France in April, away from Paris

Pleasant in April

Average high closest to 18–26 °C and fewest rain days (1991–2020 normals).

3h36 Town · Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Arles A Roman city on the Rhône where Van Gogh painted his brightest year, with an arena still in use and the Camargue at its gates. High 19 °C · Low 9 °C · 6 rain days 6h18 Coast · Occitanie Collioure A Catalan fishing port where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean, with a sea-washed church tower and the light that gave birth to Fauvism. High 18 °C · Low 9 °C · 6 rain days ✈ / ⛴ Mountains · Corsica Corte The mountain capital of Corsica’s short-lived independent republic: an eagle’s-nest citadel, a student town, and wild gorges at its door. High 19 °C · Low 5 °C · 9 rain days 6h39 Coast · Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Menton The last town on the Riviera before Italy: a Baroque old quarter in ochre and pink, lemon groves, subtropical gardens and Cocteau. High 17 °C · Low 11 °C · 6 rain days 6h02 City · Occitanie Albi A red-brick episcopal city on the Tarn: a fortress-cathedral painted inside from floor to vault, and the world’s largest Toulouse-Lautrec collection. High 18 °C · Low 7 °C · 10 rain days 5h24 Town · Occitanie Carcassonne A medieval fortress city with two rings of walls and dozens of towers on a hill above the Aude, rescued from demolition in the 1850s. High 18 °C · Low 8 °C · 9 rain days ✈ / ⛴ Coast · Corsica Bonifacio A Genoese citadel perched on white limestone cliffs at the southern tip of Corsica, staring across the strait at Sardinia. High 17 °C · Low 11 °C · 7 rain days 2h44 Village · Nouvelle-Aquitaine Saint-Émilion A honey-stone wine town tumbling into a hollow of the limestone, with a church carved out of the rock beneath its steep lanes. High 19 °C · Low 8 °C · 11 rain days

Signature festivals

• Le Printemps de Bourges — Bourges, Centre–Val de Loire. France’s great spring music festival, first held in April 1977, fills the medieval city of Bourges with French song, rock, rap and electronic music for about a week. Its talent scheme has launched many French artists.
• Festival Mythos — Rennes, Brittany. A Rennes festival of the spoken word in all its forms, storytelling, theatre, slam and song, held every April in about twenty venues across the Rennes area. Sources give its founding as 1996 or 1997.

Check dates on the official site.

All forty places in April

Wettest in April: Annecy (127 mm), Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (122 mm), Conques (106 mm), Sarlat-la-Canéda (88 mm).