Find the best France scenery add-ons for MSFS 2020, covering Paris, Nice, Lyon and Le Bourget, with installation and conflict fixes.
The best MSFS 2020 scenery add-ons for France are the Paris Scenery Pack for capital VFR, Nice France Scenery for Riviera approaches, Lyon City Complete for broad urban coverage, and Paris-Le Bourget Airport scenery for business aviation. Install the official France and Benelux World Update first.
Which France scenery add-on should you choose?
Choose Paris for the largest city upgrade, Nice for coastal flying, Lyon for urban photogrammetry with a choice of detail levels, or Le Bourget for airport operations.
| Scenery | Best for | Why we recommend it | Main caution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad Paris, La Défense and Saint-Denis coverage | Capital-city VFR and sightseeing | It gives central Paris and its major business districts a more detailed photogrammetry treatment. | Its footprint may overlap other Paris city packages, so test competing scenery one at a time. |
| Detailed Nice coastline and city scenery | Riviera VFR and approaches to LFMN | It adds buildings, coastal detail and the Promenade des Anglais around Nice Côte d'Azur. | Dense urban scenery can affect frame rate during low approaches, especially with high object detail settings. |
| Lyon photogrammetry in standard and HD variants | City circuits and regional flying | Coverage includes Old Lyon and the Confluence district, with variants for different levels of PC performance. | Enable only one variant. Installing both is a common cause of duplication and unnecessary loading. |
| A detailed replacement for Paris-Le Bourget Airport | Business aviation at LFPB | It improves runways, taxiways, signs, lighting and hangars rather than trying to replace the whole city. | Do not combine it with another full LFPB replacement. |
Paris, Lyon and Nice cover separate regions and can normally remain installed together. Le Bourget sits within the wider Paris area, so check it alongside your chosen Paris city package before adding any further scenery for the capital.
What should you install before France scenery add-ons?
Install the official World Update IV: France and Benelux package before judging any third-party France scenery.
- Update the simulator and installed content. Check Content Manager for updates to the core simulator and existing world content.
- Install the France and Benelux World Update. It supplies the improved base data that third-party city and airport packages are designed to sit over.
- Check online scenery settings. In General Options under Data, enable Online Functionality, Bing Data World Graphics and Photogrammetry if you want the intended surrounding scenery.
- Check bandwidth limits. An exhausted data cap or unstable connection can make the background city look incomplete even when the local add-on has loaded correctly.
The official update is a base layer, not a substitute for these packages. It should normally remain installed unless an add-on's documentation identifies a specific conflict.
How do you install France scenery in MSFS 2020?
Most downloadable MSFS 2020 scenery is installed on PC by extracting its package folder into the active Community folder.
- Close Microsoft Flight Simulator. Extract the downloaded archive somewhere outside the simulator folders first.
- Find the actual package folder. It should contain
manifest.jsonandlayout.json. Copying the outer archive folder instead creates an extra directory level and prevents the scenery from loading. - Copy it into the active Community folder. Installation locations differ between Microsoft Store, Steam and custom package paths. If necessary, inspect the
InstalledPackagesPathentry inUserCfg.optto identify the packages location. - Restart the simulator and test one package. Load a flight directly over the affected city or airport before installing another add-on for the same area.
Can these add-ons be used on Xbox or MSFS 2024?
Manual Community-folder scenery is for the PC edition of MSFS 2020. Xbox cannot load arbitrary downloaded packages, so console users are limited to scenery distributed through the in-simulator Marketplace.
Some MSFS 2020 scenery also loads in MSFS 2024, but that should not be assumed. This selection is for MSFS 2020; check each package's compatibility notes and test it separately before using it in the newer simulator.
How do you fix duplicate buildings or poor performance?
Duplicate objects usually mean two packages edit the same area, while missing scenery most often points to the wrong Community folder or a nested package directory.
- Double buildings in Paris: disable other Paris, La Défense or Saint-Denis packages, then re-enable them individually to identify the overlap.
- Scenery does not appear: confirm that
manifest.jsonandlayout.jsonsit directly inside the installed package folder and that you used the active Community location. - Lyon performs poorly: replace the HD variant with the standard version before reducing simulator-wide graphics settings. Never keep both variants active.
- Old or mismatched ground imagery remains: recreate the Rolling Cache after a major world update or scenery change. Routine cache deletion after every installation is unnecessary.
- Airport markings or buildings overlap: retain only one complete replacement for that airport. City scenery and airport scenery may coexist, but two airport packages usually cannot.
For a balanced first setup, we would use the Paris pack, Nice scenery and Lyon's standard variant. Add Le Bourget when LFPB is part of your regular routes, and move to Lyon HD only after confirming that the standard package runs comfortably.