Cannes or Paris?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cannes if the sea is the point: 68 beaches close by, four months of swimmable water and the milder winter of the two.
Choose Paris if you want the days filled by what is around you: restaurants, museums, bars and attractions in far greater number and variety, mostly walkable from the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cannes leads by 73 points.73
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 68 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 149 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 40 points.40
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 90 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 473 | 4,732 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 19 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 40 points.40
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 76 |
| Museums within 10 km | 31 | 185 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 65 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 16 | 35 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 60 points.60
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 28 | 88 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 188 | 3,796 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 164 | 1,694 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 87 | 45 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 19 | 201 |
Nature & day trips. Paris leads by 15 points.15
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 48 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 17 | 28 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 16 | 26 |
| Land share of disc % | 53 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 13 hectares | 82 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 50 points.50
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 7 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 13 hectares | 82 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 38 points.38
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 94 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 95 | 865 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cannes and Paris are level on 62.
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Cannes leads by 8 points.8
| Cannes | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 66 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.3 °C to 27.9 °C | 7.8 °C to 26 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 13 mm to 138 mm | 38 mm to 75 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 1 |
Where they differ
Cannes is the one with a coast: 68 beaches nearby against Paris's 2, and four months of sea at 21°C or more where Paris has none. Beach days are the trip here.
Paris has many times as many bars and clubs, though only about half sit near the centre, whereas Cannes's few cluster close in. It also has many times more attractions and park space for families, plus far more restaurants and museums, across a much wider range of kitchens. Both have 3 theme parks within reach.
Where they are alike
The closest match is the year-round climate. Both are warmest in August and coolest in January, both reach summer highs of 26-28°C, and neither has a season when the city stops working for a visitor.
Beyond that, both sit within reach of protected countryside, 17% of the land around Cannes and 28% around Paris, and both keep their notable places close to the centre, so a short stay needs little transport in either.
Which traveller are you?
Beach-first travellers should take Cannes. It has the beaches, four months of sea at 21°C or more, and its driest weather falls in the same months, so swimming is reliable rather than opportunistic.
Culture-led visitors should take Paris: many times as many museums, more of them tight around the centre, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Cannes's 2, with far more restaurants for the evenings.
Families are better served in Paris, with many times more attractions and park space near the centre. Both have 3 theme parks within reach, so Cannes's case rests on the beach rather than on what is in town.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison here carries no information: both cities take the same national price level, so it is identical by construction, and neither can be called the cheaper trip on this data. The €160 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city.
The sunshine figure is missing for Paris, because no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than weak. And Cannes's beaches are at their best in the same two months as its warmest sea, meaning the strongest beach weather is also the busiest time to use it.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (18 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).
Cannes is at its best in July and August, with highs of 28°C, sea at 24-25°C and only 13-18mm of rain. September still swims at 23°C, but October and November are the wettest months of either city, at 124-138mm.
Paris works from June to August, with highs of 24-26°C and rain near 51-58mm. Its rainfall hardly shifts across the year, so a spring visit is no wetter than a summer one, only cooler.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cannes | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 55 m €76-223 NCE · 20 km | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m €69-133 NCE · 20 km | 1 h 55 m €118-132 ORY · 14 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 50 m €170-248 NCE · 20 km | 1 h 10 m €188-212 CDG · 22 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 10 m €666-799 1 stop NCE · 20 km | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 15 m €83-135 NCE · 20 km | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m €137-165 NCE · 20 km | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €153-221 1 stop NCE · 20 km | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 20 m €375-433 NCE · 20 km | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 45 m €202-329 NCE · 20 km | 3 h 15 m €152-378 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 35 m no fares MRS · 146 km | 11 h 10 m €509-719 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cannes | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 0 m | 27 m |
| Main airport | Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre129 non-stop destinations | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cannes | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 74,350 | 2,103,778 |
| People per km² | 3,793 | 19,960 |
| Museums within 10 km | 16 | 251 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 38 | 169 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes or Paris somewhere new.