Paris in April: Weather, Events and the Best Tours

Is April a good time to visit Paris?

April is the best-value month of the spring and the driest of the ten, at 51mm. It is also the month the seasonal attractions return after five months away. The one thing April 2027 does not have is Easter, which fell on 28 March, so the usual Easter premium is not there either.

The rainfall number is the headline and it surprises people. Paris in April averages 51mm across ten wet days, less than any other month in this guide and well under May's 76mm or March's 72mm. The old idea that April is a showery month is a better fit for London than for Paris. Combined with 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight and 15.7C highs, April is a genuinely strong walking month.

What changes April from a good month to a distinctive one is the reopening. Giverny and the Versailles fountains have both been unavailable since 1 November, which is five of the ten pages in this guide. In April they come back, and an April itinerary can suddenly include Monet's garden in tulip and wisteria season and Versailles with the water running. Neither is possible in a January or a February trip at any price.

The unusual feature of April 2027 specifically is the absence of Easter. Because Easter Sunday fell on 28 March, the school-holiday and short-break demand that normally makes early April expensive has already come and gone in March. April 2027 therefore gets spring weather and the reopened attractions without the Easter premium, which makes it the best combination of price and conditions in the whole ten-month set.

Paris weather in April

April is the driest month in this guide at 51mm across ten wet days, with 15.7C average highs and 5.5C lows. Daylight reaches 13 hours 45 minutes mid-month and sunset moves past 20:40. The daily temperature swing is wide, so mornings are much colder than afternoons.

Temperature, rainfall and wet days: Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis for Paris, ten-year observed means. Daylight and sunset: day length computed for Paris (48.86N, 2.35E) on the 15th of each month.

Fifty-one millimetres over ten wet days makes April the best weather bet of the ten months on both measures that matter to a walking trip. The next driest is February at 54mm and eleven days, and after that September at 60mm and nine days. If you want the highest chance of getting through a Paris itinerary without a soaking, April is where the numbers point.

The catch is the swing. Average highs of 15.7C with lows of 5.5C is a ten-degree daily range, wider than any other month in this guide. An April morning in Paris can be genuinely cold and an April afternoon genuinely warm, sometimes on the same day at the same place. That makes April the classic layering month, and it means the packing advice differs from May's despite the months being adjacent.

The evenings are the real prize. Sunset passes 20:40 by mid-month and reaches close to 21:00 by the 30th, which after a winter of 17:00 sunsets is transformative. It is the first month of the year where you can do a full day of sightseeing and still have three hours of light left for dinner outdoors, and it is what makes the reopened Versailles gardens worth a whole afternoon rather than an hour.

Crowds, prices and what to book ahead

Unusually quiet for a spring month, because Easter 2027 fell on 28 March and took its demand with it. Book Giverny and Versailles ahead, since both have just reopened after five months and their first weeks draw the people who have been waiting.

April 2027 gets a rare gift: spring conditions without the Easter surge. In a normal year, Easter and the school holidays around it make the first fortnight of April one of the most expensive stretches of the spring. With Easter on 28 March 2027, that demand lands in March instead, and April is left with good weather, long evenings and comparatively normal pricing.

The two things to book early are the ones that have just reopened. Giverny sees a concentrated rush in its opening weeks from people who have had it on a list all winter, and the Versailles fountain days draw a distinct crowd of their own. Both are day-trip destinations rather than city sights, so weekends are much busier than weekdays and a Tuesday or Wednesday visit is a different experience from a Saturday.

The Paris Marathon usually runs in April, traditionally on a Sunday early in the month, and it closes a substantial arc of central roads from the Champs-Elysees through to the Bois de Vincennes for most of that morning. We are not publishing a 2027 date because it had not been confirmed when this page was written. If your dates are in the first half of April, look it up: it is not a problem, but it will change how you cross the city on that one morning.

The best tours in Paris in April

Ranked for April: the things that have been unavailable since 1 November come back to the top, and the outdoor experiences rise because 51mm is the lowest rainfall of the ten months. Prices, ratings and review counts were checked against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026.

1. Giverny Day Trip with Audio or Live Guide

4.2 out of 5 from 2,829 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £54 • 5 hours

Ranked first despite carrying the lowest rating of anything we sell in Paris, at 4.2, because in April it is the only thing on this list that was not available at all a month ago. Spring at Giverny is the tulip and wisteria phase, which is the version of the garden that appears in every photograph of it. Confirm the foundation's opening date before booking travel.

