On December 11 my husband and I walked out of the Louvre at 5:10 in the afternoon and the sun had been down for fifteen minutes. The lamps along the rue de Rivoli were already lit. A man was selling roasted chestnuts out of a shopping cart and charging what I can only describe as a confident price.
In This Post
- Paris December Weather, Without the Soft Focus
- The Light Leaves Absurdly Early and You Have to Build Around It
- Crowds, Week by Week (the First Half Is the Prize)
- What It Actually Costs to Walk Into Things
- December Is a Museum Month, With One Big Hole in It
- What to Do With a Wet Afternoon
- What I Pack for 47 Degrees and Wet
- Is Versailles a Mistake in Winter
- Christmas Week Is Its Own Animal
- Who Should Skip December
- So Is Paris in December Worth It
- Frequently Asked Questions
That is December in Paris in one image. Short days, wet stone, and a city that stops performing for about three weeks.
I love it. I also think a lot of people book it off a photo of Christmas lights and then get blindsided by the fact that it is dark before dinner. So here is the month, plainly. Weather, crowds week by week, what things cost to walk into as of September 2026, and who should skip it. The Christmas half (markets, lights, what closes on the 25th) is its own post, kept separate on purpose.
Paris December Weather, Without the Soft Focus
Cold, but not the kind of cold that ruins a day. Running the last eleven Decembers of Paris weather data (Open-Meteo’s historical archive, pulled September 2026), the average daily high is about 47F (9C) and the average low is about 39F (4C). That is a wool coat and a scarf. It is not a parka.
The rain is the real story, and it is the part I wish someone had put in bold for me. Those same eleven Decembers averaged roughly 13 days with at least a millimeter of rain and about 72 mm total for the month. Do that math and it is not a monsoon. It is 13 grey days of on-and-off drizzle spread across 31.
Which is worse than a downpour, honestly. A downpour you wait out with a coffee. Drizzle follows you around and turns every set of stone steps in this city into a slip hazard. Wear shoes with tread. I say that as someone who went down half a flight at a metro entrance in flat-soled boots and had to pretend it was on purpose.
The Light Leaves Absurdly Early and You Have to Build Around It
This is the thing that actually changes how you plan a trip, and it gets left out of almost every December guide I have read.
Paris sits at nearly 49 degrees north, further north than Seattle, so the sun clocks out early. On December 11, 2026, sunrise is 8:31 a.m. and sunset is 4:55 p.m. On the solstice, December 21, it runs 8:39 a.m. to 4:58 p.m. That is 8 hours and 18 minutes of daylight (sunrise-sunset.org, checked September 2026).
Eight hours. Roughly a school day, and you will spend some of it under cloud.
What I do with that is simple and it works. Daylight sights before 2 p.m. Anything with a roof after 4. The late afternoon is the best part of a December day here, because everything switches on at once and the wet pavement doubles it. If you have ever wanted the version of Paris that is all reflected light, this is the month that hands it to you for free at five o’clock.
What I would not do is book a 9 a.m. anything expecting good photographs. At 9 on December 21 the sun has been up twenty minutes and it is still the color of dishwater.
Crowds, Week by Week (the First Half Is the Prize)
December in Paris is really two different months wearing the same coat.
The first two weeks are the quietest stretch this city gets outside deep January. School is in session across Europe, nobody is on holiday yet, and the lines at the big rooms shrink to something a normal person can tolerate. This is when I go. If you can only take one week off, take the week of December 7.
Then around the 19th it flips. French families travel, European visitors arrive, and the Christmas crowd lands on the same six streets at once. It never reaches August levels. But the difference between December 8 and December 23 at the Louvre is not subtle.
One scheduling trap for 2026. The Louvre closes every Tuesday, and in December that means the 1st, the 8th, the 15th, the 22nd and the 29th. Christmas week adds more closures on top of that, and I have laid out exactly what shuts on the 25th in the Christmas guide. Check the day of the week before you book anything, because I have absolutely stood in front of a locked pyramid feeling like a genius.
What It Actually Costs to Walk Into Things
Here is the number that will annoy you, and I would rather you hear it from me than at a ticket window. As of September 2026 the Louvre charges two different prices. Residents and citizens of the European Economic Area pay 22 euros. Everybody else, which means you and me, pays 32 euros. Under 18s are free, and so are EEA residents under 26.
Ten extra euros for holding the wrong passport. I am not going to pretend that felt good.
The rest of the big-ticket list, all checked on the official sites in September 2026:
- Eiffel Tower 23.50 euros to the second floor by lift, 36.70 euros to the top by lift, 14.80 euros to the second floor by stairs. The stairs are the best value in Paris and it is not close.
- Sainte-Chapelle 22 euros. Winter hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 1 through March 31, last entry 30 minutes before close.
- Arc de Triomphe 22 euros. October through March it is open 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Tuesdays from 11 a.m., last access 45 minutes before close. The lift was out of service in September 2026, so the terrace is stairs only.
- Notre-Dame towers 16 euros, free for EU residents under 26, and you have to book. Winter hours 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The route runs 424 steps.
- Versailles 35 euros for the Passport, 15 euros for the Trianon estate alone. From November 1 the palace runs 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with last admission at 4:45, and it is closed Mondays.
- Sacre-Coeur free, open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
One asterisk. I am deliberately not quoting you flight and hotel numbers. December rates swing so hard between the first week and Christmas week that any range I gave you would be a guess dressed up as research.
December Is a Museum Month, With One Big Hole in It
Start with the bad news, because it catches people out. The Centre Pompidou closed to the public on September 22, 2025 for a renovation that runs to 2030. It is not shut for a season. It is shut for years. Its programming has been scattered across partner venues including the Grand Palais and the Gaite Lyrique, which is a lovely idea and also means the thing you pictured is not there.
