Paris in August: Weather, Events and the Best Tours
Written and checked by the Best Paris Tours editorial team. .
August is the warmest month in Paris at 25.4C average highs, and much milder than its Mediterranean reputation suggests. It also carries the longest usable evenings of this ten-month guide, with sunset around 21:05 mid-month. The catch is the Louvre, where advance booking is compulsory until 31 August.
Quick pick: the best Paris tours in August
| # | Tour | Best for | Duration | From | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-Hour Seine Cruise from the Eiffel Tower | Using the long evenings cheaply | 1 hour | £15 | 4.4 (88,160) |
| 2 | Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket | Getting the fountains as well as the palace | Varies | £21 | 4.6 (45,986) |
| 3 | Giverny Day Trip with Audio or Live Guide | A garden that is only open half the year | 5 hours | £54 | 4.2 (2,829) |
| 4 | Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris | A fourteen-hour day that still ends in daylight | 14 hours | £111 | 4.5 (5,738) |
| 5 | Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional Cruise | The open top deck actually working | 1 - 2 days | £33 | 4.4 (15,496) |
| 6 | Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Summit Access | The summit on a clear evening | 1.5 - 2 hours | £21 | 4.5 (22,116) |
| 7 | Mona Lisa & Louvre Masterpieces Tour | The compulsory-booking month | 1 - 3.5 hours | £50 | 4.7 (7,461) |
| 8 | Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne | An air-conditioned evening | 2 hours | £100 | 4.7 (17,909) |
| 9 | Musée d’Orsay Skip-the-Line Tour with Guide | Wet-day insurance | 1.5 - 2.5 hours | £60 | 4.8 (1,177) |
| 10 | Versailles Skip-the-Line Palace and Gardens Tour | The state rooms without the queue | 2 hours | £49 | 4.7 (11,551) |
Prices, ratings and review counts verified against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026 and shown in pounds. Official French admission prices quoted elsewhere on this page are in euros, as published by the sites themselves. Duration varies by the option you choose at checkout.
Is August a good time to visit Paris?
Yes, and more comfortably than most people expect. Paris in August averages 25.4C, seven degrees cooler than a Roman or Barcelona August, so the outdoor half of the city stays workable all day. The real August constraints are queue management and a partly shuttered residential city, not heat.
The single biggest misconception about a Paris August is temperature. The ten-year mean high is 25.4C with lows of 15.2C, which is shirt-sleeves warm rather than punishing, and it is the reason Paris keeps working through the month while cities further south empty out at midday. Only a handful of afternoons in a typical August push past 32C, and the Seine quays hold a breeze that the inland squares do not.
The compensation on top of that is light. Sunset is around 21:30 on 1 August and still about 20:35 by the 31st, and mid-month you get 14 hours 26 minutes of daylight. That is roughly six hours more usable evening than a December visit, which is what makes August the month for the things that need daylight: the fourteen-hour Mont-Saint-Michel coach day, the open top deck of a sightseeing bus, a full afternoon at Giverny with an evening still ahead of you.
What does bite is the second half of the "Paris shuts in August" story. The version that is overstated is the tourist city: the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, the cruise operators and the cabarets all run a full programme. The version that is true is the neighbourhood city. Away from the central arrondissements a real share of bakeries, butchers and family bistros close for two or three weeks around the middle of the month, and they put a handwritten sign in the window rather than updating anything online. Book dinner instead of wandering into the 11th and hoping.
Paris weather in August
Expect 25.4C average highs and 15.2C lows, about 66mm of rain spread across ten wet days, and 14 hours 26 minutes of daylight in mid-August. Sunset sits near 21:05 on the 15th. August rain in Paris arrives as short heavy showers rather than the all-day drizzle of the autumn.
| Measure | August | How that compares |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 25.4C | Warmest is August at 25.4C, coldest January at 7.3C |
| Average low | 15.2C | From 1.7C in January to 15.2C in August |
| Rainfall | 66mm across the month | Driest is April at 51mm, wettest May and December at 76mm |
| Wet days | 10 days | Fewest is September at 9, most is March at 14 |
| Daylight, mid-month | 14h 26m | From 8h 21m in December to 15h 20m in May |
| Sunset on the 15th | About 21:05 | Local Paris time, summer time included where it applies |
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.
Ten wet days out of thirty-one sounds worse than it plays. August rainfall in Paris is convective: a sharp shower builds in the late afternoon, drops most of the month's 66mm in a handful of episodes and clears within the hour. That pattern is very different from November and March, when the same rainfall total arrives as low grey cloud that sits over the city all day. A packable shell beats an umbrella, because the wind that comes with an August storm turns umbrellas inside out along the river.
