Paris in February: Weather, Events and the Best Tours

Is February a good time to visit Paris?

February is the best-value winter month, better than January on every measure except crowd levels. Rainfall drops to 54mm, the lowest of the winter half, daylight climbs to 10 hours 15 minutes, and average highs rise to 9.5C. Prices stay close to the January floor.

February quietly beats January at almost everything. It is two degrees warmer, ten millimetres drier, and it gives you an hour and a half more daylight per day, with sunset moving out to about 18:10 by mid-month. It costs roughly the same. The only thing January does better is emptiness, and February only loses that for the fortnight of the school holidays.

Those school holidays, running 6 to 21 February for the Paris zone, are the month's defining feature. They fill Disneyland Paris, the science museum at La Villette and the zoo, and they put French families into the Louvre at the weekend. They do almost nothing to hotel prices, because families are largely coming in from elsewhere in France for the day rather than staying centrally. If you are not travelling with children, the weeks either side of that fortnight are better.

The wider point about February is that it is the first month where the outdoor city starts working again. At 9.5C and eleven wet days you can plan a walk without expecting it to be ruined, and the ten-plus hours of daylight mean a full outdoor morning and an outdoor afternoon are both possible for the first time since October. It is not spring, but it is not the dead of winter either.

Paris weather in February

February averages 9.5C highs and 2.3C lows with just 54mm of rain across eleven wet days, making it the driest month of the Paris winter. Daylight passes ten hours for the first time since October, reaching 10 hours 15 minutes mid-month with sunset around 18:10.

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-four millimetres is the lowest monthly rainfall between November and March, and it is a genuinely useful thing to know when choosing a winter date. December delivers 76mm, January 64mm and March 72mm; February delivers 54mm across eleven days rather than thirteen or fourteen. A February walking itinerary has materially better odds than a December or March one.

The daylight change is the more dramatic shift. February gains around an hour and a half of daylight from start to finish, moving from about 9 hours 40 minutes on the 1st to around 11 hours 15 minutes by the 28th. Sunset goes from roughly 17:50 to about 18:35. That means the late-February evenings genuinely have usable light in them, which none of December or January did.

The cold has not gone. February lows average 2.3C and the coldest snaps of the Paris winter often arrive in the first half of the month rather than in January. What has changed is the sun: on the clear days that a drier month provides, low February sun on limestone gives Paris the light that photographers come for, and it is not available under December's permanent cloud.

Crowds, prices and what to book ahead

February splits around the school holidays, 6 to 21 February for the Paris zone. Family attractions fill for that fortnight while the museums stay manageable. Hotel rates hold near the January floor for the whole month, which makes late February the best value in the guide after early November.

Book Disneyland Paris ahead if you are going during the school holidays, and consider not going during them if you are not. That fortnight from 6 to 21 February is the busiest the park gets in the first half of the year, and the same applies to the Cite des Sciences and the Jardin des Plantes. The Louvre, the Orsay and Versailles feel the effect only at weekends.

For everything else, February needs about as little advance planning as January. Louvre timed slots are available within a day or two, and the Versailles forecourt queue is short enough that the guided skip-the-line option is a comfort rather than a necessity. February 2027 begins on a Monday, which gives the month four Mondays and four Tuesdays, so there are only eight days in twenty-eight affected by weekly closures.

Two dates need a mention. Valentine's Day falls on Sunday 14 February 2027, which puts pressure on restaurant tables and on dinner cruises specifically, so book that weekend early if it matters. And the Salon de l'Agriculture opens on Saturday 27 February at Porte de Versailles, which is a genuinely enormous French institution that fills hotels in the 15th arrondissement for its run.

The best tours in Paris in February

Ranked for February: family-friendly and indoor experiences lead, because the school holidays run 6 to 21 February and eleven wet days still favour a roof. Prices, ratings and review counts were checked against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026.

