliage in Paris are the offbeat Parc de Belleville, in the northeast of the city, and Jardin Albert Khan, found in the nearby suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and accessible by métro.
Image Courtesy of Fête des Vendanges via Facebook
Celebrate the wine harvest in Montmartre
We love Montmartre and one of the best times to visit this charming hilly neighborhood is during its annual wine harvest festival. Held the second weekend of October, la Fête des Vendanges celebrates the district’s vineyard. Yes, you read correctly, a vineyard, which happens to be the largest in the city. The Montmartre hill used to be covered in grapevines, a tradition which is kept alive today thanks to its much smaller, but very pretty vineyard.
The vineyard is normally closed to the public (even during the festival), but you can visit it on this exclusive Montmartre experience, which includes a behind-the-scenes visit of the vineyard, the Montmartre Museum, and the area. If you’re visiting the district during the festival, you’ll find a cluster of wine stands from producers around the country and food stands around Sacré-Coeur. The event also has a parade, concerts, a big dance, and much more. It’s a lot of fun and a great chance to mingle with locals!
Do Halloween Paris-style
Let’s be clear, Halloween is NOT a traditional French holiday. However, over the last few decades, the French have embraced the event with curiosity. Many bars hold Halloween parties on the 31st and some shops even do trick-or-treating for kids. You could partake in one of these activities or you could take a twist on the night of ghouls by visiting one of the “spookier” sites in the city.
The famous Pere Lachaise cemetery is a good choice and you can learn about its eerier side on this Haunted Cemetery Tour. It’s also a good time of year to visit the Catacombs, a bone-filled maze of tunnels in the south of the city best visited on these Special Access Tours so you can skip past its long entrance lines. Disneyland Paris also does a lively Halloween festival the whole month of October and into early November.
Lastly, the actual French tradition that IS related to the spirit of Halloween takes place the next day, November 1st. This is All Saints’ Day, and it’s the only day you can visit the small historic cemetery at the top of Montmartre. Called le Cimetière-du-Calvaire and found next to Saint-Pierre de Montmartre church between Sacré-Coeur and Place du Tertre, it’s one of the only few parish cemeteries left in the city as most of the others were closed down in the 1780s when their bones moved to the Catacombs.
Image Courtesy of Anvers-Abbesses via Facebook
Tour the studios of real artists
If you’re interested in art or simply want to do something cool and local, hopefully, one of two artist open-studio events held in autumn will be during your stay. These are concentrated in two hilly areas with artistic heritage. On the weekend of September 26-29, you can visit the art studios of Ménilmontant, a neighborhood in the northeast of the city where a lot of current artists work and on November 15-18, you can tour the more local parts of Montmartre when the artists of the Anvers-Abbesses association open their studios.
Image Courtesy of Art Basel Paris
See some of the world’s best contemporary art
Serious art fans should definitely try to visit one of the fall’s three big contemporary art and photography fairs. From October 18-20, you can attend Art Basel Paris, an important contemporary art fair featuring works by top international artists. A week later, from October 23-27, you can visit the Salon d’Automne, an art fair within temporary buildings along the eastern side of the Champs Elysées. Finally, photography lovers, collectors, and dealers from around the world meet in the city annually for Paris Photo, held on November 7-10.
Image Courtesy of La Curieuse Compagnie via Instagram
Sample actually good Beaujolais Nouveau wine with locals
Another big wine event takes place in Paris, or rather all of France, later on in autumn. On the 3rd weekend in November, wine shops, bars, and restaurants around the country celebrate le Beaujolais Nouveau, a red wine from the Beaujolais region that’s the first wine of the year’s harvest that’s cracked open. Now, wine snobs consider this type of wine to be kind of bad, but you can find Beaujolais Nouveau wine that’s actually good by going to better wine bars.
You should be able to sample this at the excellent natural wine bars in the 10th arrondissement. Sitting on a side street west of the Canal St-Martin, Le Verre Volé was one of the city’s first natural wine bars and it usually features some high-quality Beaujolais Nouveau wines. On the east side of the canal is Rebelote, a restaurant focused on natural wine paired with seasonal cuisine. For an edgier vibe in the 10th’s Faubourg St-Denis area, stop by La Curieuse Compagnie, a hip wine bar that hosts a Beaujolais Nouveau night. Or you might also like to take one of these great wine-tasting tours which will certainly be discussing Beaujolais Nouveau on the date!
Image Courtesy of Salon du Chocolat via Facebook
Live out your best chocolate-lover’s dreams
As temperatures decrease, chocolate becomes even more appealing and there are plenty of fantastic opportunities to enjoy this delicacy in Paris. Actually, the autumn is when the Salon du Chocolat is held. A world-renowned event bringing together top chocolate-makers, this year it’ll be taking place October 30-November 3. If you’re not in town on these dates, you can get to know the city’s best chocolatiers – and taste their wares – on this Chocolate and Pastries Tour that’s led by food writers and chefs or learn to make your own in this Chocolate-Making Class.
Image Courtesy of Musée Jacquemart-André via Facebook
See the newly restored Musée Jacquemart-André and the masterpieces of the Borghese Gallery exhibit
After closing for a year, this beautiful smaller museum has just reopened to the public. Once the glamorous home of a banker and his artist wife, the mansion is totally gorgeous. Walking through its vast rooms filled with gilded mirrors, amazing artwork and family memorabilia is like taking a step back in time to the 19th century. In addition to being spectacular, the mansion houses the couple’s private art collection of old master paintings and also hosts fabulous temporary exhibits, like this autumn’s show on masterpieces from Rome’s Borghese Gallery. At the end of your tour, you can treat yourself to a hot beverage and a pastry in its chic tea salon.
Pictured above are the Gardens of Versailles
Visit fabulous castles and historic sites for free
In the off-season, from October 1 to March 31, a whole variety of national monuments and castles are free on the 1st Sunday of the month. So if you can plan your trip around these dates, you can make some good savings by not having to pay to visit some pretty spectacular venues. The most famous of these is Château de Versailles (yes, Versailles for FREE), but other sites in Paris include the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie, and the Panthéon. If you’d like to visit a less busy castle than Versailles, other free ones we love are the Medieval Château de Vincennes and Château de Maisons-Laffitte, where Napoléon and Joséphine Bonaparte lived. Peruse the list at this link.
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