The heat that does exist is concentrated where the stone is. The Marais lanes, the Rue de Rivoli arcades and the Metro platforms run several degrees above the airport reading, and Metro carriages on the older lines have no air conditioning at all. Lines 1 and 14 are the two you actually want in August. Above ground, the Tuileries and the Champ de Mars have almost no shade, so build the middle of the day around the Louvre, the Orsay or a boat rather than a park.
The light is the thing to plan around. Because it is still fully light at 21:00, an evening river cruise in August is a daylight cruise, not an illuminated one. If you want Paris lit up from the water you need to book a departure after about 21:30 in the first half of the month, and even then the Eiffel Tower sparkle looks thin against a bright sky. That inverts completely by November, and it is the biggest single scheduling difference between an August trip and a winter one.
Crowds, prices and what to book ahead
August is the peak international month and the quietest local one. The rule that matters is the Louvre: advance booking is compulsory from 1 July to 31 August, so a walk-up visit is not an option. Everything else can be done on the day if you are flexible about the hour.
Book the Louvre before you fly. From 1 July to 31 August the museum requires an advance reservation, which means the usual fallback of turning up early and queueing does not exist this month. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays in any case, which in August 2026 means the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th, and it runs late to 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. A Wednesday or Friday evening slot is by some distance the most comfortable way to see it in August.
The Eiffel Tower behaves differently from the museums. Its bottleneck is the lift queue rather than a sell-out, so a reserved-access ticket buys you a time rather than the last available space. Summit access is the part that goes first, and on a clear August evening it is worth having: visibility from the top is at its annual best in settled summer air, and the 21:05 sunset means a 20:00 slot puts you up there for the light changing.
Prices are a mixed picture and not the one people expect. Central hotel rates in August are softer than in September and October because the business, conference and fashion trade stops entirely, so the second half of August is genuinely good value in the 1st, 7th and 8th arrondissements. Flights are the opposite, since this is peak European holiday season. If you are choosing between late August and early October on cost, late August usually wins on the hotel and loses on the plane.
The best tours in Paris in August
Ranked for August specifically: anything that needs a long day or a working garden goes to the top, because 14 hours 26 minutes of daylight and an open Giverny only exist for part of the year. Prices, ratings and review counts were checked against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026.
1. 1-Hour Seine Cruise from the Eiffel Tower
4.4 out of 5 from 88,160 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £15 • 1 hour
Top for August because the Seine is where the breeze is and £15 buys an hour of it. Book a late departure: with sunset near 21:05 you want to be on the water at 20:00 or later, because a 17:00 sailing in August is simply a boat ride in full sun.
Best for in August: Using the long evenings cheaply
2. Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket
4.6 out of 5 from 45,986 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £21 • Varies
This is the ticket whose value is genuinely seasonal. It carries the Musical Fountains and Musical Gardens upgrade, and those run only in the warm half of the year, so an August visit gets the full estate working. The gardens and park stay open every day, including the Mondays when the palace itself is shut.
Best for in August: Getting the fountains as well as the palace
3. Giverny Day Trip with Audio or Live Guide
4.2 out of 5 from 2,829 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £54 • 5 hours
Ranked far above its 4.2 rating on purpose. Monet's garden at Giverny opens for a defined season and shuts for the winter, so August is one of the months where this trip exists at all. Late summer is the nasturtium and dahlia phase, when the flowers have grown across the Grande Allee and closed the path.
Best for in August: A garden that is only open half the year
4. Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris
4.5 out of 5 from 5,738 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £111 • 14 hours
A fourteen-hour coach day only makes sense when the day is long enough to hold it. In August you leave and return in daylight and still see the abbey in decent light; the same trip in December is largely spent looking at a dark motorway. This is the strongest month of the ten for it.
Best for in August: A fourteen-hour day that still ends in daylight
5. 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
The whole point of this ticket is the open upper deck, and August at 25.4C is warm enough to enjoy it without being hot enough to cook on it. Ten wet days across the month is the risk, but August showers pass quickly, so a 24-hour ticket gives you time to wait one out.
Best for in August: The open top deck actually working
6. Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Summit Access
4.5 out of 5 from 22,116 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £21 • 1.5 - 2 hours
August is when the summit upgrade earns its money. Settled summer air gives the clearest long views of the year, and with sunset around 21:05 a late slot puts you at the top for the change of light rather than in flat midday haze.