1. Disneyland® Paris 1-Day Ticket

4.6 out of 5 from 56,303 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £44 • Varies

Ranked first for one reason: the Paris school holidays run 6 to 21 February and this is the month's dominant family activity. Book ahead if you are going inside that fortnight and expect it to be full. If you are not travelling with children, go in the last week of the month instead, when it empties out.

Best for in February: The February school holidays

Check availabilityRead our full review

2. Mona Lisa & Louvre Masterpieces Tour

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

The Louvre feels the school holidays at weekends but not midweek, so a guided reserved-access slot on a Wednesday or Thursday in February is close to the January experience. Closed Tuesdays: the 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd.

Best for in February: A guided route through a busy half-term weekend

Check availabilityRead our full review

3. 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

At 4.8 the highest-rated tour on this site, and unlike the Louvre the Orsay barely notices the school holidays. Its Thursday late opening to 21:45 is less essential now than in December, because February evenings have light in them until about 18:10 mid-month.

Best for in February: The best-rated tour we sell, still quiet

Check availabilityRead our full review

4. Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne

4.7 out of 5 from 17,909 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £100 • 2 hours

Ranked up for a dated reason: Valentine's Day falls on Sunday 14 February 2027 and cabaret seats for that weekend go early. It is also simply a good February evening, since eleven wet days and 2.3C nights still make a fixed indoor show the safe call.

Best for in February: Valentine's weekend

Check availabilityRead our full review

5. 3-Course Dinner Cruise on the Seine with Live Music

4.7 out of 5 from 8,452 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £98 • 2.5 hours

Sunset around 18:10 mid-month means an evening dinner cruise still sails against fully lit monuments, and the heated saloon still matters at 2.3C. Book the Valentine's weekend well ahead; this is the single most competitive dinner booking of a Paris February.

Best for in February: A heated dinner with a lit river

Check availabilityRead our full review

6. Macaron Class at Galeries Lafayette

4.3 out of 5 from 1,352 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £50 • 1.5 hours

Ninety minutes of hands-on pastry that works for families and couples equally, under the Galeries Lafayette dome. It suits the school holidays specifically because it is a fixed-length indoor activity with something to take away at the end, which is exactly what a wet half-term afternoon needs.

Best for in February: A half-term afternoon indoors

Check availabilityRead our full review

7. Fragonard Paris: Mini Perfume Workshop

4.5 out of 5 from 2,342 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £27 • 45 minutes

Short, cheap at £27 and entirely indoors, which makes it a good filler between two other plans on one of February's eleven wet days. You blend and take away a 12ml eau de toilette, and it sits near the Opera so it slots into a central afternoon easily.

Best for in February: Forty-five minutes and a bottle to take home

Check availabilityRead our full review

8. Catacombs Entry & Seine Cruise with Audio Guide

4.5 out of 5 from 1,483 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £98 • 3 hours

Twenty metres underground the temperature holds around 14C, which in February is warmer than the street. The paired Seine cruise means you get the river as well and can take whichever half of the day looks better, which matters more in a month with eleven wet days.

Best for in February: A stable 14C whatever February does

Check availabilityRead our full review

9. Evening Lights Cruise with Bateaux-Mouches

4.3 out of 5 from 2,199 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £15 • 70 minutes - 1.5 hours

Still cheap and still dark early enough to work: sunset around 18:10 mid-month means a 19:00 sailing is fully illuminated. By April this same booking has to move to 21:00 to get the same effect. Board at Pont de l'Alma, Port de la Conference in the 8th.

Best for in February: A lit river before dinner, for £15

Check availabilityRead our full review

10. Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Summit Access

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

February often gives the clearest long views of the winter on its dry days, so the summit upgrade is worth more here than in December. The caution from January still applies: annual summit maintenance normally happens somewhere in the winter and the 2027 dates had not been published, so check the official calendar first.

