Comments on: The case for avoiding Paris in the summer

By: Talon Windwalker

Talon Windwalker — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:29:51 +0000

In reply to Katie. I'm a big fan of fall and of Paris, so combine the two and ahhhhhhhhh.

By: Talon Windwalker

Talon Windwalker — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:29:09 +0000

In reply to Patti. It was definitely nice being able to walk around inside the palace with only maybe another 20 people around.

By: Patti

Patti — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 01:50:46 +0000

We spent 3 weeks in Paris – in January – and it was all kinds of fabulous! And I gotta tell ya, it doesn’t get much more romantic than roaming the streets of Paris while it snows big beautiful fluffy white flakes. True, the gardens were closed but not having to stand in line for hours to go any where was a great trade off. We went to Versailles and although it was a very cold day, the sun was out and the sky was blue and we walked right in, no lines and we took our time roaming through every room in the palace. It was incredible. We also spent 2 days in Paris this past April and it was very pretty to see “Paris in the Springtime” but I loved our 3 weeks in January!

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 17:27:32 +0000

Paris is one of my favourite cities too and I have only visited in October and December so no urine smell, and less crowds. It was great checking out the Christmas markets and watching the snow fall over Montmatre (pure magic) when we visited in December, but my favourite time was October as there were some Fall colours and it was not as cold. I would love to visit in Spring next

By: Talon Windwalker

Talon Windwalker — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 11:14:43 +0000

In reply to Steph (@ 20 Years Hence).

You aren’t kidding about the urine smell. Previously, I had only really noticed it occasionally in the metro stations, but in summertime it’s everywhere. Definitely doesn’t add anything positive.

To me the dry heat made it pretty easy to deal with, but I suffered with it in the metro. Some of the older ones felt even hotter for some reason.

August is definitely not good for Paris because of the holidays, but I found that from mid July on in the smaller towns, like Rouen, it started being a problem. For example, many hotels, restaurants, and shops were closed for the “annual holiday.”

By: Steph (@ 20 Years Hence)

Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 20:05:44 +0000

Also, the urine smell that we noticed all over the city is (probably) magnified by the summer heat, making cooler times of the year infinitely more appealing too! 😉

We visited Paris in June and found the temperature tolerable (but we had come off of 2 years in Asia, so I’m sure that played some part) and the crowds weren’t horrific either. I guess July and August are really the months to miss (especially since my understanding is that most of Paris shuts down during August anyway as all the locals head off on vacation).