Top Things To Do In Paris In November 2025 – Before The Tinsel Hits

November in Paris is the hush before the holidays — quieter streets, shorter lines, and the first twinkle of lights in the city's corners. It's the moment between autumn's burnished glow and December's sparkle. The list of things to do in Paris in November leans into comfort: warm museums, red wine, buttery pastries, and the occasional celebratory pop-up market already gearing up for Noël.

You won't find big crowds, but you will find deals — and plenty of space to savor the city. November is when Parisians reclaim their rhythm, and savvy travelers get a front-row seat. Step into galleries without the shuffle, sample fondue in hidden cellars, and take your time strolling the grand boulevards before the seasonal crush sets in. Here is our curated list of the best things to do in Paris in November 2025.

Esprit de Paris – The Top Experiences

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Dining Elegance with Bateaux Parisiens

November's chill invites you to a warm, elegant evening aboard a Bateaux Parisiens dinner cruise. With the Service Premier option, enjoy a gourmet multi-course meal, champagne, and exceptional views of Paris's glittering landmarks. Live music sets the tone for a cozy yet sophisticated experience, making this a memorable way to embrace the season on the Seine. One Of The Best Things To Do In Paris In November.

Versailles for History Lovers

November is for the curious — and there's nowhere better to indulge your inner history nerd than Versailles. Our guided tours cut through the noise (and the lines) to bring the palace's stories to life. Think royal scandal, architectural excess, and plenty of political drama. Plus, the cooler weather means you'll explore without the summer crowds. Pack a scarf, channel your inner Louis, and prepare to be impressed.

Maxim's & the River Seine

Maxim's never really did casual — and that's the point. On this cruise, it's all quiet luxury, candlelight, and a menu that reads like a greatest hits album of French cuisine. You're gliding past Notre-Dame while nibbling on something likely touched by butter and genius. The rain might tap the windows, but inside it's warm, elegant, and unmistakably Parisian. You'll probably want to linger — and you should.

Louvre Tours Without the Guesswork

Navigating the Louvre solo? Brave. But if you'd rather spend your time learning fascinating backstories than deciphering a floor plan, we suggest a guided tour. Our handpicked recommendations focus on tours led by pros who can keep things moving and memorable. These aren't dusty lectures — they're smart, insightful walks through 3,000 years of art that might just make you look cultured over dinner.

Eiffel Tower Priority-Access

A trip to Paris wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower. This iconic landmark stands tall in the heart of the city, offering breathtaking views from its observation decks. Whether you choose to explore during the day or see it sparkle at night, the Eiffel Tower is an absolute must-see. Don't forget to enjoy a glass of champagne at the top for the ultimate Parisian experience!

Baroque Masterpieces in Paris Churches

These performances don't need a spotlight. Just a few candles, a vaulted ceiling, and someone attacking a cello like it insulted their grandmother. Paris's classical music venues are old, but not sleepy — the sound is alive, full-bodied, and more theatrical than you expect from chamber music. It's not background noise. It's front-row emotion. Add a marble altar and stained glass, and your night's looking seriously upgraded.

The Cabaret You Didn't Know You Needed

On the outside, Paradis Latin looks elegant — moody lighting, ornate decor, all very Parisian. Inside? Controlled chaos, in the best possible way. A top-notch three-course meal sets the tone, followed by a show that's lively, fast, and absolutely impossible to ignore. Think high kicks, low lighting, and a cast that knows how to work a room. Dinner theater this is not. It's Paris putting on a show for itself.

Champagne & Food Tour of St-Germain-des-Prés

Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the historic Left Bank neighborhood, is filled with food, wine, and champagne shops. This tour with an expert guide gets you off the beaten track to immerse yourself in French food, culture, and the best of French bubbly, as you travel from shop to shop. Each of the champagne tastings (and there are several) are paired with French cheeses, pâtes, and delicate chocolates & pastries.