Best for in April: The month Monet's garden comes back

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2. Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional Cruise

4.4 out of 5 from 15,496 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £33 • 1 - 2 days

Ranked up hard on the numbers. April's 51mm across ten wet days is the lowest rainfall of the ten months, which makes it the single best month to buy a ticket whose entire value rests on an open upper deck. Take the 48-hour option and use the second day if the first is one of the ten.

Best for in April: The best odds of the year for an open top deck

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3. Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket

4.6 out of 5 from 45,986 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £21 • Varies

This passport becomes worth buying again in April. Its Musical Fountains and Musical Gardens upgrade restarts for the spring after five months off, and with sunset past 20:40 you can spend a whole afternoon and evening on the estate. The gardens and park are open every day even when the palace is closed on Mondays.

Best for in April: The fountains running again

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4. 1-Hour Seine Cruise from the Eiffel Tower

4.4 out of 5 from 88,160 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £15 • 1 hour

April is where the Seine cruise flips back to being a daylight experience. At £15 for an hour it is the cheapest way to see the whole monumental centre, and with the driest weather of the ten months the open sections of the boat are actually usable.

Best for in April: Thirteen and three-quarter hours of daylight

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5. Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris

4.5 out of 5 from 5,738 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £111 • 14 hours

Back on the list after four months off. A fourteen-hour coach day needs a long day to sit inside, and 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight is the first point since October where it works. Spring light on the bay is also better than the flat haze of high summer.

Best for in April: A fourteen-hour day that finally fits

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6. Versailles Skip-the-Line Palace and Gardens Tour

4.7 out of 5 from 11,551 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £49 • 2 hours

Versailles in April is busier than in February and much quieter than in May, and the forecourt queue at 15.7C is a far better prospect than at 25.4C in August. A guided skip-the-line slot removes it entirely. Closed Mondays: the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th.

Best for in April: The state rooms before the May crowds

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7. Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Summit Access

4.5 out of 5 from 22,116 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £21 • 1.5 - 2 hours

April is well clear of the winter maintenance window that makes a January or February summit ticket a gamble, and the spring air on a dry April day gives long views without the summer haze. With sunset past 20:40 an early evening slot catches the light changing.

Best for in April: The summit, with the winter maintenance question behind you

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8. Mona Lisa & Louvre Masterpieces Tour

4.7 out of 5 from 7,461 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £50 • 1 - 3.5 hours

Still worth having in the plan even in the driest month, because ten wet days is not zero. A guided reserved-access route is the efficient way to do the Louvre when it is competing with good weather outside. Closed Tuesdays: the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th.

Best for in April: Ten wet days of insurance

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9. Musée d’Orsay Skip-the-Line Tour with Guide

4.8 out of 5 from 1,177 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £60 • 1.5 - 2.5 hours

The highest-rated tour we sell, at 4.8, and April is the month to book it in the same trip as Giverny. Seeing the garden Monet built and the room where his contemporaries hang within a few days of each other is the best thing our Paris list can offer, and it is only possible from April to October.

Best for in April: Pairing the paintings with the garden

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10. Skip-the-Line Versailles Tour with Transport

4.6 out of 5 from 1,204 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £43 • 3 - 3.5 hours

A three to three and a half hour version with round-trip transport included, which suits April specifically: the days are now long enough that a half-day at Versailles still leaves a full Paris evening. Good value at £43 with the transport built in.

Best for in April: Versailles without organising the trains

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Two products return to the list this month after being absent since November: the Giverny day trip and the Versailles Full Access passport, both because their seasons restart. The fourteen-hour Mont-Saint-Michel day and the open-top bus also come back, on daylight and rainfall respectively. Nothing has dropped out. Honest gaps for April: we do not sell anything connected to the Paris Marathon, and we do not stock a cherry blossom or spring garden walk, which is the thing an April visitor most reasonably asks for. The blossom in the Jardin des Plantes and around Notre-Dame is free and needs no ticket.

Events and festivals in April 2027

April 2027 has no Easter, because it fell on 28 March, and that is the most useful thing to know about the month. What it does have is the return of the Giverny season and the Versailles fountains, plus the Paris Marathon somewhere in the first half.

The absence of Easter is worth stating twice because it is so easily missed. Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March, which means the Easter weekend, the associated school holidays and the short-break demand that normally defines early April all happened in March. If you are booking an April 2027 trip expecting Easter markets, Easter services or a long weekend, you are a month late.

