Visiting Notre-Dame Cathedral Paris: Everything You Need to Know

What Do You Need to Know About Notre-Dame Cathedral?

• Notre-Dame de Paris stands on a small island in the Seine in the historic heart of Paris.
• After the Notre-Dame fire in April 2019, the cathedral was closed to the public for several years. The reopening was in December 2024 — and it’s now fully open to visitors again.
• Parts of the cathedral are 600 to 900 years old.
• The two main towers of Notre-Dame stand 69 meters tall.
• Many relics are on display inside — including the alleged Crown of Thorns of Christ.

What Can You See in Notre-Dame Cathedral?

Because Notre-Dame was rebuilt true to its original form, everything looks just as it did before the fire. You’re not walking into a compromise — you’re walking into the real thing.

The highlights inside Notre-Dame Cathedral include:

• Gothic architecture over 600 years old
• Main towers with restored church bells
• Gargoyles — waterspouts carved as mythical creatures
• Restored crossing spire
• Three restored rose windows — the largest is 13 meters in diameter
• Restored church organ with 8,000 pipes
• Relics — including the Crown of Thorns of Christ

Is Notre-Dame Open Again?

Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened on December 8, 2024 and has been welcoming visitors from around the world ever since.

Notre-Dame Paris Admission

If you want to visit Notre-Dame, we’d strongly recommend reserving a time slot in advance online via the official Notre-Dame website.

Time slots are only released two days in advance and are capped at around 10,000 per day. That sounds like plenty — but given the crowds, it really isn’t.

Here’s what happened to us:

We had no luck with the free time slots and ended up booking a €25 entry ticket that included an audio guide tour. It felt steep, but we really wanted to get in. At the last minute, the organizer canceled the whole thing. We got a full refund and decided to head to Notre-Dame and try our luck anyway.

And what do you know? After just 12 minutes in line, we walked right in. No time slot, no €25 ticket — and we still got inside. So it’s always worth showing up and giving it a shot.

Visiting the Notre-Dame Towers & Crypt

The towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral have been open to visitors again since September 2025. Tickets are available exclusively online via the official Paris Monuments website.

Here too, you’ll need a bit of luck. New booking windows open seven days in advance — always for the coming week — and tickets typically sell out within a few hours.

Our tip: Your best chances are between 7 and 8 in the morning.

The ticket price has doubled from €8 to €16. Children under 18 and EU residents under 26 can visit for free.

From the towers, you get a seriously stunning panorama of Paris. You can see Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur, the Panthéon, the Eiffel Tower, and of course the Seine stretching out below you.

You also get up close to the incredible facade and the famous gargoyles.

You’re essentially standing where the Hunchback of Notre-Dame from Victor Hugo’s novel once lived — which is pretty cool. Spotting the gargoyles was a huge hit with our kids in Paris.

Even better: you share the space with just 24 other people. Only 25 visitors per time slot are allowed up top, because the staircases and walkways are so narrow there’s no room to pass anyone going the other direction.

What About the Notre-Dame Crypt?

The crypt sits beneath the forecourt of Notre-Dame, and it can be visited again too.

Down there you’ll find over 2,000 years of city history — from Roman foundations and medieval streets to 19th-century building remains and fascinating exhibits.

Tickets cost around €11 for adults and can be purchased on-site. The crypt is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM.

The entrance is directly beneath the forecourt — just follow the sign reading “Crypte archéologique.”

Guided Tours of Notre-Dame Cathedral

If you couldn’t snag a free time slot, a guided tour is a great alternative — and often a richer experience anyway. Here are a couple worth looking at:

Guided Tour of Notre-Dame Cathedral: Explore Notre-Dame inside and out with an English-speaking guide — three different tour options to choose from.

Small-Group Visit to Notre-Dame: A guided walk through the historic Île de la Cité followed by admission to Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Attending Mass at Notre-Dame

If you’d like, you can also attend a church service at Notre-Dame — a genuinely moving experience in such a historic setting.

Mass times have previously been:

• Saturday: 8:30 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 5:15 PM, and 6:00 PM
• Sunday: 8:30 AM, 9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 5:15 PM, and 6:00 PM
• Weekdays: 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 5:30 PM, and 6:00 PM (Thursday also at 6:45 PM)

In addition to regular services, Notre-Dame also hosts the Veneration of the Crown of Thorns of Christ — on the first Friday of every month at 3:00 PM, and on Good Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Notre-Dame Reconstruction: What Was Restored?

Since 2019, hundreds of specialists have been working to rebuild and restore the cathedral true to its original form. The scale of what’s been achieved is genuinely remarkable.

The

• iconic crossing spire,
• the wooden roof structure,
• the organ with its medieval pipes,
• and the destroyed rose window were all rebuilt and reinstated.

Modern fire protection and safety systems were also installed throughout.

During the post-fire restoration, archaeologists made fascinating discoveries beneath the cathedral: sarcophagi — including a priest’s grave dating to 1710 — and fragments of a medieval rood screen that had long been considered lost.

Some of these finds are already on display in the Archaeological Crypt beneath the forecourt, while others are being prepared for future exhibitions.

A heads-up: some restoration work is still ongoing. Work on the stained-glass windows is expected to wrap up in 2026, and the full exterior facade should be finished by 2027.

Notre-Dame Cathedral After the Fire: Our Experience

We knew Notre-Dame before the fire, so visiting after the restoration felt especially significant. And we can say this honestly: the restoration work is truly impressive.

The new ceiling blends in so seamlessly that you can’t even imagine it was ever gone. A lot of money and skill went into making that happen.

What does stand out in a less positive way is the crowd. We got in at 10:30 AM after just a 12-minute wait — but inside it was so packed that moving around freely was almost impossible.

You’re essentially shuffled through in a clockwise direction, which makes it hard to take in the cathedral at your own pace. The constant jostling takes away a little of the wonder you’d feel on a first visit — which is a shame, but unavoidable, especially during school vacations.

Should you visit Notre-Dame anyway? Yes — if only to see what’s been accomplished since the fire. But if you’ve been before, it might be worth waiting until the initial rush of visitors settles down a bit.

At the same time, visiting now is a reminder of how quickly something so beautiful can be lost. And that makes the trip feel genuinely meaningful.

It’s a real dilemma: deal with the crowds and come away slightly overwhelmed, or wait for a better time that may never come? We went with the former — because we knew ourselves well enough to say: we would have regretted not going in far more.

Frequently Asked Questions About Notre-Dame Cathedral Paris