Best for in February: Clear winter air, if the summit is running

Check availabilityRead our full review

Not on the February list: Giverny, which stays shut until the spring; the Versailles Full Access passport, because the fountains do not run until April; the open-top sightseeing bus at 2.3C; and the fourteen-hour Mont-Saint-Michel coach day, which still loses too much of itself to the dark at 10 hours 15 minutes of daylight. Inventory gap worth naming: the Salon de l'Agriculture opening on 27 February is one of the biggest events in the French calendar and we do not sell a ticket for it. It is at Porte de Versailles, it sells its own entry, and it is a genuinely strange and wonderful thing to walk around.

Events and festivals in February 2027

Two dates shape February. The Paris zone school holidays run from Saturday 6 to Sunday 21 February, filling the family attractions for a fortnight, and the Salon de l'Agriculture opens on Saturday 27 February at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre.

French school holidays are staggered by region, and the dates that matter for Paris are the Paris zone ones, 6 to 21 February. That fortnight is when Disneyland Paris, the Cite des Sciences and the city's family attractions run at capacity. It has almost no effect on hotel prices, because much of the demand is day-trip rather than overnight, so it changes where the crowds are rather than what a trip costs.

The Salon de l'Agriculture is one of those events that no English-language Paris guide mentions and every French person knows. It is an agricultural show at Porte de Versailles that draws around six hundred thousand visitors, fills the exhibition halls with prize cattle and regional food producers, and is a genuine cultural fixture. Its practical effect on a visitor is that hotels in the 15th arrondissement fill up for its run.

The quieter development is astronomical. Daylight in Paris crosses ten hours in the first days of February and reaches about 11 hours 15 minutes by the end of the month. Sunset moves from roughly 17:50 to about 18:35. That is the point in the year at which an outdoor afternoon becomes a real option again, and it is why February feels like a different season from January despite being only two degrees warmer.

What is closed in February

February has no public holidays and no fixed annual closures at any of the major venues, which makes it the cleanest month after September. Giverny and the Versailles fountains remain shut for the winter and do not return until the spring.

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.

February is the quietest month of the ten for closures. There is no French public holiday in February at all, and none of the major venues carries a fixed annual closure date this month. February 2027 also opens on a Monday, giving four Mondays and four Tuesdays in a twenty-eight day month, so only eight days are touched by weekly closing days.

The two seasonal absences are the familiar ones. Monet's garden at Giverny has been shut since 1 November and this is the fourth of the five consecutive months in this guide where the day trip does not run. The Versailles Musical Fountains are in the same position, which means the Full Access passport is the wrong Versailles ticket in February and the guided palace tour is the right one.

The one thing to verify for yourself is the Eiffel Tower summit. The tower normally schedules its annual summit maintenance somewhere in the quiet winter, and the official calendar had not published the relevant 2027 dates when this page was written. That is a question of a minute on toureiffel.paris rather than an obstacle, but it is worth doing before you buy a summit upgrade you may not be able to use.

What to wear and pack for Paris in February

Pack for 9.5C days, 2.3C nights and the driest month of the Paris winter at 54mm. February rewards a warm coat over a heavy waterproof, because eleven wet days out of twenty-eight is the best rain ratio between October and April.

February is the month you can risk slightly lighter rain protection. With 54mm across eleven days you have roughly seventeen dry days in twenty-eight, which is better odds than October, November, December, January or March. A warm coat with a hood covers it; the full waterproof shell that November demands is more than February needs.

What you do need is cold-weather kit for the clear days, which is counterintuitive. The driest February days are the coldest ones, because clear skies overnight let the heat go, and a bright 9.5C afternoon in Paris can follow a hard frost. Gloves and a hat live in the bag even though the daytime figure suggests otherwise.

• •A warm coat with a hood rather than a heavy waterproof shell
• •Gloves and a hat for the clear, cold mornings after a frost
• •Comfortable shoes; February is the first month walking itineraries work again
• •Restaurant and dinner-cruise bookings for the Valentine's weekend
• •Sunglasses for low, direct February light on limestone

How we chose these tours

We rank on seasonal fit first and verified GetYourGuide rating second, so the experiences that actually work in February'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 February 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 February 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 February