The two seasonal restarts are the events that actually matter to an itinerary. Monet's garden at Giverny opens for the spring after five months shut, and the Versailles Musical Fountains begin their season. Both are set annually by the organisations that run them, and neither had published a confirmed 2027 date when this page was written, so we are describing the pattern rather than printing a date. Check both before booking travel that depends on them.

The Paris Marathon is traditionally held on a Sunday early in April and closes a wide arc of central roads for the morning, from the Champs-Elysees through the Rue de Rivoli and out to the Bois de Vincennes. The 2027 date had not been confirmed when we wrote this. It is free to watch and genuinely good fun, but if you are moving across the city that morning it will take you longer than you expect.

What is closed in April

April is the month the closures reverse. Giverny reopens after five months shut and the Versailles Musical Fountains restart, so an April itinerary can include things a March one could not. Only the ordinary weekly closing days remain.

Weekly closing days and fixed holiday closures read directly from the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Chateau de Versailles official sites on 29 July 2026. Seasonal opening dates for 2027 are set by each site and can move, so confirm before you book a non-refundable trip around one.

April is the only month in this guide where the closures section is mostly good news. Two things that have been unavailable for five consecutive months come back: Monet's garden at Giverny and the Versailles Musical Fountains. Everything else runs on the ordinary weekly rhythm, and April 2027 has a clean four Mondays and four Tuesdays with no public holiday at all.

The caveat on both reopenings is the same and it is worth repeating. Neither the Fondation Claude Monet nor the Chateau de Versailles had published its confirmed 2027 seasonal dates when this page was written. Both operate a well-established pattern of opening in early April, but a pattern is not a date, and we are not going to print one we cannot source. If a trip depends on either, spend a minute on the organisation's own site.

One forward-looking warning belongs here rather than on the May page alone. Saturday 1 May 2027 is Labour Day in France, and it is the single worst date in this entire ten-month guide: the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee de l'Orangerie, Sainte-Chapelle and the Chateau de Versailles are all closed on it. If your April trip runs to the end of the month, check whether your last day is the 30th or the 1st.

What to wear and pack for Paris in April

Pack for a ten-degree daily swing, the widest of the ten months: 15.7C afternoons against 5.5C mornings. April is the driest month at 51mm, so prioritise layers over waterproofing, and bring something for evenings that now run to 21:00.

The wide daily range is the whole April packing problem. Leaving a hotel at nine in the morning it can be 6C, and standing in the Versailles parterres at four it can be 17C. A single garment cannot cover that. Two thin layers plus a light jacket you can carry is the answer, and the jacket needs to fit in a day bag rather than being worn all day.

With the lowest rainfall of the ten months you can genuinely deprioritise rain gear for the first time since September. Ten wet days out of thirty means two days in three are dry. Sunglasses matter more than an umbrella in April, and comfortable walking shoes matter most of all, because this is the month the outdoor city is fully available again.

• •Two thin layers plus a packable jacket, for a ten-degree daily swing
• •Comfortable walking shoes; April has the best weather odds of the ten months
• •Sunglasses; low spring sun is stronger than the temperature suggests
• •A warm layer for evenings that now last until nearly 21:00
• •The Giverny and Versailles fountain opening dates checked before you travel

How we chose these tours

We rank on seasonal fit first and verified GetYourGuide rating second, so the experiences that actually work in April's daylight, rainfall and opening calendar sit highest. Every price, rating and review count on this page was checked against the live listing on 28 July 2026.

1. Seasonal fit first. Each of the 26 tours we stock is scored against April on daylight hours, sunset time, wet days, temperature and whether the thing it visits is actually open. A tour that cannot deliver its own selling point this month drops out, and we say which ones and why.
2. Then rating, then review volume. Where two tours fit the month equally well, the higher verified GetYourGuide rating wins, and review count breaks any remaining tie. Both numbers are public and you can check them against the listing.
3. Nothing is invented. Prices, star ratings and review counts come from the live product page. We do not publish an opening date, closure or festival date we could not confirm from the venue itself, and where a 2027 date has not been published yet we say so instead of guessing.
4. We say what we do not sell. Where the obvious thing to do in April is not something we can book you onto, it goes in the text as advice rather than being quietly left out or replaced with a product that does not fit.
5. We earn a commission. Booking links go to GetYourGuide and pay us if you book. That does not change the ranking, and it is why the reasoning on every entry is written out rather than left implied.

FAQs about Paris in April