Are you in Paris for the week of September 7 to 13, 2026? Read my selection of the best things to do now. This is the week the cultural season properly begins: Paris Design Week opens around 400 addresses to the public for free from Thursday, a free costumed parade takes over the edge of the Luxembourg Gardens at the weekend, and the Olympic cauldron lifts off for the last time.
Two things make this week different from last. First, there is no free-museum Sunday — that was September 6, and the next one is October 4, so budget for tickets. Second, this is a week of closures: Youssef Nabil at the Musée d’Orsay ends on Sunday, September 13, and the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries disappears after September 14. Both are gone before you can come back.
Weather-wise, early-to-mid September is still one of the best windows of the year in Paris: warm afternoons, but the sun now sets around 8:15 pm and the temperature drops quickly after that. Carry a layer for anything outdoors in the evening — and much of what is worth doing this week is outdoors in the evening.
Read also our selection of the best things to do in Paris for a first visit
1. Exhibitions on Right Now
Paris’s autumn blockbusters — Cézanne at the Grand Palais among them — do not open until September 23. Until then, this is the window for the summer shows, and one of them closes on Sunday.
Youssef Nabil: De rêver encore — Musée d’Orsay
Why go: the Franco-Egyptian photographer and video artist returns to the museum he first walked into in 1992, and the hang follows five stages of his life rather than a chronology. His silver gelatin prints, hand-coloured one by one, have a surface that no reproduction conveys — this is a show you have to stand in front of. The museum sets them against nineteenth-century expedition photographs and works by Puvis de Chavannes and Odilon Redon, and the conversation works better than you would expect. Entirely visual: no French required.
When: through Sunday, September 13, 2026 — last week. Closed Mondays; late opening Thursday until 9:45 pm
Where: Musée d’Orsay, room 8c on level 0, esplanade Valéry-Giscard-d’Estaing, Paris 7th
Getting there: RER C to Musée d’Orsay, or metro line 12 to Solférino, then a 4-minute walk
Cost: included in museum admission, around €16 (€13 reduced, €12 on the Thursday late night, free for under-26 residents of the EEA). Covered by the Paris Museum Pass — official Musée d’Orsay ticketing
Tip: book the Thursday late slot. It is the cheapest entry of the week, room 8c is nearly empty after 7 pm where it will be packed on the final weekend, and you come out onto the Seine at dusk. If Sunday is your only option, go at opening — the last day of a show at Orsay is unmanageable after 1 pm. Note that a Museum Pass still requires a timed reservation here.
Fragile Beauty: the Elton John photography collection — Jeu de Paume
Why go: over 300 prints assembled across thirty years by Sir Elton John and David Furnish, by more than 90 photographers — Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Nan Goldin. It is arranged in five themes: desire, celebrity, fashion, reportage and identity. What makes it worth the ticket is that it reads as one person’s obsession rather than a museum survey, which gives it an energy most photography retrospectives lack.
When: through September 24, 2026 — closed Mondays
Where: Jeu de Paume, 1 place de la Concorde, in the corner of the Tuileries Garden, Paris 8th
Getting there: metro lines 1, 8 and 12 to Concorde, Tuileries exit — a 10-minute walk from Place Vendôme
Cost: around €13; not covered by the Paris Museum Pass — hours and tickets on the Jeu de Paume website
Tip: the museum warns that some images may disturb, and it means it — the sections on AIDS and on the nude are not for young children. Otherwise it is a dense 90 minutes. Come out into the Tuileries afterwards and walk east: the Olympic cauldron is five minutes away and this is its final week.
Plumes du paradis (Feathers of Paradise) — Musée du Quai Branly
Why go: the story of the birds of paradise of New Guinea and the Western appetite they set off — headdresses, hats, the plume trade, and a near-extinction narrowly avoided. The objects are spectacular, and underneath them sits a colonial and ecological history the museum does not soften. It works on both levels, and the wall texts are in English throughout.
