Paris Sightseeing: Book Ahead or Miss It
Every one of Paris’s headline sights now runs on a booked time slot, not a ticket-booth queue, and getting that one detail wrong is the single fastest way to lose half a day standing outside a building you already paid to enter.
The rule that reorganizes everything else
The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, Sainte-Chapelle, the Palace of Versailles and the towers of Notre-Dame all require a booked time slot in 2026. There is no walk-up ticket-booth purchase at any of the six. “Skip the line” only ever means skipping the ticket-purchase queue, never the security check or your booked entry window, so build a Paris sightseeing day around reservation times first and everything else second. Book Louvre entry and your other must-sees before you land, not after.
The Louvre’s new two-tier price
From 14 January 2026 the Louvre charges EUR22 for EEA residents and EUR32 for everyone else, a roughly 45 percent jump for most non-French visitors over the old flat rate. Under-18s stay free. The museum is closed every Tuesday, open until 9:45pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 1 July to 31 August 2026 advance reservation is required for every visitor, no exceptions. Buy directly through ticket.louvre.fr or a vetted aggregator; a street vendor offering same-day Louvre tickets is always a scam.
Notre-Dame: free nave, paid towers, one booking system
The cathedral reopened 7 December 2024 and its nave entry is free with no ticket. The towers are a separate story: they reopened 20 September 2025, cost EUR16, and are bookable only through the official CMN system at tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr since there is no on-site ticket sale for the climb. Sainte-Chapelle runs the same CMN booking model, with dual EEA/non-EEA pricing and 30-minute entry windows that sell out first in the morning. Book the Sainte-Chapelle and Conciergerie combined ticket if both are on the list, since they share the same Palais de la Cité complex.
What is not open: Centre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou closed 22 September 2025 for a five-year renovation and will not reopen until 2030. Do not add it to a sightseeing itinerary in any form this cycle. If the plan needs a modern-art stop or a high rooftop view, the Arc de Triomphe’s terrace and the Tour Montparnasse’s 56th-floor observation deck both remain fully open and cover the “panoramic Paris” slot Pompidou used to fill. Check Arc de Triomphe entry if the rooftop view matters more than the museum itself. Pompidou’s own site, centrepompidou.fr , carries the closure notice and details on the touring Constellation exhibitions, not a booking link.
The Museum Pass math
The 2026 Paris Museum Pass runs EUR90 for 2 days, EUR109 for 4 days, or EUR139 for 6 days, and those days are consecutive calendar days, not 24-hour blocks from first use. It covers entry to the Louvre, Orsay, Versailles, Sainte-Chapelle and dozens of other museums and monuments, but not the Eiffel Tower, and several of its included sites, the Louvre and Sainte-Chapelle among them, still need their own separate timed-entry reservation even with the pass in hand. It pays off on a day hitting three or more paid sights; it does not pay off around a single museum.
Three closure days, never the same one twice
The Louvre closes Tuesdays. The Musée d’Orsay and the Palace of Versailles both close Mondays. These are three different rules at three different buildings, and treating them as interchangeable is the fastest way to arrive at a locked door. Write the specific day next to each museum on your itinerary rather than trusting memory.
Verdict: book the Louvre and Notre-Dame towers first, since both sell out furthest in advance, and treat the Arc de Triomphe as the honest substitute for Pompidou rather than skipping the viewpoint entirely. For guided access to these same sights instead of self-booking each one, see the attraction tours guide ; for the wider trip, start at the main Paris guide .
Check your confirmation email for the exact entry window, not just the date. A 10am Sainte-Chapelle slot that isn’t used by 10:30am is treated as forfeited, with no refund and no rebooking on site.