Best for in August: The summit on a clear evening
7. Mona Lisa & Louvre Masterpieces Tour
4.7 out of 5 from 7,461 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £50 • 1 - 3.5 hours
Advance booking at the Louvre is not optional between 1 July and 31 August, so a reserved-access guided tour solves the month's hardest logistical problem in one purchase. Avoid Tuesdays, when the museum is closed, and take a Wednesday or Friday if you want the 21:00 late closing.
Best for in August: The compulsory-booking month
8. Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne
4.7 out of 5 from 17,909 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £100 • 2 hours
A fixed seated two-hour show is a sensible way to spend an evening that is still 20C at 22:00, and Montmartre is one of the few districts where the neighbourhood restaurants stay open right through the August closures because they trade on visitors.
Best for in August: An air-conditioned evening
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 on this site at 4.8, and the obvious bolt-hole when one of August's ten wet days lands on you. Note the Orsay is closed on Mondays, which in August 2026 is five separate dates, so it cannot be your rainy-Monday plan.
Best for in August: Wet-day insurance
10. 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 August is the busiest it gets, and the Hall of Mirrors is a genuine crush by 11:00. A guided skip-the-line slot is worth more this month than in any other, and pairs with an afternoon in the gardens while the fountains are still running.
Best for in August: The state rooms without the queue
Dropped from the August ten on purpose: the two Seine dinner cruises and the Bateaux-Mouches evening lights cruise. All three sell an illuminated Paris, and Paris is not illuminated at dinner time in August. They return to the top of the list from November, when sunset falls back to 17:10. Also worth saying plainly: we do not stock a Paris Plages activity, a Montmartre walking tour or a Sainte-Chapelle ticket, and all three are things we would otherwise put on an August list. Paris Plages is free anyway, and Sainte-Chapelle sells its own timed entry.
Events and festivals in August 2026
August has one public holiday, the Assumption on Saturday 15 August, and one summer institution, Paris Plages on the riverbanks until 30 August. It is the quietest month of the year for trade fairs, which is exactly why hotel rates are softer than in September.
| Event | Dates | Where | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris Plages | Until Sunday 30 August | Parc Rives de Seine and Bassin de la Villette | Free |
| Assumption Day, a national public holiday | Saturday 15 August | Nationwide; church services across Paris | Public holiday |
| Compulsory Louvre advance booking window | Until Monday 31 August | Musee du Louvre | Ticketed, reservation required |
| Last full month of the Versailles fountain season | All August | Gardens of the Chateau de Versailles | Ticketed upgrade |
Paris Plages turns the Right Bank expressway and the Bassin de la Villette into a temporary riverside strip of sand, deckchairs, pools and free activities, and it runs until 30 August. It is free, it needs no booking, and it is the single best thing to do with a hot afternoon in Paris that costs nothing. We do not sell a ticket for it because there is nothing to sell.
The Assumption on 15 August is a national public holiday and in 2026 it falls on a Saturday, which makes it an ordinary weekend rather than the awkward midweek bridge that empties French cities for four days. Banks, offices and some independent shops close; museums, monuments, cruise operators and the Metro all run normally. Notre-Dame holds its patronal celebrations around the date, and the cathedral is free to enter in any case.
August is the low point of the Paris trade-fair calendar, and that matters more to your bill than any festival does. The city that fills hotel rooms in September and October, the fashion, motor show and food industry visitors, is simply not here in August. If you are price-sensitive and flexible, the last ten days of August are among the better value windows of the autumn half.
What is closed in August
Nothing shuts for the season in August, which makes it one of only two months in this guide with the full estate available. The recurring closures are weekly: the Louvre every Tuesday, and the Musee d'Orsay and the Chateau de Versailles every Monday, five Mondays in August 2026.
| Site | Closed | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Musee du Louvre | Tuesdays 4, 11, 18 and 25 August | Open 09:00 to 18:00 on other days, and to 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Advance booking is compulsory to 31 August. |
| Musee d'Orsay | Mondays 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 August | Late opening on Thursdays until 21:45. Closed every Monday all year, plus 1 May and 25 December. |
| Chateau de Versailles | Mondays 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 August | The palace and the Trianon estate close on Mondays. The gardens and the park stay open every day. |
| Neighbourhood restaurants and bakeries | Roughly two to three weeks around mid-August | Mostly outside the central arrondissements. Nothing is published centrally, so book rather than wander. |
| Nothing seasonal | No seasonal closures in August | Giverny and the Versailles fountains are both running. From 1 November neither is. |
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 2026 are set by each site and can move, so confirm before you book a non-refundable trip around one.