A Classic Paris Evening: Tower Views, River Lights, Cabaret

Evenings like this make you wonder why you'd ever settle for dinner and a show when you can have dinner, a show, a tower, and a river. First, glide past the Eiffel Tower line like you've done it before. Then eat like an Insider on the Seine, with monuments moonlighting as your view. Finish strong at the Moulin Rouge, where drama is part of the dress code. Paris doesn't underdo it — and neither should you. Is this one of the best things to do in Paris in November?

Dinner Cruise on the Seine: Warm Lights, Cool Nights

November may bring a chill to the air, but on a Seine dinner cruise, the vibe is cozy, the lights are golden, and the city slips by in glittering slow motion. Step aboard, skip the chilly sidewalks, and settle in for a stylish evening of classic French cuisine, live music, and uninterrupted views. It's a calm, candlelit way to enjoy Paris — no shivering required.

Paris in One Day: Eiffel Tower Lunch + Cruise + Louvre

If we had only one day in Paris, this would be it. We love the skip-the-line access — no waiting in line, at the best of what the city has to offer. A table has been reserved for you at the Eiffel Tower, for lunch overlooking the sights of Paris. Then, hop on a boat at the banks of the Seine River to see the best of Paris landmarks, riverside. There's more! Visit the Louvre for a guided tour of the world's most famous museum. Whew!

Champagne Evening Cruise Along the Seine

We don't know about you, but this is our favorite way to cruise the Seine — which should be no surprise if you know anything about us by now. We think you'll agree that the best way to see the sights of Paris is by gliding past the monuments on a bateaux while sipping three courses of bubbly poured by a champagne sommelier. Highly recommended by us.

Arrive in Paris the Easy Way

You didn't fly across an ocean just to wrangle a taxi outside baggage claim. Start smarter with a private airport transfer. Your driver meets you inside, handles the logistics, and gets you to your hotel before the line for train tickets even moves. It's one of those rare travel choices that's both practical and indulgent — which is basically the whole point of being in Paris.

Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie & Notre Dame Tour

Explore the ancient heart of Paris, Île de la Cité, on a guided tour that takes you to the iconic sights including La Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame. An expert guide leads this captivating exploration of the rich history of Paris; you'll have the privilege of witnessing the city's breathtaking beauty.

Understated Charm in Left Bank Hotels

Left Bank hotels tend to keep things simple — and that's part of their appeal. Many have been welcoming guests for generations, offering warm service, thoughtful design, and quietly enviable locations. There's no need for flash when the atmosphere does the talking. From breakfast rooms with garden views to discreet foyers tucked behind heavy doors, these places remind you why Paris rewards the observant.

The Wonders of Versailles

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Best of Versailles with Priority Access + Gardens

You don't want to miss the majesty of Versailles. These popular tours of Versailles include priority access with an expert guide. The small-group ensures personal attention and includes transportation right from your hotel. This is one of the best half-day things to do in Paris in November.

Versailles Bike Tour + Chateau Visit

Aren't chilly autumn days the perfect time to pedal a bike around the most famous royal estate in the world? Explore the countryside near Versailles — through forests and pastures — and then picnic in the gardens of Versailles. After touring the grounds use your priority-access ticket to explore the magnificent Chateau de Versailles. I

Go Deeper Into France On Day Trips

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Peak Bubble Season (According to You)

Paris might be winding down, but out in Champagne the bottles are still popping. This day trip skips the tourist circus and heads straight for the cellars, where serious wines meet friendly faces. You'll sip your way through grand marques and family labels, then sit down to a French lunch that somehow tastes like victory. No special event, no pressure — just you, the bubbles, and zero regrets.

Normandy's D-Day Legacy

Commemorate the bravery of the Allied forces with a day trip from Paris to the D-Day beaches of Normandy. Explore Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, visit the American Cemetery, and learn the significance of these sites through museums and monuments. Your guide's narratives provide a deeper connection to this pivotal moment in history. A cider tasting adds a cultural element to the day.

