Notre-Dame: Tickets, Hours and How to Visit
Notre-Dame: Tickets, Hours and How to Visit
Notre-Dame de Paris reopened on 7 December 2024, more than five years after the April 2019 fire, and by now it’s been welcoming visitors for well over a year. If a guide still calls it “closed” or “under restoration,” that guide is out of date. Walking back into that nave, free of charge, no ticket required, is one of the best things you’ll do in the city.
Notre-Dame at a glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Price | Free nave entry; towers run a separate ticket |
| Hours | Daily, typically 8am to 7pm, check the official site for current times |
| Time needed | 30 to 45 minutes for the nave |
| Booking lead | Optional free timed slot opens only 72 hours ahead |
How to actually visit in 2026
Entry to the nave costs nothing and needs no advance ticket at all; you can simply walk in during opening hours. If you’d rather skip a second queue at busy times, the official reservation site opens a free timed slot, but only 72 hours before your visit date, so it’s useless for planning weeks out and only worth checking once you’re close to your trip. Expect roughly a 20-minute wait without one in shoulder season, longer at peak times.
The towers are a separate ticket run by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, distinct from the free nave, and their reopening has lagged the main building. Check current tower access on tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr before you build a day around climbing them, since availability has changed more than once since the reopening.
Do you need to book Notre-Dame in advance?
No, and that’s the one genuinely good news story among Paris’s major sights right now. The nave is free and open to walk-in visitors during normal hours; the optional reservation only exists to skip a second queue and opens just 72 hours ahead, which makes it a last-minute tool, not something to lock in when you first plan your trip.
What’s actually different inside since the reopening?
The restoration cleaned centuries of grime off the stonework, so the interior reads brighter and sharper than photos from before 2019 suggest, and the medieval stained glass, some of the most significant in Paris, is easier to appreciate against the lighter stone. The spire, rebuilt to its pre-fire design, is visible again from across the river .
Making the most of Île de la Cité
Notre-Dame sits inside the same UNESCO-listed riverside stretch as the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, and Sainte-Chapelle is a five-minute walk away for the stained-glass side of Île de la Cité’s history. If a guided angle on both together appeals, tours covering the island run regularly and skip the ticket queue at Sainte-Chapelle specifically. Our full Paris guide has the rest of the city’s timed-entry sights in one place.
Go right at opening or in the last hour before close for the emptiest nave, midday is when the free-entry queue is longest.