Is Paris in April right for you?

There’s a reason they wrote a song about it: 

I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris

Paris in April is the epitome of springtime: cherry trees a-bloom, birds singing in the squares, life returning to the quais along the Seine. It can be chilly, but it is very often magical, and that seems like a worthwhile trade.

Here, everything you need to know about traveling to Paris in April:

Paris in April: Quick Reference

Paris in April: Weather breakdown

Rain! Sun! Showers! Clouds! You never know what you’ll get in April, though some trends are clear: Temperatures are rising. Winds are calming. And the days are getting longer.

The average high temperature in April is 59, up from March’s 55. This chart, from WeatherSpark, shows the upward trend:

Don’t let the warming trend fool you: Mornings and evenings will be chilly. As famous as the lyrics of “April in Paris” are in the anglosphere, this saying is in France: “En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil”: Don’t take off a thread [of clothing] in April. Because you will be cold!

On the plus side: more and more sunshine. Or at least daylight: By the end of the month, we have a whopping 14.5 hours of daylight per day: 

Sunrise moves from 7:28 AM on April 1 to 6:31 AM on April 30, while sunset starts at 8:21 PM on April 1 and 30 days later isn’t until 9:04 PM. That’s tremendous.

So what to pack? The classic April outerwear is a trench coat, though a performance-minded rain jacket might perform just as well, if less stylishly. Rain-protective footwear will be nice, and you’ll definitely want to think about layers: tees, tops, and sweaters. The scarf-sexual French will still be wrapping yards of fabric around their upper bodies, but you can probably get away without additional winter accessories.

Crowds, Prices, and Travel Atmosphere

April in Paris is beautiful — the height of the spring shoulder season. We have events galore (Easter, the Book Fair, the marathon, etc.) and while they certainly help bump up hotel rates, they’re all fun. It’s a trade we have to make sometimes.

Usually at this point in the calendar, after being cooped up all winter, I’m dying to get into the countryside, and the many hikes around Paris can offer incredible sights and low degrees of difficulty. The fields will start turning brilliant colors — particularly the shocking yellow of the rape fields — and forests might come carpeted in bluebells.

It is, in a word, fantastic. (If rainy.)

12 Reasons to Visit Paris in April

1. CHERRY BLOSSOMS
April is the time to see the city’s flowering trees: cherries, magnolias, and more. You’ll find them in small parks all over town, in the Jardin des plantes, beneath the Eiffel Tower, and perhaps most spectacularly in the Parc de Sceaux, just outside the city and accessible via the RER. Keep your camera handy, and follow this walking tour to see one beautiful tree after another. 

2. Giverny!
Monet’s flower garden opens on April 1. There’s really no way to avoid crowds in the springtime, but this is one site that’s worth the hassle: It’s spectacular, as close to a living painting as can be imagined. The garden evolves with the seasons, and each has something to offer until it closes on November 1, but the early days are among the most beautiful. Go if you can!

3. Easter chocolate
Whether or not you celebrate Easter, the holiday brings a spectacularly creative array of Easter-themed chocolates: chocolate chicks, chocolate eggs, and above all, chocolate bunnies. Many will feature in elaborate window displays — pass by the top chocolate shops to see what’s on offer.

4. Paris Marathon
After the Semi de Paris half marathon in March, the full version takes place during the first half of April. Runners head east from the Champs Élysées to the Bois de Vincennes, then toward back toward the Eiffel Tower to finish on avenue Foch after a tour of the Bois de Boulogne. Flat, fast, and hugely well attended — it’s usually one of the five biggest marathons in the world.

5. The Festival du Livre de Paris
The Paris Book Fair is a sweet fair for book lovers — even better if they read French. The three-day festival welcomes over 100,000 visitors to the Grand Palais, to celebrate books, authors, and reading.

6. Flea markets!
Flea market season properly begins, with vide greniers (more like garage sales) popping up across Paris, and large, annual flea markets in the countryside. One of the oldest, biggest, and best is the biannual Grand Rederie d’Amiens, with over 80,000 visitors converging on the university city in northern France. It’s easy to reach by train — about an hour from the Gare du Nord — and well worth the hassle for the prices, selection, and opportunity to explore Amiens. 

7. Rooftop bar season
You’ll need a jacket, but rooftop bars reopen for business — check Le Perchoir, Créatures, ROOF, and more for jaw-dropping views (and startling bills). 

8. Hiking in the countryside
Beautiful walks through the countryside immediately outside Paris offer a chance to literally touch grass (and stones, and fields, and meadows). You can find many of them on All Trails, or just head for the GR1 — the Grande Randonnnée 1, a long-distance walking path that traces a 500-kilometer path around Paris, through forests, past castles, and between villages with easy train access back to Paris. 

9. Les Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art
Also know as “European Artistic Crafts Days,” this weeklong series of events, exhibitions, talks, and more in early April celebrates the work of artisanal practices: ceramics, 3D printing, glassware, carpentry, silkscreen printing, papercutting, and more.

10. New choices at the markets
April means strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, and peas. Look for all of these early-spring favorites to show up in fruit and vegetable shops as well as on menus, in creative ways.

10. Exhibitions everywhere
Though they certainly span the yearlong calendar taken in aggregate, Paris museums generally observe a slate of major spring and fall shows. By April, the spring shows will be well and truly underway, and you’ll see catalogues from these exhibitions at bookstores all over town, not only in museum shops. Pick the ones important to you and ideally spend a whole day at the venue, à la française — taking in the show, eating lunch in the inevitably beautifully designed restaurant, closing out with a coffee and cake, etc.

11. Last chance for decent hotel rates
Before their summer skyward swing. Remember: You can always save money by booking early or looking outside city limits.

12. Rodin!
It’s a good time for indoor-outdoor museums — like the Musée Rodin, with its seven-acre sculpture garden.

Downsides of Visiting in April

The downsides of visiting in April include:

• unpredictability, weather wise: maybe be beautiful, might be terrible
• the sense that better things are to come
• autumn might be the better shoulder season

The real problem, I think, is actually #2: Better things are around the corner. The bulk of spring and summer festivals, reliably good weather, late nights on the Seine — they’re just weeks away. But it’s still March. It’s still windy and rainy and blustery, and you might need a T-shirt or you might need a parka. Who can say? A March trip is by nature unpredictable. 

And in terms of #3: late autumn — a.k.a. shoulder season part II — sees similar dips in airfares and hotel rates, but the weather (at least until mid-November) is usually sunnier, plus you have all the harvest festivals, and the fun of the holidays coming up. In my opinion, March is inferior to high season, inferior to the autumn shoulder season — and even in a way inferior to January and February, if you love cozy vibes. “A jack of all trades, master of none” kind of month.

Verdict: Is April Right for You?

It very well may be. If you want coziness and cheap fares, stick with winter. If you want the absolute peak of the season, that starts in June. But if you’re just looking for a normal vacation, with normal temperatures and loads of things to do, April really might be your best option.

For flower lovers, there’s no better time of year. For similar prices and a similar vibe, you’d want to consider October, another shoulder season standout with occasionally perfect, if often rainy, weather. October is April’s inverse — instead of offering a gorgeous array of flowers, it comes with a slew of harvest festivals, wine parties, and fall-themed events. You’ll know which of these two topics — gardens or vineyards — interests you more. But both otherwise sit on a very even seesaw, with medium-level crowds and prices. Any deeper into the season, and crowds will swell, along with prices.

Paris in April could be ideal, as long as you don’t mind bringing a raincoat.