Loire Valley Castles + Cozy Wine Tastings

Enjoy the crisp charm of the Loire Valley on a day trip from Paris to its most iconic castles. Tour the historic halls, hear stories of French royalty, and explore the surrounding landscapes in their late-autumn serenity. A wine tasting highlights the region's celebrated varietals, adding a touch of indulgence to the day. This tour offers a perfect blend of history, culture, and seasonal comfort in the Land of 1000 Castles.

Delectable Food & Wine Experiences

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Cellar Secrets and Cheese Truths

You won't find these cheeses on a hotel cheese plate back home. They've been hand-picked, perfectly aged, and paired with wines that know their place. The setting: a quiet Paris cheese-aging cellar, designed for tasting, talking, and secretly comparing notes with the person next to you. It's a great intro to French cheese culture — just enough information to sound impressive at dinner, without killing the magic.

Create Perfect Croissants with a Paris Chef

Join a professional chef in Paris for a hands-on class dedicated to the art of croissant-making. Learn to mix, roll, and shape dough to achieve the signature layers and buttery flavor of this beloved French pastry. This small-group session offers personalized instruction, making it accessible for all skill levels. Savor your creations fresh from the oven and gain the expertise to bake authentic croissants in your own kitchen.

Montmartre's Gourmet Secrets Revealed

Explore the culinary delights of Montmartre on a food and wine tour that introduces you to the best of French gastronomy. Sample artisanal cheeses, charcuterie, and pastries, complemented by handpicked wines, while strolling through the quartier's charming streets. End your experience with stunning views of Paris from the hilltop, making this an enriching and delicious way to discover one of the city's most beloved neighborhoods.

Wine Tasting With Lunch

Forget pretentious tasting notes and awkward sniffing rituals. In this cellar near the Louvre, you get straight-up wine education from someone who's more interested in flavor than flexing. Five or six wines, plenty of food, and a low-key vibe that keeps things fun. It's wine tasting, not wine worship. Come thirsty. Leave smarter. Possibly tipsy.

Parisian Cuisine in the Marais

A walking tour through the Marais, a district famed for its food culture & historic charm. Visit artisanal shops and the city's oldest food market to sample French classics like baguettes, charcuterie, cheeses & chocolates. Each tasting is paired with wines that highlight the flavors of these delicacies. Your guide shares stories about the quartier's history, making for a rich and rewarding way to experience Paris's culinary traditions.

Chocolate & Pastry Walking Tour of Saint-Germain

Parisian chocolates are amazing, but if you want to expand your chocolate universe to include fabulous French pastries, then spend an afternoon sampling your way through Paris chocolate shops, patisseries, and boulangeries. As always, a food expert leads the way on this small-group tour.

Bateaux Parisiens Gourmet Lunch Cruise

Sail down the Seine while enjoying a French classic 3-course lunch aboard a Bateaux Parisiens. Soak in the views of the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and Musée d'Orsay as you dine from an à la carte menu with wine. The extras? Live entertainment and a glass of cool champagne to start your adventure. Choose the Privilege service option to guarantee a window seat.

Paris Cooking Class & Food Market Tour

Visiting an open-air food market in Paris is an quintessential French food experience. With an expert chef at your side, meet local merchants and learn all about French specialties. Then, with loaded baskets, it's back to the cooking studio where chef will show you how to create a fabulous 3-course lunch. Then, relax and enjoy your meal. With wine, of course! One of the best full-day activities in Paris in November.

What's On at the Museums

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Musée d'Orsay Impressionism Tour

November is for low-lit galleries, rich color palettes, and not having to elbow your way to a Degas. With your expert guide, you'll breeze into Orsay and join a small group that actually sees the art — not just the backs of heads. Your guide dials up the drama with the stories behind the brushstrokes. It's cozy, smart, and full of that "only-in-Paris" kind of charm. One Of The Best Things To Do In Paris In November.

