What to do in the PACA region in October?

In brief

• Afternoons still mild on the coast: an average high of around 21 °C in Marseille and Nice.
• Golden larches set the Hautes-Alpes and the Mercantour ablaze.
• The chestnut festivals in Collobrières, on three Sundays in October.
• The Toussaint (All Saints’) school holidays begin in the second half of the month.
• The season of Mediterranean episodes: keep an eye on rain-flood warnings.

The weather in October

October is a month of transition. On the coast, summer often lingers on in the afternoons. According to the Météo-France 1991-2020 normals, Marseille (Marignane station) records an average high of 21.3 °C and an average low of 12.6 °C. Nice is almost level: 21 °C in the afternoon, 14 °C at night, thanks to the sea, which holds on to its warmth.

The rain, however, makes its comeback. October falls right in the season of Mediterranean episodes, which Météo-France places mainly between September and mid-December: the still-warm sea feeds storms that can unload the equivalent of several months of rain in a few hours. In Nice, the normal reaches 127.9 mm over the month, on 7.5 days of rain: October and November are the two wettest months of the year there. Marseille receives 73.3 mm on fewer than six days of rain. So it rarely rains, but sometimes very heavily.

In the mountains, the days remain fine but the nights get noticeably colder. In Embrun (873 m), the average high is 17.4 °C and the average low 6.2 °C, with an average of two days of frost in the month. Higher up, the first snows may already whiten the summits: bring a warm layer and a windbreaker for hiking.

Festivals and traditions of the month

October is chestnut month in the Massif des Maures. Collobrières, a Var village nestled among chestnut groves, holds its Fêtes de la châtaigne et du terroir (chestnut and local produce festivals) on three Sundays in October, all day long: roast chestnuts, chestnut spread, produce from the massif and craftspeople. Entry is free. The intercommunal tourist office advises arriving early, as crowds are large, and lays on shuttles from the car parks. Guided tours of a chestnut grove are also offered on those Sundays. To make a day of it, the Maures coast and Bormes-les-Mimosas are not far away.

At the end of the month, All Saints’ Day approaches: 1 November is a public holiday and generally falls during the school holidays. In the villages of the Maures as in the hinterland, it is also the season for forest walks, among the chestnut groves and the first mushrooms.

October’s major events

Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. Organised by the Société nautique de Saint-Tropez since 1999, these regattas generally bring together, from late September to early October, traditional sailing yachts, some of them more than a hundred years old, and modern yachts. The spectacle can be watched from the quays and the beaches, and the event village, on the harbour of Saint-Tropez, is free to enter.

The Roc d’Azur. Every year, usually in the first half of October, the Fréjus nature base hosts this big mountain-bike gathering: races for all levels, rides, gravel events and a vast bike show open to the public free of charge.

Where to go in October

The Alpine valleys, for the larches. The larch is a conifer that sheds its needles in winter: before dropping them, it turns from soft green to golden yellow. According to the Hautes Vallées tourist office (Briançonnais, Queyras), the colours generally appear between early and mid-October, first at altitude, then working their way down to the valley floors. In the Mercantour National Park, golden larch woods surround in particular the Lac d’Allos, on the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence side, and the Lac de Trécolpas, above Le Boréon.

The Luberon and its ochres. The lower autumn light warms up the colours of the ochre cliffs. It’s the right time to wander around Roussillon, climb up to Gordes or walk in the Colorado provençal in Rustrel, without the summer heat.

The Verdon, in peace. The summer crowds have gone. The Gorges du Verdon and the village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie can be explored more quietly. The days are getting shorter: for a long hike along the bottom of the gorges, set off early in the morning.

The Calanques, on foot. In the Bouches-du-Rhône, the summer rules on access to forest areas apply from 1 June to 30 September. In October, the trails of the Calanques National Park welcome hikers back, setting off from Marseille or Cassis, with heat that is far more bearable than in summer.

Ideas for days out

With the family, during the Toussaint holidays. In Marseille, the replica of the Cosquer cave reveals a decorated prehistoric cave swallowed up by the sea, and the Mucem is ideal for a whole day, between exhibitions and a stroll around Fort Saint-Jean.

When the weather is bad. A rainy day suits the big indoor visits: in Avignon, the Palais des Papes easily fills half a day. On orange warning days, however, stay indoors.

When the sun is out. The coastal path between Niolon and La Redonne, on the Côte Bleue, offers fine sea views without the summer heat. In the Var, the walk from Le Lavandou to the Plage de la Fossette along the coastal path suits the whole family.

What to eat in October

The Maures chestnut is the star of the month: roasted, as a spread or as marrons glacés (candied chestnuts). Mushroom pickers, for their part, head to the forest as soon as the first rains fall. Service-public.fr points out that poisonings increase in autumn, with a peak expected in October. If in any doubt, the Anses (French food safety agency) recommends having your harvest checked by a pharmacist or a mycological society before eating it, avoiding roadsides and cooking wild mushrooms thoroughly.

Good to know

• Toussaint holidays. They last two weeks and are the same in all zones, including zone B (the Aix-Marseille and Nice education authorities). They generally begin in the second half of October and end in early November: sites and accommodation fill up, so book ahead.
• Clocks change. On the last Sunday of October, winter time begins: late afternoons get dark earlier.
• Mediterranean episodes. Check the Météo-France warnings before setting off. In the event of intense rain, the prefectures ask people to postpone their journeys, never to venture onto a flooded road on foot or by car (a few tens of centimetres of water are enough to sweep a car away), to stay away from rivers and streams and not to go down into basements or underground car parks.
• Mountains. Many summer facilities have closed and snow can arrive early at altitude: check with the tourist offices before an outing.