Better to go in May around end of month or end of September? Also less rain days in May or September ? Thinking of going on 13 days Rome heart of France tour! Kinda like cold but want least amount of rain!
Posted by
Minneapolis
1219 posts
Hi jana. Check weatherbase.com. Has this info for thousands of different places in the world. Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6552 posts
Here's another thread on this very board discussing a very similar topic.
I'd guess late May is a better bet than late September for dry weather, plus you'll have more daylight, plus more flowers.
Posted by
Medford, OR, USA
5836 posts
Posted by
Lebanon
711 posts
I suppose it depends on where you go in France....my husband is a photographer and we love the Fall in France.We go in September and stay until late October... The colors of the grape vines and trees in Burgundy are spectacular .
Posted by
Medford, OR, USA
5836 posts
The only bad weather for photographers is sheets of rain coming is sideways where camera gear is at risk unless you have a water resultant camera. Unfortunalely most historic climate reports don't distinguish between days with gentle female precipitation and malevolent male rainstorms. Fog, gentle rain, snow make for more interesting images.
And there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.
Posted by
Honolulu/Seattle, HI/WA, USA
2788 posts
Click on the RS France tour that covers the area of France that you will be visiting and look down on the list of items related to that tour and you will find WEATHER. Click on that to get annual averages of high and low temperatures and number of rain free days.
Posted by
Paris
9667 posts
It can be beautiful or it can be rainy in either of those months. There's no way to know ahead of time.
Although end of September getting more iffy than end of May, for sure.
Posted by
Grasse
43 posts
Hi jana
Weather conditions in September tend to be marginally better than May on the whole. Advantages of May are there are no bugs to bite you and everywhere is lovely and fresh and green and you get the tail end of snow on the mountains in places like the Alpes Maritimes. In September you get the start of the Autumn colours, grapes on the vines, warmer sea etc but still plenty of mossies, wasps, horse flies etc.
If you really want some sort of guarantee regarding the weather then head for the cote d'azur which is great both in May (sea still a little cool) and September.
Best
Peter H.
Posted by
Grasse
43 posts
Yes Ben your right I was speaking for where I live, here the mountain air of the Alpes Maritimes is cold in the winter and it tends to see the mossies off except right down by the coast, they only really get going again mid June. There's always some...
When I lived in the Dordogne it was wasps which bothered us most in summer, with all the ripe fruit around. Up in the high mountains here the spring months are much better as the horse flies render it hellish in summer, we were up cycling on a local plateau at 1100 metres a couple of weeks ago and my wife got bitten by one which made her leg swell over an area of 15 cms. These things do mess with your enjoyment...
Best
Peter