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Thanksgiving in Paris 2026: What to Do in the Last Week of November

By Basile Segalen

Co-founder of Timescope

Published October 10, 2026

The avenue des Champs-Élysées pedestrianised at night, trees wrapped in white Christmas lights, the Arc de Triomphe at the end

Every year in the last week of November, Paris fills up with Americans who have swapped the family table for a long weekend abroad, and most of them arrive with the same question: does the city do anything for Thanksgiving? The honest answer is no. Thursday 26 November 2026 is an ordinary working day in France, with no parade, no football and no pumpkin on the menu. The better answer is that this is precisely the best week of the autumn to be here: the Christmas lights have just come on, the markets have just opened, and the queues of the summer are a distant memory.

Thanksgiving in Paris 2026, in short: Thursday 26 November is a normal day here, so museums are open (the Louvre all day, the musée d’Orsay until 9:45 pm for its Thursday late opening); the American Church in Paris holds an annual Thanksgiving Day service with the American Cathedral; a handful of American institutions serve turkey dinners that must be booked weeks ahead; the Champs-Élysées Christmas market opens on Sunday 22 November, the Tuileries market and ice rink have been running since the 14th, and the department-store windows since early November. The sun sets at 5:02 pm, the average temperature sits between 6 and 11 °C, and the city is as quiet as it gets.

Is Thanksgiving celebrated in Paris at all?

Not by the French, but the American community has kept the day for well over a century. The American Church in Paris, at 65 quai d’Orsay, a few minutes’ walk from the Eiffel Tower, holds an ecumenical Thanksgiving Day service each year together with the American Cathedral of avenue George-V, with the clergy and music of both churches and a representative of the US Embassy. Times for 2026 are published on their calendars in November. The American Library in Paris, on rue du Général-Camou, founded in 1920, is the other meeting point of the expatriate Thanksgiving.

For dinner, Paris has a small circuit of restaurants that traditionally serve turkey on the fourth Thursday of November: Joe Allen near Les Halles, the Breakfast in America diners, and a growing list of hotel dining rooms that publish a Thanksgiving menu in early November. The rule that never changes: book as soon as menus appear, because the tables go in days. If you are renting an apartment and cooking, know that whole turkeys are a Christmas bird in France and must be ordered from a butcher a week ahead.

Thursday 26 November: a working day, and that is the gift

The avenue des Champs-Élysées at night with its trees lit for Christmas, looking up towards the Arc de Triomphe

The Champs-Élysées in Christmas lights, looking up to the Arc de Triomphe. The avenue’s illuminations have been switched on in mid-November for the past two years; the 2026 date is announced in the autumn. Photo CC0.

Because France does not stop, nothing is closed. The Louvre is open from 9 am to 6 pm (it closes on Tuesdays, not Thursdays), and the musée d’Orsay keeps its Thursday late opening until 9:45 pm, which makes it the natural end of a Thanksgiving afternoon. Late November is the quietest stretch of the Parisian year: you will see the Mona Lisa without a periscope.

Then there is the light. On 26 November the sun sets at 5:02 pm, and full darkness comes about half an hour later. Our guide to the best sunset viewpoints in November explains where to stand; the short version for this week is the steps of the Sacré-Cœur, where the sun goes down just to the right of the Eiffel Tower.

And the Eiffel Tower itself is where we would send you for the early evening. On the Champ-de-Mars, The Symbol of Paris is a one-hour guided walk, in English, at the foot of the real tower: at each stop you raise the virtual-reality binoculars and the lawn around you becomes the 1889 World’s Fair, with its palaces, its crowds in hats, and Gustave Eiffel’s workshops in Levallois where the tower was first assembled. One scene is made for a November evening: the tower lit up in 1889, “a veritable blaze”. In the late-afternoon slots, the visit begins in daylight and ends with the real tower lit above the reconstructions. It runs Wednesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6:30 pm, from age 8, and it needs no French.

The Eiffel Tower lit up at night in 1889, with the Seine and the pavilions of the World's Fair below, as reconstructed by Timescope

The tower lit up in 1889, reconstructed for The Symbol of Paris. In late November, the last visits of the day end with the real tower lit above the virtual one.

Friday 27 November: Black Friday, or the Louvre by night

France has imported Black Friday, so the department stores of boulevard Haussmann are at their busiest on this Friday and the following weekend. If you want the windows without the crowd, go after 8 pm, when the stores have closed and the animated displays stay lit until late. The Printemps windows have opened in the first week of November in recent years and the Galeries Lafayette ones around the 12th; inside the Galeries, the giant tree under the 1912 glass dome is the one Christmas sight in Paris that costs nothing and asks for no queue.

The giant Christmas tree under the stained-glass dome of the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, decorated in red, with the balconies of the store around it

The tree under the dome of the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, November 2025. The 2026 tree is unveiled in mid-November. Photo CC0.

The alternative to shopping is the Louvre’s Friday late opening, until 9 pm (last entry at 8 pm): the Grande Galerie on a Friday night in November is as close to a private visit as the museum gets.

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November: markets and lights

The weekend is for walking. The Champs-Élysées Christmas market, on the lower part of the avenue near the Concorde, opens on Sunday 22 November and runs until 4 January; this is its first weekend. Across the place de la Concorde, the Tuileries Christmas market has been open since 14 November, with a hundred chalets and an open-air ice rink, until 3 January. The avenue’s Christmas lights, switched on in mid-November for the past two editions (16 November in 2025), should already be shining; the 2026 date is announced by the Champs-Élysées committee in the autumn.

If you have children, our December guide for families already applies in the last days of November. And for the week’s practical frame, our guide to Paris in November covers the rest of the month.

Five rules for Thanksgiving week in Paris

  1. Book the turkey first: Thanksgiving menus appear in early November and sell out in days.
  2. Use Thursday for the museums: it is a normal day in France, and the quietest week of the year.
  3. Plan for the dark: sunset at 5:02 pm. Outdoors before 4:30 pm, lights and museums after.
  4. Skip boulevard Haussmann on Friday afternoon: see the windows after 8 pm instead.
  5. Dress for 6 to 11 °C and rain: late November is damp, and the best plans are the ones with a warm café at the end.

Questions we are asked

Is Thanksgiving a public holiday in France? No. Thursday 26 November 2026 is an ordinary working day: shops, museums, restaurants and public transport run as usual. The following Friday is not a holiday either.

Are the Christmas lights on in Paris by Thanksgiving? Almost certainly. The department-store windows open in early November, the Tuileries market on 14 November, the Champs-Élysées market on 22 November, and the avenue’s illuminations have been switched on in mid-November for the past two years. Check the 2026 switch-on date once it is announced.

Can I watch the Macy’s parade or the football in Paris? Not on a screen in the street. With the six-hour time difference, the New York parade starts at 3 pm Paris time and the evening games run past midnight; some American bars in Paris screen them. Our suggestion is to spend the afternoon outdoors and the evening in a museum or at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and to stream the rest from the hotel.

In short

Thanksgiving in Paris 2026: an ordinary French Thursday, which is exactly its charm. A morning service at the American Church if you want one, the Louvre or the musée d’Orsay in the afternoon without the crowds, sunset at 5:02 pm, the Eiffel Tower lit above the 1889 World’s Fair, and a turkey booked weeks ahead. Friday for the Louvre by night rather than Black Friday, the weekend for the markets of the Champs-Élysées and the Tuileries, under lights that came on a few days before you did.

What if you were there? Time-travel in Paris. See the experiences

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