Summer 2025 is upon us here in Paris, and the events program promises to be magnifique! We can’t wait for you to join us, so that the fun can begin!  Here’s our pick of what’s on offer: 

21 June: Fete de la Musique

Every Midsummer is the Music Festival, or Fête de la Musique, brought to you by the same guy who thought up the Musée d’Orsay, and it’s just as genius! It’s also a great way to rub shoulders with locals since everyone turns out for a city-wide open-air party. Warming up around 5 pm, ever corner of the city floats with music of all and any description, world music, garage rock, pop, opera, jazz, dance: any and all free for the taking. While the public part of the festival closes at midnight, our fairy godmothers in the bars and pubs will keep things humming well past pumpkin hour. To top it off, much of the métro will stay open after hours, along with some buses and RERs running into the dawn. Keep informed of which lines and specific stops to be sure.

What makes this year special?

•  It falls on a Saturday this year so Parisians will be ready to party.
• The Olympic Flame will come back to Paris, its 2024 host city, to the Tuileries Gardens. Every evening until September 14, the flame will be lit at 10 am, and, as weather permits, its cauldron will take off with its balloon as the sun sets. The gardens will close an hour later, which should be 10:30 pm for June and July, while August’s closing will be at 9:30 pm and 8:30 pm for September.

• Inauguration of the “greening” of the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) de Paris and its salons. In keeping with the environmental policies of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, an “urban forest” has been created on the square in the fight against “heat islands” of Paris’s Haussmanian city blocks, built long ago for a colder world. Live music acts will celebrate its official opening in honor of the coinciding date of the Fête de la Musique.

2-4 July: Festival FNAC Live   

 Still not enough music? Paris is at your service! The FNAC megastore will host its own free festival for the thirteenth year in a row, with three whole days of concerts – some twenty different acts – starting at 5 pm in the very urban forests of Mayor Hidalgo: put on your dancing shoes and keep your eyes here for the program https://leclaireur.fnac.com/festival/fnac-live-paris/

5 July: Paris Plages

Paris-Plages opens again! Since the aughts, an early summer Seine-side stroll under soaring temps might lead you to think you were at a seaside resort, complete with lawn chairs, sun-brellas, and sandy “beaches” looking out over the river. It’s loads of fun for the city dwellers who can’t get away for the usual summer exodus, but everyone is welcome!

What makes this year special? 

• Swimming in the Seine! Parisians have been bathing in the Seine since before the Sun King’s time, but the practice has been illegal since 1923, pollution and modern germ theory having caught up with it. For the last hundred plus years no one would so much as stick a toe in the Seine. Mayors have long promised to clean it up, but it was Anne Hidalgo who delivered, as 4 billion people witnessed for the Olympics. Now, there are three free bathing spots in the Seine open to the public- all with accessible parts for those with reduced mobility!

• Opposite the Île Saint-Louis (with its famous Berthillon ice cream), hard by Paris Plages, there is the Bras Marie on the Parc des Rives de Seine: It might be the most picturesque
• Opposite Mitterand’s Grande Bibliothèque, France’s National Library, where scholars will still diligently be at the research. You, however, being on holiday can swim and gloat (just a bit) while they are at their drudgery. This just below the Parc de Bercy at the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge.
• Opposite the Île aux Cygnes, (“Swans’ Island”), just a hop skip and jump from the Champs de Mars (no you may not dive from the Eiffel Tower!), the Grenelle bathing spot boasts a safe pool for families and children.
• If none of those appeal, more free swimming relief from a sizzling Paris can be found at the more student-y areas of the Canal Saint-Martin and the Bassin de la Villette.

6 July: Carnaval Tropical

So you couldn’t decide between Paris and Rio? We have the perfect solution: No sooner does Paris-Plages open than the tropical rhythms rain down in the form of a Brazilian carnaval for the 25^th year in a row. The Caribbean will join in this parade Made-in-the-Latin-America marching along the Champs-Elysées. It gears up at high noon and launches at 1 pm, staging their grand finale on avenue Winston Churchill, between the Grand and Petit Palais. 

14 Juillet: Bastille Day - Concert, Fireworks & Dances

• Get to the Champ de Mars or the Jardins du Trocadéro for an unforgettable view of the fireworks against the Eiffel Tower backdrop, with this year’s theme honoring the friendship between France and Brazil. Find a place early, and when we say, early, we mean an early picnic lunch with the whole crew and stake out your spot. Don’t forget your corkscrew.
• By 9 pm there’ll be a classical orchestra to entertain you in your wait.
• Fireman’s Ball – a tradition since 1937, so they say: you can go to the firefighters’ barracks which host a dance for all comers, according to the station, from the 12^th -14^th July. 

25, 26, 27 July Fête de la Seine

We can’t stop, won’t stop, for there is so much to celebrate during the dogdays of summer, now we’ll try to keep up a bit with that Olympic spirit with the Seine Festival.

•  Return of Beach Volley Ball you’ll recall from the Olympics!
•  Saturday 26, come show off your hidden talents at a giant karaoke stand on the Place du Châtelet!

27 July: Last stage of the Tour de France in Montmartre and on the Champs Elysées

For Tour de France afficionados: who will win the most grueling sports event in the world? When the cyclists come in, they’ll have covered 3,320 km (2,060 miles) of mountains and valleys, vineyards and châteaux, over three weeks of nearly nonstop cycling starting from Lille on 5 July. You can see them speeding up the cobblestones to the top of the Butte Montmartre (bets are on rue Lepic) towards journey’s end. For the finish line, they’ll circle the Arc de Triomphe eight times. Find out who will carry off the yellow Jersey on the Most Beautiful Avenue in the World.  

25 August: Liberation of Paris

86 years ago, on an August afternoon, Parisians and allies threw the Fascists’ boots back in Nazi faces after four long, dark years of Occupation, and voilà the Capital was once again in the hands of its own people. Dancing in the street does not begin to cover the joy of that day. Come celebrate once more that victory of liberty, of life, of hope.

Angelissa, Siobhan & the Memories France Family

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our blog! We are a small Paris-based tour guide company that prioritises a boutique personal experience where we can share our passion for our heritage and community with every individual that joins us. If you'd like to take a tour then head over to our website for an unforgettable trip to the city of lights. Also, check out our social media @memories.france for everything you could need to know for coming to Paris - from how to use the metro to coffee shops closest to each major monument - there is something for everyone!

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