August is the easy month for closures, and it is worth understanding what that means by contrast. Five of the ten months in this guide have Monet's garden at Giverny shut for the winter, and five have the Versailles Musical Fountains switched off. August has neither problem, so an August itinerary can include things that a January one physically cannot.
That leaves only the weekly pattern to work around, and it is a simple one. The Louvre closes on Tuesdays. The Musee d'Orsay and the Chateau de Versailles close on Mondays. Because August 2026 begins on a Saturday it contains five Mondays, so plan Orsay and Versailles for any other day. The one useful exception is that Versailles keeps its gardens and its park open seven days a week, so a Monday can still be a Versailles day if you are happy to stay outside the palace.
One thing we deliberately do not promise: our Notre-Dame guided tour is not a skip-the-line product. The cathedral is free to enter and you queue in the general line with your guide. In August that queue is at its longest of the year, and the listing itself puts it at ten to twenty minutes rather than the hours some sites imply. Reservation is not needed and is not offered.
What to wear and pack for Paris in August
Pack for 25.4C afternoons, ten possible thunderstorms and evenings that stay light until 21:00. The two items people regret leaving behind are a packable waterproof, because August showers arrive with wind, and shoes that survive eight hours of pavement.
Paris in August is a walking city with almost no shade in the places you most want to stand. The Champ de Mars, the Tuileries axis and the Versailles parterres are all fully exposed, and a brimmed hat does more for you than a fan. Public drinking fountains, including the sparkling-water Wallace fountains, are scattered across the centre and are free, so a refillable bottle removes most of the need to buy water at monument prices.
The dress question is about restaurants rather than churches. Paris has no equivalent of the Vatican dress code, and shorts are fine in any monument, but a fair number of the better bistros and every cabaret expect something smarter in the evening. Moulin Rouge and Crazy Horse both operate a dress standard, and a linen shirt and a pair of trousers cover it without adding weight to the bag.
- A packable waterproof shell rather than an umbrella, for the wind that comes with August storms
- Refillable bottle for the free street fountains across the centre
- Broken-in walking shoes; the centre is cobbles and long stone galleries
- Something smarter for cabaret evenings and better restaurants
- A light layer for air-conditioned galleries and for the river after 21:00
How we chose these tours
We rank on seasonal fit first and verified GetYourGuide rating second, so the experiences that actually work in August'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.
- Seasonal fit first. Each of the 26 tours we stock is scored against August 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.
- 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.
- 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 2026 date has not been published yet we say so instead of guessing.
- We say what we do not sell. Where the obvious thing to do in August 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.
- 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 August
How hot does Paris actually get in August?
Less than most people assume. The ten-year mean high for Paris in August is 25.4C with an average low of 15.2C, which is around seven degrees cooler than Rome or Barcelona in the same month. Only a handful of afternoons in a typical August exceed 32C. The heat that is noticeable is concentrated in the Metro and the narrow stone streets rather than out on the river.
Does Paris shut down in August?
The tourist city does not; the neighbourhood city partly does. Museums, monuments, Versailles, the cruise operators, the cabarets and the Metro all run a full August programme. Away from the central arrondissements, a real share of independent bakeries, butchers and family bistros close for two or three weeks around mid-month, and they rarely announce it online. Book dinner rather than turning up.
Do I have to book the Louvre in advance in August?
Yes. The Louvre requires an advance reservation from 1 July to 31 August, so turning up and queueing is not an option in August. The museum is closed every Tuesday, which in August 2026 means the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th, and it opens late until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays, which is the most comfortable slot of the week.
Is Monet's garden at Giverny open in August?
Yes. Giverny opens for a defined spring-to-autumn season and closes for the winter, so August is comfortably inside it. Late summer is the nasturtium and dahlia phase, when the flowers have spread across the Grande Allee. The garden is shut for five of the ten months covered by this guide, from November through to the spring, so August is one of the months where the trip exists at all.
Is an evening Seine cruise worth it in August?
Only if you book late. Sunset in mid-August is around 21:05, so a cruise that departs at 19:00 or 20:00 is a daylight cruise rather than an illuminated one. To see the monuments lit you need a departure after roughly 21:30. From November onwards, when sunset falls back to about 17:10, any early evening sailing does the same job for less money.
Is August cheaper than September in Paris?
For hotels, usually yes. August is the low point of the Paris trade-fair calendar, so the business, conference and fashion demand that fills central rooms in September and October simply is not there. Flights run the other way, because August is peak European holiday season. If you are weighing late August against early October, late August tends to win on the room and lose on the flight.