Umrah from the France
The part of the journey that happens before you reach Saudi Arabia, and that a guide written for everyone cannot answer: which airport is actually worth departing from, what the flight costs you in hours, and the specific things that catch out French pilgrims.
AlHaram.live Editorial · Last reviewed August 28, 2026
Which airport to depart from
- Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) — the main departure point, with the widest carrier choice
- Paris Orly (ORY) — additional capacity, mostly via connections
- Marseille (MRS) and Lyon (LYS) — seasonal direct and charter services, heaviest in Ramadan
Flight time
About 5½ to 6½ hours non-stop to Jeddah
The visa route, and where to check it
Usually the tourist eVisa
French passport holders normally travel on the Saudi tourist eVisa, applied for online. Rules change between seasons and differ for residents travelling on a non-EU passport — check the official portal for your own document.
Both plain links to the official sources. We earn nothing from either, and we do not restate visa rules here because they change and we cannot verify them for your passport.
What catches out pilgrims travelling from here
- Marseille and Lyon charters in Ramadan can beat a Paris departure outright for travellers in the south, but they sell out well before the mainstream fares move.
- French packages often include a Jeddah hotel night on arrival. Whether that helps depends entirely on your landing time — after a morning arrival it wastes a day of a short trip.
- If you hold a French residence permit rather than the passport, your visa route may be completely different from the one every French-language guide describes. Check the portal against your own document.
Once you have the flight
Work out where to stay from the walking-distance table rather than from a search sorted by “distance from centre”, and check the season calendar before fixing your dates.