In the Marais the day of the week decides more than the month. The museums close on Monday, the Mémorial de la Shoah on Saturday, and on Sunday the shops open and the crowds follow. Pick your day first, then the Le Marais guided tours that fit it.
You can walk into the Marais at any hour, and the streets never close. What changes from one day to the next is everything behind a door. Read the table across before you fix a date, because a Monday walk followed by a museum does not work.
| Day | Carnavalet, Victor Hugo, Picasso, mahJ | Mémorial de la Shoah | Enfants Rouges market | Shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | Open 10:00–18:00 | Closed | Open |
| Tuesday | Open | Open 10:00–18:00 | Open | Open |
| Wednesday | Open; the mahJ to 21:00 | Open 10:00–18:00 | Open | Open |
| Thursday | Open | Open to 21:00 | Open | Open |
| Friday | Open | Open 10:00–18:00 | Open | Open |
| Saturday | Open | Closed | Open | Open |
| Sunday | Open; the Picasso free on the first Sunday | Open 10:00–18:00 | Open | Open: the Marais is an international tourist zone |
Museum hours are each museum's own. The Carnavalet, the Maison de Victor Hugo and the Musée Picasso open Tuesday to Sunday. The mahJ opens from Tuesday, with Wednesday evenings to 21:00. The Mémorial de la Shoah is open every day but Saturday, and on Thursday until 21:00.
If you only have a Monday, spend it outdoors. These close for the day:
What stays open on a Monday: the Mémorial de la Shoah, the Hôtel de Sully courtyard, the gardens and every street. A walking tour loses nothing on a Monday.
The Rue des Rosiers is the axis of the old Jewish quarter, and Saturday is the Sabbath. The Mémorial de la Shoah closes that day. The nearby school on the Rue des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais still closes on Saturdays, as it has since the 19th century, because most of its pupils are Jewish.
If the Jewish quarter is why you came, choose another day. A Sunday or a weekday lets you see the Mémorial as well as the street.
Most of Paris shuts its shops on a Sunday. The Marais does not, because it is one of the city's international tourist zones, where shops may trade on Sundays and in the evening. The zone includes the Haut-Marais and the Ile Saint-Louis.
That makes Sunday the fullest day of the week. It is also the first Sunday of the month that the Musée Picasso is free, so expect a queue then.
The gardens open first: 8:00 on weekdays and 9:00 at weekends, on the city's September hours. The Musée Picasso opens at 9:30 and most other museums at 10:00. A history walk suits a morning, when the courtyards are quiet.
A food walk suits the middle of the day. It runs three to three and a half hours and replaces your lunch. The four-hour Jewish history walk stops for lunch at L'As du Fallafel, which you pay for yourself. On a Wednesday or a Thursday, you can finish the day at the mahJ or the Mémorial, which stay open to 21:00.
Every walk shows its own start times when you choose a date. Book the morning for history and the middle of the day for food.
Every walk here is outdoors, so the season decides what you wear. It rarely decides whether you go. The figures are Météo-France's 1991–2020 normals for Paris-Montsouris, summed across each season's three months. The month-by-month version is on the weather page.
| Season | Rain days (1 mm or more) | Days of 25 °C or more | Sunshine | What it means for a walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring: March–May | 27 | 7 | 513 hours | Cool mornings and the garden in leaf; May is the wettest month of the year |
| Summer: June–August | 24 | 42 | 641 hours | Warm and long; hot afternoons on the food walks |
| Autumn: September–November | 27 | 6 | 363 hours | Mild in September, darker and wetter by November |
| Winter: December–February | 30 | 0 | 200 hours | Short days and the most rain days; the walks still run |
Winter has the most rain days, but not the most rain: May is the wettest single month, at 69 mm. Summer has 42 days of 25 °C or more on average, and those are the afternoons when a three-hour food walk is hard work.
Plan the rest of your day around those dates. The meeting points are on the meeting-point map.
Two and a half hours on foot from Saint-Paul, eleven stops from the Jesuit church to city hall, and the Jewish quarter from the street. No food, twelve people at most, rain or shine.
From $64 per person
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Three hours from the Saint-Paul merry-go-round: a croissant, a croque-monsieur, cheese, falafel, macarons and chocolate, with red and white wine. Most of it eaten standing.
From $104 per person
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Four hours on the Jewish history of the district, from the statue of Louis XIII in the royal square. Lunch at a falafel counter is on your own bill, and the minimum age is eleven.
From $117 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: read the months on Le Marais weather, choose a base on where to stay, or compare every walk on Le Marais Paris Tours.