Paris in Winter: Weather, Closures and Plans

1. The weather: highs near 46°F and short grey days

Paris winter days are cool, damp and short, with highs between 46°F and 48°F. Météo-France, the national weather service, lists average highs of 46°F in December, 46°F in January and 48°F in February at its Paris-Montsouris station. Average lows are 39°F in December and 38°F in January and February. The figures cover 1991 to 2020.

December is the wettest of the three months, with 62 mm of rain over about 11 days of at least 1 mm. Sunshine is scarce. The same sheet gives about 57 hours in December and 59 in January, against 222 in July. Nights reach freezing or below on about 5 days in December, 7 in January and 5 in February. The sheet gives no snow figures, so plan for rain more than for snow.

Pro Tip Pack a waterproof jacket and warm layers, because December has about 11 rainy days and only about 57 hours of sun.

2. Christmas Day and New Year's Day: what is open

Many big Paris sights are closed on 25 December and 1 January, so plan those two days around them. Each sight's own page lists its closing days: the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle, the Notre-Dame towers, the Palace of Versailles and the Musée Rodin are all shut on both days. Service-Public, the French government's information site, lists both as public holidays. In 2026 Christmas falls on a Friday, and New Year's Day 2027 falls on a Friday too.

The Arc de Triomphe stays open but, according to its own page, closes at 4 pm on 24 and 31 December 2026. Winter days at Sainte-Chapelle end at 5 pm, and the last entry is 30 minutes earlier. Go in the morning. The Louvre is free for everyone on the first Friday of each month after 6 pm, except in July and August, but you still book a time slot.

The Arc de Triomphe page does not list 25 December or 1 January as closing days. Its only yearly closings are 1 May, 8 May, 14 July and the morning of 11 November. So it should be open on both days, but the page says it can close for ceremonies or bad weather. Check it on the day. The Eiffel Tower's own site would not load for our check, so this list makes no claim about it. Look up its hours for your date before you go. Days are short: around 21 December the IMCCE, the French astronomy institute, lists sunrise near 8:43 am, sunset near 4:55 pm and about 8 hours 11 minutes of daylight (2024 table). For tickets and timed entry at the biggest museum, see the guide to Louvre tours.

Key Takeaway On 25 December and 1 January the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle, the Notre-Dame towers, Versailles and the Musée Rodin are all closed, so book your big sights for other days.

3. Christmas at a château: a day out from Paris

A Christmas day trip to the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the one outing on this list that leaves Paris. The French-style Christmas at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is from €70 per person and takes 6 hours. Empreinte runs it, and the group meets at Bercy, 75012 Paris. The listing includes the round-trip bus, château entry, the salons decorated for the Grand Noël, the French gardens and illuminations, and a light show on the façade at 6 pm. Meals and drinks are not included. The listing does not state a group size.

The trip is new on GetYourGuide, with a 5.0 rating from only 3 reviews. Free cancellation is listed. Check the dates on the listing before you plan around it. The château's own site, vaux-le-vicomte.com, says its Grand Noël runs from 14 November to 3 January, and the estate lies about 50 km from Paris. It does not publish train directions or Christmas opening hours on that page. Going alone means you plan the transport yourself and check the hours. The listing is easier to plan. The bus, the entry and the 6 pm light show are in one booking. The catch is that it is a set day with a set start. So the tour suits you if you want one booking and no train planning. Go on your own if you want to pick your own day and pace and do not mind the planning.

Other day trips lose their appeal in winter. Monet's house and gardens at Giverny are open only from 1 April to 1 November, according to the Fondation Claude Monet. Browse the other day trips from Paris with the season in mind.

A short winter day goes further when every hour has a roof or a reservation.

4. Dark evenings: a Seine dinner cruise

A dinner cruise on the Seine is the classic way to spend a dark winter evening in Paris. The Bateaux-Mouches dinner cruise runs daily. You board at Pont de l'Alma between 7:30 pm and 8:15 pm, and the boat leaves at 8:30 pm and returns at 10:45 pm, about 2 hours 15 minutes later. Smart wear is required. The Discovery menu costs €99, the Prestige menu €135 and the Excellence menu €170, with a 6 pm early service from €90.

