Should We Avoid the Weekend in Paris?

If you are talking about tourists sites it is more crowded on weekends versus Monday Tuesday Wednesday. That is the norm of any international city northern hemisphere in July with famous tourist sites.

But watch the closing days for the sites you want to enter.

On Sundays and Mondays, some restaurants will be closed.
Department stores will be open on Sunday, as will some shops in the Marais.
It might be crowded, depending on what you want to see and do.
If you're nervous, book tickets ahead of time.

On Sundays and Mondays, some restaurants will be closed.
Department stores will be open on Sunday, as will some shops in the Marais.
It might be crowded, depending on what you want to see and do.
If you're nervous, book tickets ahead of time.

On Sundays and Mondays, some restaurants will be closed.
Department stores will be open on Sunday, as will some shops in the Marais.
It might be crowded, depending on what you want to see and do.
If you're nervous, book tickets ahead of time.

Some museums may be closed on Monday while others may be closed on other days. If there are certain ones you wish to visit, check out their schedules and build around that.

"Should we avoid the weekend in Paris?"

No.

You can't avoid crowds by avoiding the weekends; there are crowds all the time.

As Chexbres mentioned, some restaurants and most shops will be closed on Sundays, but enough will be open for you to find something to do.

Just avoid visitîng museums on the 1st Sunday of the month. Them are free and always a madhouse.

It is often pointed out that Americans "live to work", but Europeans (and the French) "work to live".
people.hmdc.harvard.edu/~akozaryn/myweb/docs/finalworkto_live.pdf
The point is that FAMILY is the focus of weekends. Your tourist destinations will be just fine on weekends. In fact, they'll have more travelers than locals, most likely, because it's July. Have a good time. Don't overplan - your OP is a symptom of over-planning.

As noted, Mondays and other closing days are much more important than weekends, from your point of view. If you want the best advice, include your entire itinerary in your post. Your short OP is cryptic and abbreviated.

If you can try being in Paris on the 13 th and 14 th ! Great fireworks for Fete National , and believe or not while Louvre is feee that day it's no more crowded than usual

Versailles on a Sunday is not advised. We did it against Rick's advice on our 2010 France trip, and it was a total disaster--way overcrowded. This was in early June, later in the spring than we usually travel.

Tim's post is right concerning Sunday as family day. The noon meal at a restaurant is often a major family event and the one time it is common to see children at the bistro table. What's to avoid? Join in.

This is all wonderful info...Thanks so much! With assistance on my post in the General France forum, I've narrowed down our preliminary 14-day itinerary as follows (dates July 2018):

• Sun - Day 1: Fly JFK to Amsterdam
• Mon - Day 2: Amsterdam (3 nights)
• Thurs - Day 5: Arrive Bruges or Ostend (2 nights)
• Sat - Day 7: Arrive Bayeux via Lille (3 nights)
• Tues - Day 10: Arrive Paris (4 nights)
• Sat - Day 14: Fly home to JFK

This puts us in Paris Tues night, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Waiting for all of my RS travel guides to arrive in mail before I figure out the rest. But any feedback on the 'skeleton' itinerary is welcome.

There are only a few reasons to go to Ostend:
The painter James Ensor
The beach and swimming
The Casino
Heavy drinking on hot summer nights, i.e. Crowded barhopping
Boating, if you know a yachtowner.

It is an undistinguished postwar reasort with many reinforced concrete apartment buildings. Opinion.

Gotcha! We'll stay in Bruges....