Desert Ecosystems in Focus

Step into the fascinating world of deserts, where every organism tells a story of adaptation and survival. This exhibition highlights the interconnected systems that sustain life in arid regions, shedding light on their ecological importance and the delicate balance they maintain.
• Natural History Museum
• Ends November 30
• Information…

Hockney's Playful Perspectives

David Hockney loves to challenge the way we see the world. Through innovative compositions and daring use of space, he encourages viewers to look at familiar scenes in a new way. Whether through his layered photo collages or his bright, angular paintings, Hockney's works are full of surprises that keep you looking.
• Ends January 9, 2026
• Information…

A Revolution in Public Art

Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely believed art should spill beyond museum walls. Their public works — monumental, interactive, sometimes riotous — transformed plazas and parks into spaces for wonder. This exhibition revisits their most ambitious projects, where sculpture met architecture, and cities became their canvas.
• Grand Palais
• Ends January 4, 2026
• Information…

Sargent – The Paris Years

Portraits, yes — but not the kind meant to flatter. Sargent's subjects stare, slouch, or smolder, caught in bold light and even bolder poses. These Paris works show a painter pushing past convention — mixing beauty with discomfort and a dash of scandal for good measure.

• Musée d'Orsay
• September 23, 2025 to January 11, 2026
• Information…

Love & Art Through Her Lens

Before selfies were a thing, Gabrielle Hébert turned the camera on herself — and everyone around her. Candid, theatrical, sometimes slyly romantic, her portraits upended 19th-century norms, putting emotion and intimacy front and center. This is photographic history with a personal twist.

• Musée d'Orsay
• October 28, 2025 to February 15, 2026
• Information…

Paul Troubetzkoy – The Sculptor Prince

With a foot in Russian nobility and a studio in Paris, Paul Troubetzkoy brought an international flair to sculpture. Influenced by Rodin, Impressionism, and his own anti-academic instincts, he created dynamic, expressive figures that feel startlingly contemporary.

• Musée d'Orsay
• September 30 to January 11, 2026
• Information…

Jean‑Baptiste Greuze – Childhood Unmasked

Greuze's art captures the moment when childhood became more than preparation for adulthood. His scenes — domestic, rural, softly lit — play out small moral tales. It's Rousseau with brushstrokes: emotionally charged, socially engaged, and remarkably modern in feeling.

• Petit Palais
• September 16 to January 25, 2026
• Information…

Pekka Halonen – Finnish Nature Reimagined

Pekka Halonen arrives as the unexpected modernist: a Finn painting snow and ponds with Gauguin's lessons, plein-air spontaneity and national pride. His works simmer with light, landscape and family life. It's fresh, eco-minded, heartfelt art — no flannel shirt required.

• Petit Palais
• November 4 to February 22, 2026
• Information…

Guillermo Kuitca – Cubistoid Chapel

Think of the Cubistoid Chapel as a painting you walk inside. Kuitca's wall drawings mix Cubist fragmentation with a cartographer's eye, evoking floorplans, stages, and coded systems. As you move through the space, it shifts — somewhere between a sacred room and a conceptual maze.

• Musée Picasso
• Ends December 31, 2027
• Information…

Philippe Perrot – Intimate Mindscapes

Painting slowly and obsessively, Philippe Perrot created just 130 works in his lifetime. The result? Dense, awkward, oddly tender images filled with psycho-emotional static. His use of medical dyes adds an extra layer — like trying to heal the canvas while wounding it.

• MAM
• Ends November 2, 2025
• Information…

Michel Paysant – Monet Seen by Eye

Forget paintbrushes — Michel Paysant draws with data. Using advanced eye-movement sensors, he captures how real people "see" Monet's massive panels. The result? Swirling line-based works that reveal the rhythms of looking: fast glances, long pauses, and unexpected patterns.

• Musée de l'Orangerie
• October 4, 2025 to January 6, 2026
• Information…

Berthe Weill – Dealer of the Avant-Garde

Long ignored by the art world she helped build, Berthe Weill ran one of the most daring galleries in Paris. She gave solo shows to women artists, backed Cubism before it was cool, and wrote her own acidic memoir. About time she got a headline.