When: through November 8, 2026 — closed Mondays
Where: Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 37 quai Branly, Paris 7th — a 10-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower
Getting there: RER C to Pont de l’Alma, or metro line 9 to Alma – Marceau, then 8 minutes on foot
Cost: around €14 for a ticket covering the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions; covered by the Paris Museum Pass — exhibition listing on L’Officiel des spectacles
Tip: save half an hour for the garden and the green wall on the quai side, which almost everyone walks straight past on the way out. And if you come late in the day, the museum’s upper terrace gives you one of the least crowded views of the Eiffel Tower in Paris — without the Eiffel Tower queue.
Gianni Versace Retrospective — Musée Maillol
Why go: nearly 450 pieces — dresses, sketches, accessories, photographs and film — tracing the Italian designer’s career and the sources he raided, from baroque ornament to pop art. Pieces worn by Naomi Campbell and Prince are in the room. It is a fashion show rather than an art show, and it is the strongest thing on in Paris right now for anyone who cares about clothes.
When: through October 31, 2026; daily 10:30 am to 6:30 pm, with a late opening on Thursdays until 10 pm
Where: Musée Maillol, 59-61 rue de Grenelle, Paris 7th
Getting there: metro line 12 to Rue du Bac, or lines 10 and 12 to Sèvres – Babylone
Cost: around €24 (€18.90–€20.90 reduced); the Paris Museum Pass is not accepted here, as the Maillol is a private museum — official Musée Maillol page
Tip: the Maillol is one of the very few Paris museums that is open on Mondays, which makes it the obvious answer to the Monday problem when Orsay, the Orangerie, the Quai Branly and the city museums are all shut. Book a slot online either way — the rooms are small and the show sells its afternoon slots out.
2. Don’t Miss This Week
Paris Design Week opens 400 venues, free
Why go: for ten days, around 400 addresses — shops, studios and galleries, but also the Hôtel de la Marine, the National Archives, the Hôtel de Sully, Victor Hugo’s house, the Mobilier National and the Musée Bourdelle — open with installations and exhibitions, free. For a visitor the real prize is not the furniture: it is that you get inside private mansions and Marais courtyards that are locked for the other 355 days of the year.
When: Thursday, September 10 to Saturday, September 19, 2026 — so it starts at the end of this week
Where: across Paris, with four main clusters: the Marais, Bastille, Saint-Germain and the Champs-Élysées
Getting there: for the Marais, metro line 1 to Saint-Paul; for Bastille, lines 1, 5 and 8 to Bastille
Cost: free for the overwhelming majority of installations — programme and venues on paris.fr
Tip: do not try to cover it. Pick one district and walk it: the Marais has the heritage buildings, Bastille has the workshops. Go Thursday or Friday rather than Saturday — the makers are on site and will talk to you on a weekday, which stops entirely once the weekend crowd arrives. Most venues are ordinary shops, so nothing needs booking; just turn up.
La Fête de Paris: a 1,000-strong costumed parade by the Luxembourg Gardens
Why go: a free, volunteer-run street festival with three parts — a village of artisans with an open stage, a historical parade of a thousand costumed participants escorted by the Republican Guard, and a Belle Époque ball honouring Josephine Baker. It is one of the very few genuinely local Paris festivals that needs no French at all: the parade is pure spectacle. Around 58,000 people are expected across the two days.
When: Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September 2026
Where: place André-Honnorat, on the southern edge of the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris 6th
Getting there: RER B to Luxembourg, metro line 4 or 10 to Odéon, line 10 to Mabillon
Cost: free — full programme on the Fête de Paris website
Tip: come for the parade, not the village — the artisan stalls are pleasant but you will have seen them in fifteen minutes. Stand on the rue Auguste-Comte side rather than on the square itself: that is where the procession slows down, and it puts you three minutes from the Luxembourg Gardens to spend the rest of the afternoon.
