Temperatures, rain and sunshine below are the Météo-France 1991 to 2020 averages for the Paris-Montsouris station. Sunrise and sunset times are for late 2026 and 2027. School holiday dates are for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Paris is in zone C.
January and February
In mid-January the sun rises at 8:39 am and sets at 5:20 pm, a day of 8 hours 40 minutes. By 28 February it is 7:36 am and 6:31 pm, close to 11 hours. The average afternoon high is 7.6°C in January and 8.8°C in February, and the average low is about 3°C in both.
January gets 59 hours of sunshine in the whole month. July gets 222. Most winter days are overcast, so the light is even from morning to evening, with no hard shadows on a face and a white sky behind it. The trees are bare, and facades that sit behind leaves in June are fully visible.
Rain falls on about 10 days in January and 9 in February. Snow is recorded on three or four days in each of those months and rarely stays on the ground, so do not plan around it.
Paris schools break from 6 to 22 February 2027. The other two French zones follow, and the last one goes back on 8 March, so the winter holiday crowd is spread over a month.
March and April
The clocks go forward on 28 March 2027. Sunset moves overnight from 7:12 pm to 8:13 pm, and evening sessions become possible after a normal working day. In mid-April the sun rises at 7:01 am and sets at 8:40 pm. Average highs climb from 12.8°C in March to 16.6°C in April, with rain on about 9 days in each.
Magnolias come first. They open between March and April, and the first days of flowering in March are the ones to catch. You will find them in the Palais Royal garden, on the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower, in the Tuileries and beside the Hôtel de Ville.
Cherry trees follow. The City of Paris says they generally flower in late March and that the blossom is short, often one or two weeks. In 2026 spring ran early and the first cherry blossom was out in mid-March. The Jardin des Plantes has a large Shirotae cherry, about 8 metres tall and 12 metres across. There are cherry trees along the paths of the Trocadéro gardens and in square René-Viviani near Notre-Dame. The Parc de Sceaux, south of the city, has about 150 of them. Its hanami festival ran from 4 to 19 April in 2026, and the lawns of the north grove were open by reservation only.
Wisteria is at its best in April and May and can last into June depending on the variety and how much sun the wall gets. The oldest one in Paris covers the front of the restaurant Au Vieux Paris d'Arcole on the Île de la Cité. Others grow on rue de Fourcy in the Marais, at Port Debilly facing the Eiffel Tower, and in square Marcel-Bleustein-Blanchet behind Sacré-Cœur.
Horse chestnuts flower in April and May, with upright white clusters 20 to 30 cm long.
Paris school holidays run from 3 to 19 April 2027, and the other zones continue until 3 May.
May and June
In mid-May the sun rises at 6:10 am and sets at 9:24 pm. On 21 June it is 5:48 am and 9:56 pm, the longest day of the year at 16 hours 8 minutes. Average highs are 20.2°C in May and 23.4°C in June.
May is the wettest month by volume, 69 mm, on about 9 days. That is the same number of rainy days as April with half as much water again, so carry an umbrella even on a bright morning.
The long day pushes golden hour to the edges. An evening session in June ends close to 10 pm, and a sunrise one starts before 6 am. The rose garden at Parc de Bagatelle peaks in late spring.
French schools have no classes on Friday 7 May 2027, which makes a long weekend.
July and August
On 1 July the sun rises at 5:52 am and sets at 9:56 pm. By mid-August it is 6:44 am and 9:05 pm. The average high is 25.7°C in July and 25.6°C in August. The Paris record, 42.6°C, was set on 25 July 2019.
July is the sunniest month and has the fewest rainy days, about 7. In the middle of a clear day the sun is high and puts shadows under the eyes and nose. Shade, the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset solve that.
French school holidays begin on Saturday 3 July 2027. A session at sunrise is cooler and far less crowded than one at 9 pm.
September and October
In mid-September the sun rises at 7:27 am and sets at 8:03 pm. In mid-October it is 8:11 am and 7:00 pm. The clocks go back on 31 October 2027, and sunset drops from 6:33 pm to 5:31 pm. Average highs fall from 21.5°C in September to 16.5°C in October. September is one of the drier months, with rain on 7 or 8 days. October has 9 or 10.
Leaves start to turn in late September and October is the best month for colour. By November many have fallen. Good places are the Luxembourg garden, the Tuileries early in the morning, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and the Jardin des Plantes.
An 8:11 am sunrise in mid-October puts the morning golden hour at a reasonable time, without a 5 am alarm.
The autumn school holidays in 2026 run from 17 October to 2 November for the whole country. The women's shows of Paris Fashion Week run from 27 September to 5 October 2027.
November and December
In mid-November the sun rises at 8:00 am and sets at 5:09 pm. On 21 December it is 8:41 am and 4:55 pm, the shortest day at 8 hours 13 minutes. Average highs are 11.1°C in November and 8.0°C in December. December has the most rainy days of the year, about 11, and the least sunshine, 57 hours.
The reason to come is the lights. On the Champs-Élysées the 2026 switch-on is planned for Sunday 22 November, and the illuminations are listed until 3 January 2027. Four hundred trees are wrapped in garlands. They stay lit until midnight, and all night on 24 and 31 December. Last season they came on at 5 pm each day. The Christmas windows at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, designed this year by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, open on 12 November 2026.
Because it is dark soon after 5 pm, you can photograph the lights before dinner instead of at 11 pm.
The Christmas school holidays run from 19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027.
Ilia Pisarenko photographs portraits, couples and proposals in Paris.