You can book that boat straight from its own site, which shows its full menu prices. A listing adds a fixed meeting point and a single booking. A dinner cruise is one of the few plans where booking a set trip makes sense, because the boat, the meal and the time are the whole point. Go direct if you want to choose a menu, or take the listing if you want one simple booking with free cancellation.

Two other dark-evening plans need no booking at all. The Louvre stays open until 9 pm on Wednesday and Friday. The Arc de Triomphe stays open until 10:30 pm in winter, apart from the early close on 24 and 31 December. The 3-course dinner cruise with live music is from €115 per person, lasts 2.5 hours and boards at Port de la Bourdonnais by the Eiffel Tower. Bateaux Parisiens runs it, and guests rate it 4.7 from 8,998 reviews, with free cancellation listed. A glass-roofed boat and a live singer are part of the description. Extra drinks and souvenir photos cost more.

Best Things to Do in Paris' count of GetYourGuide listings on 24 October 2026 found 20 Seine dinner cruise listings among 658 for Paris, from €59 to €513.60 per person. The wide range comes from the menu and the boat. Our guide to dinner and cruise paris compares the boats side by side.

5. Cold afternoons indoors: macarons and wine

For an indoor afternoon, a macaron class or a wine tasting in an old cellar keeps you warm and dry. The macaron class at Galeries Lafayette is from €59 per person and lasts 1.5 hours. It meets at 40 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris, and is run by the store. You bake with a pastry chef and take home 4 macarons and 2 recipes. Guests rate it 4.3 from 1,444 reviews, and classes run in English and French.

For the evening, the Les Caves du Louvre wine tasting is from €36 per person and lasts 1 hour. It meets at 52 Rue de l'Arbre Sec, 75001 Paris, and takes up to 12 people. You taste three wines in English with a sommelier. Guests rate it 4.8 from 1,148 reviews. It is not suitable for children under 18, pregnant women or people with mobility impairments.

You can also spend a cold afternoon on your own. The Louvre is free on the first Friday evening of the month after 6 pm, as noted above. A class or a tasting adds a guide and a fixed time, which suits a short rainy afternoon.

6. Hotels in winter: what a December night costs

Yes, a little: December hotel nights looked cheaper than June in our own check, but price your exact dates. For the full breakdown, see our paris trip cost page.

Our own price check found that 4-star rooms in December 2026 had a lower median than in the priciest month, June 2027. The cost page above shows the figures. Each month rests on only two priced nights, so nights around Christmas and New Year can cost more or less. Compare your exact dates before you book. No official source gives a winter-versus-summer hotel price, so this is the study's own count, not an official figure. For a quiet base, Hotel des Deux-Iles - Notre-Dame sits in a 17th-century building on the Île Saint-Louis, 10 minutes on foot from Notre-Dame, and its breakfast buffet can be served in your room. For the Eiffel Tower side, Hotel Muguet is on rue Chevert in the 7th, two minutes from Les Invalides, and some rooms look out on the tower.

Read more about areas in the guide on where to stay in Paris.

How to choose what to do in Paris in winter

Pick your plan by the time of day: an indoor class for the afternoon, a cruise for the evening and a château for a full day. This table sets them side by side.

Free options fit too. The first Friday evening at the Louvre costs nothing, and several monuments are free on the first Sunday of December, January and February, though time slots are still limited. For Christmas lights, the Paris tourist board says the Champs-Élysées lights switch on Sunday 22 November 2026 and run to 4 January 2027. The City of Paris lists a Christmas market on the same avenue for those dates. The Notre-Dame market runs from 26 November to 27 December 2026. No 2026 dates for the Tuileries market were published in the pages we found. For a night out, start with the Seine dinner cruises and book early if you travel in the school holidays, which run from 19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027.

Prices and ratings are as shown on GetYourGuide on 24 October 2026.