Parcours des Mondes: 50 tribal art galleries open their doors in Saint-Germain
Why go: for six days, around fifty galleries in Saint-Germain-des-Prés give their windows over to the arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Asia, joined by dealers from London, Brussels and New York. This is the 25th edition. Most of what you see will disappear into private collections and never be publicly visible again — and unlike a museum, you can pick things up in conversation with the person who found them.
When: Tuesday 8 to Sunday 13 September 2026
Where: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, around rue des Beaux-Arts, rue de Seine, rue Visconti and rue Jacob, Paris 6th
Getting there: metro line 4 to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, or lines 4 and 10 to Odéon
Cost: free — the galleries are open to all — map and exhibitor list on the official Parcours des Mondes site
Tip: push the doors open — that is the whole point of the format. These galleries are intimidating the rest of the year and completely welcoming during these six days, and most dealers speak English. Start on rue des Beaux-Arts, which is the densest stretch, and finish on rue de Seine so you end up near the cafés rather than walking back.
3. Concerts, Shows and Evenings Out
Jay-Z marks 30 years at the Stade de France
Why go: “JAŸ-Z 30”, a single French date for three decades of work — and the first American rapper to headline the Stade de France since Eminem in 2013. If you happen to be in Paris this Thursday, it is the biggest thing happening in the city by a distance.
When: Thursday, September 10, 2026, doors early evening
Where: Stade de France, Saint-Denis, just north of Paris
Getting there: RER B to La Plaine – Stade de France, or RER D to Stade de France – Saint-Denis; about 20 minutes from central Paris
Cost: varies widely by category — official Stade de France ticketing
Tip: plan the way back before you go. The RER B after a full stadium means an hour standing, which is a poor end to the evening. Leave via RER D on the Saint-Denis side instead — it is consistently less crowded — or simply decide in advance to stay on the esplanade for twenty extra minutes and let the crush clear. Do not buy from unofficial resale sites; ticket checks at this venue are strict.
Céline Dion opens her Paris residency
Why go: this is the first of 26 dates spread between autumn 2026 and spring 2027, in Europe’s largest indoor arena. Demand was such that six extra dates were added. Whatever you think of the repertoire, the opening night of a residency of this scale is an event in its own right.
When: Saturday, September 12, 2026
Where: Plenitude Arena (formerly Paris La Défense Arena), 99 jardin de l’Arche, Nanterre — just west of Paris, not in the city itself
Getting there: RER A or metro line 1 to La Défense – Grande Arche, then a 10-minute walk
Cost: varies by category, and resale prices are steep — official Plenitude Arena ticketing
Tip: leave by Nanterre-Préfecture rather than La Défense afterwards. The RER A at La Défense after a 40,000-person show means around 45 minutes on the platform, and almost nobody walks the extra ten minutes to the quieter station. Tickets are name-bound on this residency, so unofficial resale genuinely will not get you in.
Billy Corgan plays Mellon Collie at the Salle Pleyel, two nights
Why go: the Smashing Pumpkins frontman revisits “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, the 1995 double album that defined a decade of alternative rock. Two nights in a 2,400-seat hall with acoustics far better than the arenas this repertoire usually lands in — and, unusually for a rock show in Paris, everyone is seated.
When: Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 September 2026, 8 pm
Where: Salle Pleyel, 252 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris 8th
Getting there: metro lines 1, 2 and 6 to Charles de Gaulle – Étoile, then a 6-minute walk; or line 2 to Ternes
Cost: from around €50 — official Salle Pleyel box office
Tip: the Tuesday consistently has more availability than the Wednesday. And at Pleyel, the side seats in the first balcony often cost half what the stalls do for honestly better sound — this is a hall where where you sit matters more than how close you are.
4. Free Things to Do This Week
No free-museum Sunday this week, but Paris Design Week more than makes up for it — three of the four below are part of it.
