Where to go in France in May?
The 15 best destinations for a trip to France in May, ranked on the weather actually recorded.
For a trip to France in May, we kept regions and cities in metropolitan France during their best season. Temperatures and rainfall are real records, averaged from 2015 to 2024 at each destination's reference point, and the sea is measured at the nearest coastal point. 15 destinations pass this filter. Top of the ranking: Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel (23 °C in the afternoon, 5 days of rain).
The ranking at a glance
| # | Destination | Afternoon | Rainy days | Sea (°C) | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇫🇷 Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel | 23 °C | 5 | - | €80-150 a day |
| 2 | 🇫🇷 The Alpilles and Les Baux-de-Provence | 24 °C | 6 | - | €100-180 a day |
| 3 | 🇫🇷 Marseille | 21 °C | 6 | 17 °C | €80-160 a day |
| 4 | 🇫🇷 Uzès and the Pont du Gard | 24 °C | 7 | - | €80-140 a day |
| 5 | 🇫🇷 The Camargue | 22 °C | 7 | 17 °C | €80-130 a day |
| 6 | 🇫🇷 Corsica | 21 °C | 7 | 18 °C | €100-170 a day |
| 7 | 🇫🇷 Avignon | 23 °C | 8 | - | €80-150 a day, bien plus en juillet |
| 8 | 🇫🇷 The French Riviera | 23 °C | 8 | 17 °C | €110-200 a day |
| 9 | 🇫🇷 Montpellier | 23 °C | 8 | 18 °C | €70-140 a day |
| 10 | 🇫🇷 The Côte Vermeille and Collioure | 22 °C | 9 | 17 °C | €80-140 a day |
| 11 | 🇫🇷 Tarn-et-Garonne | 22 °C | 9 | - | €65-110 a day |
| 12 | 🇫🇷 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie | 20 °C | 9 | - | €70-120 a day |
| 13 | 🇫🇷 Tours | 20 °C | 9 | - | €60-120 a day |
| 14 | 🇫🇷 Hossegor and Capbreton | 23 °C | 10 | - | €80-140 a day |
| 15 | 🇫🇷 Lorient and South Brittany | 19 °C | 9 | - | €65-115 a day |
The 15 destinations in detail
City1 🇫🇷 Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel
🌡️ 23 °C in the afternoon, 5 days of rain · 💶 €80-150 a day
Fréjus was Forum Julii, founded by Caesar and later Augustus's naval base, and it keeps an amphitheatre, a 5th-century baptistery and a cloister whose ceiling is painted with fantastical creatures. To the east, Saint-Raphaël opens onto the Estérel: red volcanic rock, a corniche road laid out in 1903, clear-water calanques and trails up to the Pic de l'Ours.
Region2 🇫🇷 The Alpilles and Les Baux-de-Provence
🌡️ 24 °C in the afternoon, 6 days of rain · 💶 €100-180 a day
The Alpilles are a range of white limestone as long as a day's bike ride, between Arles and Avignon. On its slopes stand a citadel dismantled by Richelieu at Les Baux, a quarry where Picasso is projected onto the rock, the ancient city of Glanum, the cloister where Van Gogh painted his irises, and mills that press the olives.
City3 🇫🇷 Marseille
🌡️ 21 °C in the afternoon, 6 days of rain, sea at 17 °C · 💶 €80-160 a day
France's second city, Marseille sits in an amphitheatre of limestone hills open to the Mediterranean, between a Vieux-Port that is still a working harbour and twenty kilometres of calanques reachable by city bus. It is a city that makes no effort to please, with its tired façades, its noisy markets and a light that redeems everything around 6pm.
City4 🇫🇷 Uzès and the Pont du Gard
🌡️ 24 °C in the afternoon, 7 days of rain · 💶 €80-140 a day
Uzès fits into a pocket handkerchief of honey-coloured stone: a ducal castle still lived in by the same family, a round tower pierced with windows, an arcaded square where the Saturday market overflows with truffles, olives and goat's cheeses. At the foot of the town rises the spring that supplied Nîmes via the Pont du Gard, twenty minutes away by road.
Region5 🇫🇷 The Camargue
🌡️ 22 °C in the afternoon, 7 days of rain, sea at 17 °C · 💶 €80-130 a day
Between the two arms of the Rhône, the Camargue is a flat land where the sky takes up all the space. You drive between rice fields and sansouïres, a flight of pink flamingos lands in front of you, a gardian rides past with his trident and black bulls graze in the marsh.
Region6 🇫🇷 Corsica
🌡️ 21 °C in the afternoon, 7 days of rain, sea at 18 °C · 💶 €100-170 a day
The Isle of Beauty lives up to its name: from the white cliffs of Bonifacio to the red calanques of Piana, Corsica packs in landscapes the mainland can only envy. You swim in the translucent water of Palombaggia in the morning, hike beneath the Aiguilles de Bavella in the afternoon and dine on charcuterie and brocciu in a mountain village in the evening. A mountain in the sea, quite literally.
