Thanksgiving in Paris: A New Tradition Worth Traveling For

What if Thanksgiving this year meant waking up in Paris?

Imagine starting the day with warm croissants from your neighborhood boulangerie, taking a morning walk along the Seine, visiting a favorite museum, and returning to your own Paris apartment to gather around the table with family and friends.

Thanksgiving may be quintessentially American, but its most important traditions—good food, gratitude, family, friends, and time spent together—feel perfectly at home in Paris.

And with Thanksgiving falling on Thursday, November 26, 2026, the holiday creates the perfect opportunity to turn a long weekend into an unforgettable Paris getaway.

Why Spend Thanksgiving in Paris?

Late November is an underrated time to experience the French capital. The busiest tourist season has passed, the city has returned to its everyday Parisian rhythm, and the first signs of the Christmas season are appearing throughout Paris.

The weather is cooler, inviting long lunches, museum afternoons, neighborhood cafés, and evenings spent around a table. You can wander Saint-Germain-des-Prés, explore Le Marais, browse food markets, shop the grands magasins, or simply stroll along the Seine without the intensity of summer crowds.

And there’s one particularly appealing advantage for American travelers: Thanksgiving isn’t a French public holiday.

While much of America closes for the day, Paris continues as usual. Museums, cafés, boutiques, markets, and restaurants make Thanksgiving Thursday an opportunity to enjoy a full day in the city—and celebrate your American holiday afterward.

Your Own Thanksgiving Table in Paris

For families and groups of friends, renting an apartment can transform Thanksgiving from a vacation into a true gathering.

Instead of returning to separate hotel rooms, everyone can come home to a shared living room, gather for drinks, cook together, and sit around a real dining table for Thanksgiving dinner.

And shopping for the feast is half the fun.

Visit a neighborhood market for seasonal produce, stop at the boucherie for the centerpiece of your meal, choose cheeses from the fromagerie, pick up still-warm baguettes from the boulangerie, and leave dessert to a Parisian pâtissier.

You can recreate Thanksgiving exactly as you celebrate it at home—or give it a distinctly French interpretation.

Turkey and stuffing? Absolutely.

But perhaps add a beautiful cheese course, a tarte from the neighborhood pâtisserie, and Champagne instead of cider.

After all, you’re celebrating Thanksgiving in Paris.

Let Paris Do the Cooking

Not everyone wants to spend Thanksgiving in the kitchen, especially when Paris is waiting outside.

A number of Paris restaurants traditionally embrace the American holiday with special Thanksgiving menus. Depending on the restaurant, you might find everything from a classic turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie to a sophisticated French interpretation of the American feast.

Restaurants such as Ralph’s in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Joe Allen, Treize au Jardin, and other American and international addresses around Paris have offered Thanksgiving celebrations in recent years.

Menus and participating restaurants vary from year to year, so reservations should be made well in advance once Thanksgiving offerings are announced. Our Paris team will be happy to help with the arrangements!

The result can be the best of both worlds: Thanksgiving dinner prepared for you, followed by a walk through Paris on your way home.

Paris Is Beginning to Sparkle

Thanksgiving also arrives at a wonderful moment in the Paris calendar.

By late November, the city is beginning its transformation for Christmas. Holiday lights illuminate major avenues, department stores unveil their elaborate seasonal windows, and festive decorations begin appearing in neighborhoods throughout the capital.

The famous grands magasins—Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, Le Bon Marché and others—make holiday shopping an experience in itself.

It’s early enough to enjoy the anticipation of the Christmas season without traveling during the busiest days immediately surrounding Christmas and New Year’s.

More Paris, Fewer Summer Crowds

November offers something that’s increasingly precious in Paris: room to slow down.

Instead of racing between attractions, spend an afternoon at the Louvre or Musée d’Orsay. Discover one of Paris’s smaller museums. Browse galleries in Saint-Germain. Find a favorite neighborhood café and stay for another coffee.

Cooler weather also gives Paris a different personality. Café terraces glow beneath heaters and awnings, restaurants feel cozy, and returning to your own apartment at the end of the day becomes part of the pleasure.

This is Paris for travelers who want to experience the city rather than simply check landmarks off a list.

Turn Thanksgiving Into a Paris Family Tradition

Thanksgiving is ultimately about being together.

That makes it an especially good opportunity for a multi-generational family trip, a reunion with adult children, a getaway for several couples, or a Friendsgiving celebration with people you don’t see often enough.

Arrive a few days before Thanksgiving. Give everyone time to explore Paris. Gather for the holiday itself. Then stay through the weekend and enjoy the beginning of the festive season.

Years later, you may not remember every Thanksgiving dinner you had at home.

But chances are everyone will remember the year you celebrated Thanksgiving in Paris.

Find Your Paris Home for Thanksgiving

For more than two decades, our team has helped travelers experience Paris from the comfort and privacy of their own home away from home.

Our handpicked collection includes everything from intimate apartments for couples to spacious multi-bedroom residences suited to families and groups, with generous living areas, fully equipped kitchens, dining rooms, elevators, balconies, terraces, and other amenities depending on the property.

And once you’re here, our experienced bilingual team on the ground in Paris is available to help make your stay comfortable and seamless.

Thanksgiving properties—particularly larger apartments where families and friends can comfortably gather—are limited.

So gather the people you love, choose your Paris home, and make Thanksgiving 2026 the one everyone remembers.

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