Tout est Chaos at the Gaîté Lyrique — free, four days only
Why go: 75 designers, architects and artists brought together by Christopher Dessus around one question: what is left of an object once you strip away its usefulness? Suspended lighting by CLUZEL/PLUCHON, Arita porcelain by Baptiste Meyniel, terracotta lamps by Samy Rio, a wood collection by matali crasset. It is the most finished thing in the whole Design Week, and it costs nothing.
When: Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026, 11 am to 7 pm — four days only
Where: Gaîté Lyrique, 3 bis rue Papin, Paris 3rd
Getting there: metro lines 3, 4, 8, 9 and 11 to Réaumur – Sébastopol or Arts et Métiers
Cost: free — details on the Gaîté Lyrique website
Tip: the free guided tours on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13, at 2 pm and 4 pm, are worth booking — they are given in French, but the objects carry the argument and the vocabulary is simple. Places go within about 48 hours.
Anthony Guerrée among the sculptures at the Musée Bourdelle — free
Why go: the designer places his own pieces among Antoine Bourdelle’s plasters and bronzes, and the effect is quietly disorienting: you stop being sure what is furniture and what is sculpture, and you look at the Bourdelles harder because of it. Purely visual, and free.
When: Tuesday 8 to Sunday 27 September 2026 — closed Mondays
Where: Musée Bourdelle, 18 rue Antoine-Bourdelle, Paris 15th
Getting there: metro lines 4, 6, 12 and 13 to Montparnasse – Bienvenüe, then 5 minutes on foot
Cost: free, as is the museum’s permanent collection — event listing on paris.fr
Tip: the Bourdelle is the most under-visited free museum in Paris, and the original studio and sculpture garden justify the trip on their own. Come late morning, when the light comes through the studio’s glass roof — it is the only hour when the white plasters really work.
Ma vie en capitale on the railings of the Hôtel de Ville — free
Why go: large-format portraits of Parisians with unusual lives, mounted along the railings of the City Hall and drawn from an Instagram series. It is the kind of open-air show you expect to walk past in thirty seconds and end up spending ten minutes on. Captions are in French, but the photographs carry it.
When: 1 September to 1 October 2026, permanently on view
Where: railings of the Hôtel de Ville, rue de Rivoli, central Paris
Getting there: metro lines 1 and 11 to Hôtel de Ville — a 5-minute walk from Notre-Dame
Cost: free — City of Paris official what’s-on listing
Tip: go after 8 pm. The panels are lit, the square is empty, and you can actually read them instead of being pushed along by the rue de Rivoli crowd. Cross the Pont d’Arcole afterwards for the Île de la Cité — it is two minutes away and the best-lit short walk in the centre.
Jaguar Sun and Thala at the Supersonic, Monday night — free
Why go: two guitar bands in the 200-capacity venue in the 12th that built its whole model on free entry. You see acts that will be charging €25 elsewhere next year, and you pay nothing at the door. Music needs no translation, and it is the easiest possible Monday night in Paris.
When: Monday, September 7, 2026, evening
Where: Supersonic, 9 rue Biscornet, Paris 12th
Getting there: metro lines 1, 5 and 8 to Bastille, rue de Lyon exit — 3 minutes on foot
Cost: free — City of Paris official what’s-on listing
Tip: free does not mean free of obligation — the venue survives on bar takings, and turning up on a Monday without buying a drink is exactly what kills this model. Arrive around 8:30 pm for the support act, which is usually where the discovery is.
5. What to Do in Paris with a Teenager
Three outings that will hold a 13-to-17-year-old for longer than twenty minutes: street art inside a fine art museum, a street food night in Belleville, and an arena show on Tuesday.
We Are (Still) Here: street art at the Petit Palais — free
Why go: 75 urban artists and nearly 200 works, some in the Concorde Room and — more interestingly — slipped in among the nineteenth-century permanent collection. It is curated by Mehdi Ben Cheikh, the gallerist behind the open-air murals of the 13th arrondissement; two thirds of the artists are French, in dialogue with an international scene. Works by Seth and Inti have now entered the museum’s collection outright.
