October is the seasonal sweet spot in Paris; it’s just as lovely whether you wander for hours on end, or whether you while away much of the day in a cosy café. There’s a slower, softer vibe to the city as its leaves turn from green to gold, then gently flutter to the ground.
With the tourist crowds sparser, the city feels so much more your own. You can take more of it in, appreciate the quiet moments and little details that Paris does so well — its markets, its architecture, its art … Museums are often at their inspiring best in autumn/fall, showcasing blockbuster post-summer exhibitions that revive and reinspire the mind. Read on for some of the best ways you can get the most out of Paris this season …
Hot Chocolate & Hat Shopping
Start an autumnal morning at the lovely Place des Vosges (where it’s possible to linger all day if you’d like; click here to find out how). Find Carette, at no.25 along the northern colonnade, take a seat en terrasse, and order the decadent hot chocolate (don’t hold the whipped cream). Let it warm you up as the sun slowly rises and lights up the golden leaves of the lime trees in the historic square before you.
Fun fact: Considered to be the heart of the Marais, Place des Vosges kickstarted this district’s revival in the seventeenth-century, when it became the city’s cultural epicentre. Cocoa, newly imported from Mexico, was hugely popular as a drink in the salons of Paris’s leading taste-makers. One was the letter-writing star Madame de Sevigné, who was born on this very square. Chocolat chaud will ‘make the most unpleasant company seem good to you,’ she insisted.
If you do decide to spend the day wandering about the Marais, don’t leave Place des Vosges without stopping by the cute little hat store tucked into the north-western corner (above). And also make sure to pop into Musée Caranavalet, the wonderful rabbit hole of a museum devoted to the history of Paris. (It’s part-situated within a grand old hôtel particulier in which Madame de Sevigné herself once lived.)
Buy Boots that are Made for Walking
Autumn/fall is the perfect time for strolling about Paris and its beautiful parks, so if you haven’t packed walking shoes, add a shopping session to your Marais to-do list. You’ll stumble across all kinds of footwear stores, but recommended are: Pied de Biche, for all kinds and heights of chic boots (5 Rue des Commines, 75003), and Veja for cool sneakers (15 Rue de Poitou, 75003). Ready to break them in? To formulate the perfect itinerary, see ‘Fall Foliage à la Française: a Paris Leaf-Peeping Guide.’
Cosy-Up in a Restaurant with a Leafy View
When your feet finally need a rest, Paris is brimful with restorative cafés and restaurants. Some, however, seem perfectly suited to autumn/fall, looking out, as they do, onto the turning leaves that seem so in synch with the soft, honeyed tones of the city’s architecture.
One of the loveliest spots in which to dine (in any season, in fact) is Place de la Dauphine, a triangular ‘square’ dotted with horse chestnut trees and edged by a selection of eateries that serve up hearty fare (above). Alternatively, head south to the Jardin du Luxembourg; it’s a perfect park for rambling about for hours on end, and it also features La Terrasse de Madame, a gem of a glasshouse-restaurant nestled within a grove of chestnut trees. Or, several Paris museums house garden cafés that are as gorgeous in autumn/fall as they are in the warmer months. One final idea, if you’re after a finer-dining experience: the historic, and newly renovated, Laurent, which looks out to the Jardin du Champs-Élysées, has an exquisite winter-garden atmosphere and a sensorially lovely menu to match; read more about it here.
Shop (or Window-Shop) at the Markets
French farmers’ markets are a feast for the eyes as much as tastebuds in any season, but they’re particularly soul-satisfying in autumn/fall, when a harvest of nurturing, nourishing new vegetables comes to town. Think wild edible mushrooms, hearty pumpkin and squash, and comforting leek and celeriac … On the fruit front, there are flavour-packed clementines, winter-crisp pears, and honey-sweet grapes. If you’re stocking up for a stay in an apartment, make sure to stop by the fromagerie stand; a French favourite for the cooler months is Mont d’Or, an unctuous raw-milk cheese that is best oven-baked and served with bread slices and boiled new potatoes.
Celebrate the Centenary of Surrealism
The blockbuster exhibition of the season must be Surrealism at Centre Pompidou (running until 13th January 2025). The Surrealist movement officially began in Paris in late 1924, when writer and poet André Breton launched his magazine Révolution Surréaliste. Breton claimed that the aim of Surrealism was to ‘resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality’ — or, surreality. Surrealism believed that art best came from the subconscious; it encouraged the unchaining of the unconscious, the release of dreams and desires. The movement, which had been growing as a sentiment for some time, was a break from reason and rationality as a guiding artistic principle, in large part due to disenchantment at the destruction wrought by the Great War. There were philosophical and political aspects to it, too; many of the Surrealist artists, who represented a wide range of disciplines, had an urge to not just make over the art world, but to shake up society.
In this latest exhibition, Centre Pompidou has cleverly designed the space as a labyrinth, at the heart of which is a room devoted to Breton’s Manifesto, the movement’s founding text; from here it all spins out chronologically and thematically, show-casing eye-popping (even mind-twisting) works (sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings, films …) from some of the twentieth-century’s biggest names in art (Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró …), as well as a selection of themes and objects (dreams, nature, mythology, monsters …) that inspired these artists in the first place.
Once you’ve found your way through this wonderfully labyrinthine exhibition, take the opportunity to admire Pompidou’s permanent collection — the museum will close in September 2025 for a five-year restoration. And don’t miss the stunner of a vista from its rooftop (above) — a super-reality of a view, in fact.