Is Halloween a thing in Paris?
Don’t expect to see kids trick-or-treating, carved pumpkins and haunted houses on the 31st. Halloween isn’t a big deal in Paris. At least not yet. Supermarkets and other businesses have already jumped at the opportunity to commercialize yet another day in the year, now the public has to follow.
With La Toussaint as a public holiday the next day, France has the perfect conditions for a proper Halloween celebration. Some Parisians take the opportunity to throw a soirée in their apartment (we’ve been invited to two different Halloween parties this year, compared to none last year, so it seems to be gaining popularity), and local bars may offer Halloween-themed nights, but they likely won’t live up to what you’re used to back home.
If you really want the full experience, Disneyland and Parc Astérix are probably your best bet. Both parks honor the holiday with spooky animations and haunted houses throughout the month. Or why not visit the magnificent cemeteries of Paris? If you’re looking for something more original, here are two suggestions:
Visit the world’s creepiest museum
For something truly unique, head to the Musée des Moulages, a museum like no other, housed in a hospital. On display are morbid wax models of body parts of former patients who suffered from syphilis, leprosy and other skin diseases. Warning: the moulages are very lifelike and not for the faint of heart.
Visits from Monday to Friday for visitors aged 12 and over by appointment only. Registration and more info on the museum’s website.
Go on a horror movie marathon
A beautiful example of Art Deco architecture, Le Grand Rex has an interesting history. When it first opened in 1932, the basement underneath the cinema housed a police station, a nursery, a dog kennel, and a nightclub that still operates today. It once had more visitors than the Louvre, perhaps due to its special pre-show program of live music, dancers and wild stage effects that mimicked waterfalls and erupting volcanoes.
On October 31, it hosts a series of scary movies, starting with family-friendly films like Casper and Hotel Transylvania in the afternoon, then slowly ramping up the creep factor and saving the most gory flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist for after midnight.
Find the full program here.
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