When: through Sunday, September 20, 2026, Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm — closed Mondays
Where: Petit Palais, avenue Winston-Churchill, Paris 8th — a 5-minute walk from the Champs-Élysées
Getting there: metro line 1 or 13 to Champs-Élysées – Clemenceau, Petit Palais exit
Age: no age restriction; the format works best from about 12 or 13 upwards
Cost: free — exhibition listing on L’Officiel des spectacles
Tip: do not start in the Concorde Room. Go the other way — enter through the permanent collection and let your teenager spot the contemporary pieces hidden between the nineteenth-century paintings themselves. Turning it into a hunt is what keeps a teenager in a fine art museum for an hour; the main room then looks after itself. The interior garden and its café are the best free pause in the 8th.
Le Food Market in Belleville celebrates its 100th edition — free entry
Why go: Paris’s most established street food night marks its hundredth edition by bringing back its best stalls — Loaf’s bánh mì, Blend’s burgers, Soma Sando’s corn dogs, Brazilian sandwiches from Trigo, pastrami from Cercer. Add hot sauce tastings, local craft beer and cider and a brass band. It is loud, crowded and exactly what that age group actually wants from an evening.
When: Thursday, September 10, 2026, 6 pm to 10:30 pm
Where: boulevard de Belleville, between Ménilmontant and Couronnes, Paris 20th
Getting there: metro line 2 to Ménilmontant or Couronnes
Age: no restriction; minors are welcome accompanied, and the bar area is the only place anyone checks
Cost: free entry; budget €8 to €12 a plate — details of the 100th edition
Tip: arrive at 6 pm, not 8. Between 8 and 9:30 pm every stall has a twenty-minute queue, which destroys the entire point of the format — tasting five different things. Walk the whole boulevard first without buying anything, then double back to the two or three you picked. It is also the only way not to spend €30 in ten minutes.
The Neighbourhood at the Accor Arena
Why go: the Californian band’s Wourld Tour reaches Bercy on Tuesday, and their audience skews almost entirely to the 14-to-20 bracket — which makes this a rare arena show where a teenager is not the odd one out. The Accor Arena is inside Paris, which matters for the journey home.
When: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Where: Accor Arena, 8 boulevard de Bercy, Paris 12th
Getting there: metro lines 6 and 14 to Bercy — a direct 10-minute ride from Châtelet on line 14
Age: no minimum age, but under-16s must be accompanied by an adult; standing floor tickets are not the place for a first concert
Cost: varies by category — official Accor Arena page
Tip: take line 14 rather than line 6 on the way out. Line 14 is automated, runs every 90 seconds and empties Bercy far faster, and it drops you at Châtelet or Gare de Lyon for onward connections. If your teenager wants the floor, get there for doors — the barrier goes in the first fifteen minutes and there is no later chance.
For more ideas at that age, see our guide to the best things to do in Paris with teenagers and young adults.
6. Paris for Couples This Week
Three evenings, from free to genuinely expensive, each with the right time slot and something to do afterwards.
The Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries, its final flights — free
Why go: the 30-metre ring and its electric flame — made of water and light, with nothing burning — rises above the round pond of the Tuileries every evening, to more than 60 metres. This is the last week it exists: it comes down after September 14. It is free, it is genuinely beautiful, and it is far more moving in person than it sounds on paper.
When: through Monday, September 14, 2026 — final week. It lifts off at sunset, around 8:15 pm, and stays up until 2 am
Where: Jardin des Tuileries, the round pond on the Louvre side, Paris 1st
Getting there: metro line 1 to Tuileries or Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, line 7 to Pyramides
The right slot: be there by 7:45 pm so you watch it rise rather than find it already airborne
Cost: free — times and weather conditions on paris.fr
Tip: stand on the west side of the pond with your back to the Louvre. You get the cauldron, the obelisk and the sunset on one axis — which nine people in ten miss by standing on the opposite side. Afterwards, walk up rue Saint-Honoré to the Palais-Royal: the arcades are lit until 11 pm and the cafés on place Colette serve late. The garden itself closes before full dark, so leave by the rue de Rivoli gate rather than lingering.