Now the good news. The Louvre’s winter slate is the strongest reason to be here in December rather than April. As of September 2026 it has Zurbaran 1598-1664 and Sculpting Colour both running October 7, 2026 through January 25, 2027, Louvre Photo from November 4, 2026 through May 3, 2027, and Primeval Waters. Lessons from Mesopotamia through March 15, 2027. Four serious shows, all open in December, in a building you can actually move through in the first two weeks. Our guide to the 20 things worth seeing at the Louvre is the shortlist I use, because trying to see it all in one visit is how people end up crying near the Egyptian wing.
My favorite December move, though, is Sainte-Chapelle on a bright cold morning. Winter closes it at 5 p.m., so it cannot be an afternoon thing, and you should not want it to be. Go at 9 on the first clear day you get. Fifteen minutes of low winter sun through those windows and your whole nervous system resets. I have taken people there who do not care about churches and watched them stop talking mid-sentence.
What to Do With a Wet Afternoon
You will get at least three of these. Plan for them instead of resenting them.
The answer is cafes, and not in a cute way. In a load-bearing way. A Paris cafe in December is a heated room where nobody rushes you and a coffee costs less than a museum ticket, and after two hours of drizzle that beats any attraction on the list. Our roundup of Paris coffee shops worth sitting in is where I start, and the cheap eats list holds up better in winter than in summer, because half those places are tiny and warm.
The other answer is that plenty of the best things here cost nothing and have a roof over them. I lean on our list of free things to do in Paris hard in December, because paying 32 euros twice in one day to get out of the rain adds up fast.
What I Pack for 47 Degrees and Wet
The mistake people make is packing for cold when they should be packing for damp.
- A wool coat you can layer under. Not a ski jacket. You will be indoors constantly and you will cook.
- Boots with tread and a waterproof upper. This one item decides whether your trip is comfortable.
- A scarf bigger than you think you need.
- A small umbrella, in your bag, every day, including the clear ones.
- One thing you feel good in, for the night you eat somewhere with tablecloths.
- Blister plasters. Eight hours of daylight means you walk hard between 10 and 4.
Leave the heavy gloves. This is a damp 40s, not a dry 20s, and there is a real difference in how that lands on your hands.
Is Versailles a Mistake in Winter
No, with one condition. From November 1 the palace runs 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., last admission 4:45, closed Mondays, gardens 8 to 6. The interiors are entirely fine. The gardens are bare and the fountains are off, which is a genuine loss if that was your picture of it.
My call. Go for the rooms, skip it if you were going for the gardens. Our step-by-step Versailles day trip covers the trains, and the timing matters more in winter because you are racing a 4:45 cutoff.
Christmas Week Is Its Own Animal
Everything above changes in the last ten days, and I am not squeezing it in here. Markets, lights, which museums lock the doors on the 25th, what Christmas Eve dinner actually looks like in a French restaurant. All of that lives in our guide to Christmas in Paris.
One thing worth saying here because it affects your dates. Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, so the quiet week and the busy week split cleanly. Land December 5 and leave December 12 and you have a completely different trip than someone landing on the 20th.
For the wider cold-season picture, our guide to Paris in winter covers January and February too, and the month-by-month breakdown is there if you are still choosing.
Who Should Skip December
I am not going to sell this month to everyone, because it genuinely does not work for everyone.
Skip it if your image of Paris is a terrace, a glass of rose and a long golden evening. That Paris exists and it is not in December. Skip it if you are travelling with small kids who melt down cold and wet, because you cannot outrun the weather here. And skip it if 8 hours of daylight sounds depressing rather than cozy, because there is no version of this trip where you get more.
Come in October instead. I will not be offended.
So Is Paris in December Worth It
For the first two weeks, yes, and I would put it near the top of my list for the whole year.
You get four major exhibitions at the Louvre, rooms you can actually stand in, cafes that want you to stay, and a city that looks best at exactly the hour it goes dark. You pay for it in daylight and in drizzle and, if you are American, in ten extra euros at the Louvre door. That is the trade. I take it happily and I would take it again next year.
Just book the early half of the month, pack the boots, and stop trying to make 9 a.m. work.
Cheers!
Antonina
Frequently Asked Questions
Mild by winter standards. Across the last eleven Decembers the average daily high in Paris is about 47F (9C) and the average low is about 39F (4C). A wool coat, a scarf and waterproof boots handle it. The damp is the part that gets people, not the temperature.
Very early. On December 11, 2026 the sun sets in Paris at 4:55 p.m., and on the solstice, December 21, it sets at 4:58 p.m. after rising at 8:39 a.m. That is 8 hours and 18 minutes of daylight, so plan outdoor sights before 2 p.m. and indoor ones after 4.
As of September 2026 the Louvre charges 22 euros for residents and citizens of the European Economic Area and 32 euros for everyone else, including visitors from the United States. Under 18s are free, as are EEA residents under 26. The museum is closed every Tuesday and on December 25.
Early, if you want space. The first two weeks are the quietest stretch Paris gets outside deep January, and the crowds build sharply from around December 19 or 20 as French and European families start travelling. Late December has the holiday atmosphere but noticeably more people in the same few places.
Newest on Paris
- Christmas in Paris (Markets, Lights, and What Is Actually Open) Sep 2026
- Paris in October Aug 2026
- Paris on a Budget (How to Visit Without Going Broke) Jul 2026
- Paris in Fall (The Season the Locals Love) Jun 2026
- Paris in Winter (Why It Might Be the Best Time to Go) Jun 2026
- Best Time to Visit Paris (Month-by-Month Breakdown) Jun 2026
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