City7 🇫🇷 Avignon
🌡️ 23 °C in the afternoon, 8 days of rain · 💶 €80-150 a day, bien plus en juillet
Seven popes ruled from Avignon between 1309 and 1377, leaving behind the largest Gothic palace in the world and more than four kilometres of ramparts still intact around the centre. Since 1947, the city has led a double life for three weeks every July, when the Festival and its Off turn every courtyard, chapel and garage into a theatre.
Region8 🇫🇷 The French Riviera
🌡️ 23 °C in the afternoon, 8 days of rain, sea at 17 °C · 💶 €110-200 a day
From Cassis to Menton, the Côte d'Azur strings together 200 kilometres of turquoise coves, hilltop villages and legendary towns. You dive into the En-Vau calanque in the morning, stroll through Old Nice in the afternoon and dine facing the sunset in Èze in the evening. Between beaches, Porquerolles and its crystal-clear waters play at being the Caribbean, just 15 minutes by boat from the mainland.
City9 🇫🇷 Montpellier
🌡️ 23 °C in the afternoon, 8 days of rain, sea at 18 °C · 💶 €70-140 a day
Montpellier has neither a Roman past nor a port: founded in the 10th century around a spice-trading post, it built its reputation on its faculty of medicine, the oldest still operating in the Western world. Today it is a young city, entirely pedestrianised in its medieval heart, with the sea about fifteen kilometres away and five tram lines to get you closer.
Region10 🇫🇷 The Côte Vermeille and Collioure
🌡️ 22 °C in the afternoon, 9 days of rain, sea at 17 °C · 💶 €80-140 a day
Where the Pyrenees drop into the Mediterranean, between Argelès and the Spanish border, the coast folds into schist coves, headlands and colourful harbours: this is the Côte Vermeille, 30 km of corniche road and four villages, Collioure, Port-Vendres, Banyuls and Cerbère.
Region11 🇫🇷 Tarn-et-Garonne
🌡️ 22 °C in the afternoon, 9 days of rain · 💶 €65-110 a day
Between the Garonne, the Tarn and the Aveyron, this small département packs in Moissac's Romanesque cloister, Ingres's drawings in Montauban, the Bruniquel castles and the cliffs of the Aveyron gorges. Add the bastides of the Lomagne, Auvillar and its round market hall, and the hatmakers of Caussade.
City12 🇫🇷 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
🌡️ 20 °C in the afternoon, 9 days of rain · 💶 €70-120 a day
Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie lives to the rhythm of its sardine port, where boats land Label Rouge sardines a stone's throw from the beaches. To the north, the rocks of the Corniche Vendéenne; to the south, the waves of La Sauzaie at Brétignolles. Inland, the Brem vineyards, Lac du Jaunay and the Marais Breton.
City13 🇫🇷 Tours
🌡️ 20 °C in the afternoon, 9 days of rain · 💶 €60-120 a day
Tours is a Loire city on a human scale: half-timbered houses around Place Plumereau, 13th-century stained glass at Saint-Gatien, Mantegna at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the tomb of Saint Martin, rillettes and Vouvray on a café terrace, and the gardens of Villandry 15 km away.
City14 🇫🇷 Hossegor and Capbreton
🌡️ 23 °C in the afternoon, 10 days of rain · 💶 €80-140 a day
Hossegor means the wave at La Gravière, which draws surfers from all over the world, and a saltwater lake where you eat oysters with your feet in the sand. Next door lie Capbreton and its pier facing the Gouf, the Basque-Landes villas of the 1930s, the beaches of Seignosse and two nature reserves.
Region15 🇫🇷 Lorient and South Brittany
🌡️ 19 °C in the afternoon, 9 days of rain · 💶 €65-115 a day
Lorient was flattened in 1943, but its roadstead is livelier than ever: the Keroman submarine base now hosts offshore racers and the Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly. In August, the Festival Interceltique fills the town. All around lie the Port-Louis citadel, the island of Groix and the dunes of Gâvres.
Frequently asked questions
Where to go in France in May?
Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel, The Alpilles and Les Baux-de-Provence, Marseille, Uzès and the Pont du Gard and The Camargue top our ranking for a trip to France in May. In first place, Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel: 23 °C in the afternoon, 5 days of rain on average over 2015-2024.
Which is the closest destination in France in May?
Corsica, about 1h40 by air from Paris, with 21 °C in the afternoon, 7 days of rain, sea at 18 °C in May.
Where does it rain least in May among these destinations?
Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël and the Esterel: 5 days of rain on average in May, with 23 °C in the afternoon.
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