The Night Fountains Show at Versailles, Saturday evening
Why go: the groves of the park lit up, the fountains running, light installations along the alleys, and a finale of more than 500 drones and fireworks by Groupe F above the Grand Canal. You walk for two hours through a Le Nôtre garden after dark. It is the single most spectacular evening available anywhere near Paris, and only two Saturdays remain in the season.
When: Saturday, September 12, 2026, 8:30 pm to 11:05 pm — the season ends on September 19
Where: gardens of the Palace of Versailles, about 20 km west of Paris
Getting there: RER C to Versailles Château – Rive Gauche, then a 10-minute walk; roughly 45 minutes from central Paris
The right slot: go in at 8:30 pm and do the groves first; save the Grand Canal for 10:30 pm, just before the finale
Cost: around €36; this is a separate ticketed event and is not covered by the Paris Museum Pass — Château de Versailles Spectacles booking
Tip: eat before you go, not on site. The food outlets in the park are expensive, overwhelmed and poor, and they are what spoils this evening for most people. Take an RER C around 7 pm, eat in the Notre-Dame quarter of Versailles, then go in at opening. Flat shoes are not optional — the gravel is punishing. And the last RER C back leaves around 11:50 pm, so do not stay for the very last second of the finale. See also our guide to the Palace of Versailles.
An evening at the Atelier des Lumières
Why go: a former iron foundry in the 11th where paintings are projected floor to ceiling across 3,300 square metres, with the music at full volume. It is the rare immersive attraction that actually earns the word: you sit on the floor in the dark and let it happen. Better still, there is something almost nobody realises — the Atelier is not showing one exhibition but four, and which one you get depends on the day of the week.
When: this week — “Renaissance” on Tuesday and Saturday, “Van Gogh” on Monday, Thursday and Friday, “Le Petit Prince” on Wednesday and Sunday, and “Coldplay: A Film for the Future” on Friday and Saturday
Where: Atelier des Lumières, 38 rue Saint-Maur, Paris 11th
Getting there: metro line 3 to Rue Saint-Maur, or lines 2 and 3 to Père Lachaise
The right slot: the last session of the evening on a Monday or Thursday — the two quietest days, which changes everything in a room where people stand in front of the projection
Cost: from around €19.50 — official Atelier des Lumières ticketing
Tip: check which programme is running on your date before you book — buying a ticket for “the Atelier des Lumières” and getting the show you did not want is the classic mistake here. Afterwards you are five minutes from rue Oberkampf and rue Jean-Pierre-Timbaud, which is where Paris actually goes out on a weeknight, and where you will still get a table at 10 pm without a reservation.
For more ideas for two, see our guide to romantic things to do in Paris.
7. Walks, Markets and Slower Ideas
La Fête à Neu-Neu, the autumn funfair — free entry
Why go: over sixty rides set up in the Bois de Boulogne near the lower lake — thrill rides, shooting galleries, churros and waffles. It is the September funfair, a genuinely local institution rather than a tourist attraction, and walking in costs nothing.
When: through October 11, 2026 — Monday to Thursday 2 pm to midnight, Friday 2 pm to 1 am, Saturday 11 am to 1 am, Sunday 11 am to midnight
Where: Bois de Boulogne, pelouse de la Muette, Paris 16th
Getting there: metro line 9 to Rue de la Pompe, or RER C to Avenue Henri Martin
Cost: free entry; rides €4 to €7 each, cash still useful — hours and access on paris.fr
Tip: come on a weekday in the late afternoon: queues are short and the operators often discount rides in the early evening. At the weekend you wait twice as long for the same ride.
The Pré Catelan and the Shakespeare Garden — free
Why go: deep inside the Bois de Boulogne sits a Second Empire landscaped park, and at its centre a garden planted only with species mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays — Macbeth’s heath, the forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, each in its own enclosure, arranged around an open-air theatre. It is one of the strangest and quietest corners of Paris, almost no visitors find it, and it costs nothing.
