Rueil-Malmaison Christmas Market

Rueil-Malmaison sets out its chalets on Place du 11-Novembre, right in the town centre, from 28 November to 24 December 2026. This corner of the Hauts-de-Seine carries the mark of Joséphine de Beauharnais: the Château de Malmaison, her home and Napoleon's, stands a few minutes away, and the empress rests in the church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul, in the town centre. The Rueil-Malmaison Christmas market stays a friendly village, a handful of food and craft chalets in the middle of the lights, with, in 2025, a big parade, a funfair and Santa’s house to keep children on their toes. You come with a mulled wine in hand, twenty minutes from Paris by RER, between imperial heritage and the banks of the Seine.

The Christmas village, from Place du 11-Novembre to Place de l’Église

In 2026, the market takes place on Place du 11-Novembre, right in the town centre, from Saturday 28 November to Thursday 24 December, closed on Mondays. For the 2025 edition, about ten chalets brought together artisans and food stalls on the town hall forecourt, a compact format you can cover calmly in under an hour. That year, the season opened on Place de l’Église, under the big tree, with the switching on of the lights in late November. In 2025, pop-up shops also took over Place Tranape and Rue de la Libération for the whole of December, so the walk carried on through the pedestrian streets of the centre.

Place de l'Église has real character. The bell tower of the church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul, whose façade was commissioned by Richelieu in the 17th century and entrusted to the architect Jacques Lemercier, the very man who designed the Sorbonne and the Palais-Royal in Paris, serves as a landmark for the whole town. Inside rest Joséphine, who died at the Château de Malmaison in 1814 from a chill caught while receiving Tsar Alexander I, and her daughter Hortense, queen of Holland and mother of Napoleon III. It was the latter, once emperor, who had his mother's monument erected. The empress's tomb, in white Carrara marble by the sculptor Cartellier, shows her kneeling in her coronation gown, copied line for line from David's painting; Hortense's, the work of Bartolini, faces it in the neighbouring chapel. Few worshippers realise they are passing two major figures of the Napoleonic epic when they push open the door of a parish church. A warm visit between two chalets, a hundred metres from the smell of roast chestnuts and mulled wine, which gives this small market a historical depth that is rare in the western suburbs.

What to eat at the Rueil-Malmaison Christmas market

The chalet side is short, but the seasonal treats of the Île-de-France answer the call. Spiced mulled wine passes from hand to hand, champagne too (a tasting was even planned around 20 December in the last edition), which makes sense at this edge of the Île-de-France where the slopes long produced their own wine, before the town joined the western suburbs. Rueil still had vineyards in the 19th century, and a few street names recall that winegrowing past now covered by the urban fabric. Macarons, chocolates and Parisian pastry fill the windows of the shops in the centre, to round out what the market stalls offer. Producers from the region bring honey, jams, farmhouse cheeses and craft beer brewed nearby. If you want to recreate the mood at home, a good mulled wine recipe with cinnamon and orange already covers most of it.

• Spiced mulled wine, served good and hot on the forecourt, to hold off the cold during the parade.
• A champagne tasting as Christmas approaches, a nod to the vineyards that border the Île-de-France.
• Macarons, chocolates and Parisian pastry at the shops in the town centre.
• Honey, jams and farmhouse cheeses from Île-de-France producers, to slip into your bag.
• Craft beer brewed in the Hauts-de-Seine, a local alternative to mulled wine.

Parade, funfair and Santa: the programme for families

The town takes care of children. In 2025, Santa’s house opened on the town hall forecourt: you dropped off your letter (until 13 December) and left with a photo, on Wednesdays, Fridays and at weekends until Christmas. The big Christmas parade remains the highlight, with lit floats, dancers and performers crossing the centre; in 2025, it set off from Place Jean-Jaurès on Friday 12 December at 6pm. A climbing attraction for the youngest and the funfair, extended after Christmas into the very first days of January, completed the picture in 2025. Enough to fill a whole afternoon without spending a fortune.

The market is free to enter, you only pay for what you eat or take home, and the funfair rides are paid for individually. For the 2025 edition, the village opened Tuesday to Sunday, from the morning until early evening, with extended hours at weekends and during the school holidays. For 2026, the town announces the market from Saturday 28 November to Thursday 24 December on Place du 11-Novembre, Tuesday to Sunday (11am-7pm, until 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays); the programme of events is still to come. Allow a good hour for the market alone, more if you add the parade, the funfair and a look inside the church.

Getting there from Paris and La Défense, plus a detour to the Château de Malmaison

Rueil is easy to reach by public transport. RER line A serves Rueil-Malmaison station, a few minutes' walk from the centre and the town hall forecourt, with Paris and La Défense on the same line, both less than twenty minutes away. By car, the A86 and the N13 lead into the town centre, where several covered car parks take over from streets that are packed on December Saturdays. The centre is pedestrian and easy to cover with a pushchair.

The Château de Malmaison is worth the detour, about ten minutes from the market. Joséphine bought it in 1799, during Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign, and entrusted the architects Percier and Fontaine with turning it into a showcase of Consulate style, all drapery, mahogany and gilt bronze. The château became the real centre of power between 1800 and 1802, when the First Consul gathered his ministers there, and Joséphine stayed on after the divorce of 1809, until her death in 1814. The national museum occupies the place today: apartments refurnished in period style, the council room set up like a military tent, Napoleon's library and collections of imperial mementoes can be visited every day except Tuesday. Outside, the rose garden made the estate's name. The empress, a keen botanist, acclimatised some 250 varieties of rose brought from around the world, a pioneering collection that the painter Redouté immortalised in watercolour; recently restored, the rose garden flowers again each June, but winter has its charm too, when the empty paths and the low light give the park the look of an old engraving.

Another easy escape is the banks of the Seine at Chatou and its Île des Impressionnistes, a few minutes away by car or RER. It was there, at the Fournaise family's riverside restaurant, that Renoir set up his easel in 1881 to paint “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, surrounded by painter friends such as Monet, Caillebotte and Degas who came to catch the light on the river and the atmosphere of the Sunday rowers. The Maison Fournaise, restored, can still be visited and houses a small museum that tells the story of that golden age of riverside dance halls, when Parisians fled the city to row and dance by the water. A walk on the island, imaginary easel under your arm, is a fine way to close a day split between Empire and Impressionism. Being close to both Paris and La Défense, each less than twenty minutes away by RER, makes Rueil an easy base: you can do a quiet suburban market in the morning and the big markets of the capital in the afternoon without getting back in the car. For a wider weekend, the Paris Christmas market and the La Défense Christmas market are on the same RER line, and the Versailles Christmas market adds a royal excursion less than half an hour away.