• Musée de l'Orangerie
• October 2, 2024 to January 27, 2025
• Information…

L'empire du sommeil – Dreams, Rest & Folly

Curators Laura Bossi and Sylvie Carlier pit scientific ideas and art against each other: mesmerism, psychoanalysis and medical illustrations sit beside moody canvases and sculptures. The result? A cultural nightstand full of symbols, anxiety, reverie and the mysterious power of nodding off.

• Musée Marmatton Monet
• October 9, 2025 to March 1, 2026
• Information…

Musika Automatika – Sound & Memory

The installation isn't just sound — it's space. Speakers, drum kits and ambient noise spill into the room, shifting your attention. Musika Automatika makes you feel part of a living track, a work in progress that changes with each footstep.

• Musée du Quai Branly
• Ends February 26, 2026
• Information…

La Collection – Revoir Picasso

In 2014 Pablo Picasso's most important public collection was permanently installed in the lavish setting of the Hôtel Salé, a mansion in the Marais. A decade later, the museum pays homage with a three-year retrospective starting with a tribute to Françoise Gilot. Beyond her famous book — Living with Picasso, published in 1965 — Gilot's own artistic career spanned from Réalités Nouvelles to her large compositions of the "emblematic paintings" of the 1980s.

• Musée Picasso
• To March 12, 2027
• Information…

The Best Events in Paris

Things to Do in Paris in November 2025

Armistice Day, November 11

Armistice Day in Paris is remembered with a military parade followed by the President of France laying wreaths during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. There may be pandemic changes to this year's activities, so check back again.
• Arc de Triomphe, Place Charles de Gaulle
• November 11
• 11:00 AM: Wreath-Laying Ceremony
• 9:00 PM: Vigil Ceremony

Beaujolais Nouveau Day

Beaujolais Nouveau Day is a jubilant celebration of France's freshest wine. At exactly one minute past midnight, bottles arrive from the Beaujolais region, ready to be opened and shared. Restaurants serve special menus, wine shops host tastings, and the city embraces this quirky, joyful excuse to toast the harvest — and the French love of tradition.
• November 21 (but check for updates on the link)
• Information…

Le Grand Tasting Paris

Le Grand Tasting Paris is a festival of flavour featuring 300+ French and international producers selected by Bettane + Desseauve. Taste legends and new discoveries, join thematic masterclasses, and sip your way through regional treasures — everything from crisp Loire whites to bold Rhône reds. It's a must for curious connoisseurs.
• Carrousel du Louvre
• November 29 & 30, 2025
• Information…

Craft, Culture, Commerce

The Made in France Expo is a sprawling marketplace of French craftsmanship. Explore fashion, beauty, homewares, food, and tech—all made in France. Meet the artisans, attend live demonstrations, and shop products with genuine local roots. It's a celebration of national savoir-faire, innovation, and traditional craft brought together under one lively, proudly French roof.
• Porte de Versailles
• November 6 to 9, 2025
• Information…

Frame Your Passion

Paris Photo is the leading photography fair featuring over 200 galleries and 40 publishers from more than 30 countries. Explore curated exhibitions — Main, Emergence, Digital, Voices, Book — alongside artist talks, photobook launches, and award ceremonies. It's a global window into photography's evolving landscape: history, innovation, technique, and emerging talent in one immersive experienc
• Grand Palais
• November 13 to 16, 2025
• Information…

Flowers, Quiet, and Memory

La Toussaint is a solemn yet beautiful French tradition. Families visit cemeteries to place flowers—especially chrysanthemums—on the graves of loved ones. Although it's a national holiday and many services close, major Paris museums stay open. It's a reflective moment in the city, filled with quiet beauty, remembrance, and a rare glimpse into Parisian cultural customs.
• November 1

Le Festival d'Automne à Paris

Founded in 1972, the Paris Autumn Festival celebrates contemporary arts and embraces all forms — visual arts, dance, theatre, music, and cinema. From September to December the festival features more than fifty events at venues throughout Paris.

• Venues throughout Paris
• September to December, 2025
• Information…