When: all week, sunrise to sunset
Where: Pré Catelan, route de Suresnes, Bois de Boulogne, Paris 16th
Getting there: metro line 2 to Porte Dauphine then bus 244, or line 1 to Les Sablons and a 20-minute walk through the woods
Cost: free — Pré Catelan and Shakespeare Garden on paris.fr
Tip: go before 11 am, the only hour when the woods are genuinely silent, and note that the Shakespeare Garden’s enclosures are not always all open in the afternoon. Bring water: there is nothing on site except the Pré Catelan restaurant, which is a Michelin-starred dining room rather than a place to refill a bottle.
The Coulée verte René-Dumont, above the 12th
Why go: the disused railway viaduct that became an elevated garden in 1993 — the original that New York’s High Line was modelled on, and still the better walk of the two. Four and a half kilometres from Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes, ten metres up, past first-floor windows and over the traffic. September is its best month, when the roses have gone over and the grasses take charge.
When: all week, from 8 am on weekdays and 9 am at weekends until dusk
Where: starts on avenue Daumesnil just behind the Opéra Bastille, Paris 12th
Getting there: metro lines 1, 5 and 8 to Bastille; exit rue de Lyon and look for the staircase on avenue Daumesnil
Cost: free — Coulée verte René-Dumont on paris.fr
Tip: walk it east to west rather than the usual direction — you finish at Bastille with somewhere to eat instead of at the ring road with nothing. And come down at Ledru-Rollin to look at the Viaduc des Arts underneath: the arches house craft workshops, and watching a violin being made through a window is the best free thing in the 12th.
Good to Know This Week
- Closing days matter more than anything else. The Louvre closes on Tuesday. The Musée d’Orsay, the Orangerie, the Musée Picasso, the Quai Branly, the Petit Palais, the Musée Bourdelle and most City of Paris museums close on Monday. The Musée Maillol is open on Mondays and is the easiest fix for a Monday in Paris. Plan around this and the week works; ignore it and you lose a day.
- There is no free-museum Sunday this week. The first-Sunday-of-the-month scheme fell on September 6; the next one is October 4. Budget for tickets, and note that your Paris Museum Pass covers the Quai Branly and the Musée d’Orsay but not the Jeu de Paume, the Musée Maillol or the Versailles Night Fountains, which are separately ticketed.
- No French public holiday falls this week, so everything runs to a normal schedule. The next one is November 1. Schools went back on September 1, which means fuller metro trains between 8 and 9:30 am and again from 5 to 6:30 pm — but also that the restaurants and small shops that shut for August have all reopened.
- Book the closing shows now, not on the day. Youssef Nabil at Orsay ends on Sunday 13 and the Olympic cauldron on the 14th. Orsay requires a timed slot even with a Museum Pass, and last-day slots for a closing exhibition typically disappear two or three days ahead.
- Dress for two temperatures. Afternoons are still warm, but the sun now sets around 8:15 pm and it cools off fast — which matters for the Tuileries cauldron, the Versailles gardens and the Belleville food market, all of which are outdoors after dark. Carry a layer and something waterproof: September is when the rain comes back to Paris.
That is the week of September 7 to 13, 2026. It is a hinge week: summer closes with the last flights of the Olympic cauldron and the end of the Orsay show, and the season opens with Design Week. If you only do one thing, make it the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries on a weekday evening, at around 7:45 pm — it is free, it will not be back, and standing in a Paris garden watching a flame of water and light rise over the obelisk is a better last night of summer than anything you could book.
Planning further ahead? Our guide to Paris in September 2026 covers Cézanne at the Grand Palais, the European Heritage Days on 19 and 20 September and the Techno Parade. And if you are only here for a few days, see what to do in Paris this weekend.
This page is updated every Monday, so come back next week for a fresh list. Have a great week in Paris.
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