After almost a year of its reopening, many Secrets of Paris readers still have questions about visiting Notre‑Dame Cathedral. Here’s the simplest, up‑to‑date guide to understanding the optional reservation system, the newly reopened Bell Towers visits, and our own personal experiences visiting many times over the past year.
In this article:
Visiting the Cathedral
Quick Facts
- Official website: https://www.notredamedeparis.fr/en/
- Hours: Monday-Friday 7:50am-7pm (Thursday until 10pm). Weekends 8:15am-7:30pm. Last entry 30 minutes before closure.
- Entry price: Free entrance for everyone to the cathedral, with or without reservations; optional €12 entry to access the Treasury (pay directly once inside).
- Accessibility: Cathedral access for wheelchair users; Towers are not accessible (stairs only).
- Security: Airport‑style bag checks; avoid large bags; no glass bottles, knives, or scissors.
- Restrooms: There are none in the cathedral; free Sanisettes on the Rue d’Arcole, and a paid public toilet downstairs just outside the cathedral exit between the South Tower and the Charlemagne statue.
Reservations are Optional
When the cathedral first reopened, a new free reservation system was put in place to help manage the flow of visitors. While a reservation can still shorten your wait, it is completely optional.
You can reserve your free time slot on the official Notre‑Dame website or by using the official “Compagnon de Visite” smartphone app (iOS/Android). Reservations are only open 72 hours in advance, and new time slots are added regularly.
I’ve had more success with the website than the app, especially if I try it just after midnight Paris time. However I have found that many people are unsuccessful at getting a time slot (especially for those visiting Paris who don’t have time to be online all day checking for new time slots).
Showing Up Without a Reservation
It has always been possible to just show up and get in the line for those without reservations. It’s an easy line to spot, because it usually snakes all the way around the square in front of Notre Dame. Don’t let this scare you off! Just follow it until you find the tail, and grab on, because it usually moves quickly (the holdup is usually due to people in line taking photos and not realizing the line keeps moving).
I have tested this several times on busy days (like Sunday) and have never waited more than 12 minutes. Those who arrive weekday mornings before 10am can usually just walk right in. Here’s a video we recorded two weeks ago on a Sunday morning, showing how long it took us to get in without reservations:
Avoid the Scams
As mentioned right on the cathedral’s home page, there are no paid “skip-the-line cathedral entry tickets.” If someone sells you one, it’s not legit. If you are purchasing a ticket to a guided tour, verify the tour is INSIDE the cathedral (not just the exterior), and that the guide is a registered guide conferencier, the only ones permitted to lead tours in Notre Dame.
Visiting the Cathedral
If you visited before the fire, the first thing you’ll notice when visiting today – besides how amazingly clean it is – is that the direction of the visit now goes clockwise. There’s an information desk just to the left of the entrance where you can find brochures. Otherwise, the app mentioned above for making reservations also serves as a guided tour of the cathedral and its chapels. You can read each entry, or if you brought earbuds, you can listen to the audio guide (in English and three other languages).
Another thing you might notice is how crowded it is. They seem to prefer letting everyone in rather than making people wait outside until it empties out a bit. That’s nice for those who don’t want to be stuck outside in bad weather waiting to get in, but it does mean you may need to be patient to get a close look at the chapels or reading the informational plaques throughout the cathedral (also in three languages).
This means sometimes the chatter can get a bit loud, so you’ll occasionally hear a recorded voice over the loudspeaker hushing you, “Silence!”
Note that the seating is only for those attending services, so you may be asked by the ushers to make room for those coming in just before mass begins (see below if you’re specifically coming for mass).
The Treasury
Notre Dame’s Treasury is the separate room where the cathedral’s precious “treasures” and objects used in Catholic liturgy are kept, including sacred vessels, ornaments, and liturgical books. I recall a lot of jewelry, robes and headdresses worn by the different bishops and priests over the years. It used to cost a token €2 fee to enter, but is now a whopping €12 (payable on site, no advance tickets possible). They justify this price by explaining that “the treasury now benefits from a new museography. This highlights the religious, artistic, and historical wealth of the collections, providing a modern and immersive presentation for all visitors.” I have not visited to confirm or deny this, so if any of you decide to visit, let us know what you think!
Exit through the Gift Shop
The gift shop is at the end of the visit circuit, just before you exit the Sainte Anne Portal. It is closed during mass (although you can still buy commemorative coins in the machines throughout the cathedral…they make a disturbingly loud clanking sound coming out). There’s also an official e-boutique online, although shipping to the US is a bit problematic as of October 1st, 2025.
Attending Mass
Reservations are not needed to attend mass. Simply get into the dedicated line in front of the cathedral’s central doorway (Last Judgment Portal) 20-30 minutes before the start of service, and you will be escorted to the seating area. Here is the full schedule for daily masses. The Crown of Thorns is presented on the first Friday of each month from 3-5pm.
Caveat: Masses for Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and other important Catholic holidays are usually quite crowded, with people lining up hours in advance. Big screens are usually set up on the square in front of the cathedral for people who can’t fit in to watch the service live.
Attending Concerts
There are music concerts on Tuesday nights at 8:30pm organized by the Musique Sacrée à Notre-Dame de Paris. Purchase your tickets in advance online for these concerts, they sell out fast! The free organ recitals on Sundays at 4pm do not require tickets; enter the cathedral as you would for a regular visit (with or without reservation).
Heather’s Photos of Notre Dame’s Interior
Click on the photos to enlarge and read captions.
The Reopened Bell Towers
Reopened since September 20th, 2025, the renovated Bell Towers are accessed from the exterior of Notre Dame (entrance to the right of the south tower, exit to the left of the north tower).
Purchase Tickets in Advance
The Bell Towers are open for visits from 9am through 11pm (last entrance 9:45pm).Until 5:30pm from November through March (last entrance at 4:15pm). Closed January 1st, May 1st and December 25th.
Visits are managed by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN) and cost €16 for adults (free for children under 18, EU students and residents 18-25, and Paris Museum Pass Holders). Entrance is free for everyone the first Sunday in November, December, February, and March (no reservations; first come, first served).
Tickets must be purchased online in advance (no on-site ticket sales possible); you can currently purchase tickets for visits through the end of 2025.
Beware the Stairs!
While entirely renovated for the most comfortable visit possible, it’s important to know that the Bell Towers are not accessible for anyone with reduced mobility, those with heart conditions or prone to dizziness, pregnant women or young children (under six years old). There are 424 spiral steps, no lift, no restrooms, and no bag check.
Additionally, those in flip flops or stiletto heels will not be allowed in. Strollers, motorcycle helmets, drones, tripods, skateboards, and large bags are not allowed to be carried in (the site says bags must be no bigger than 40cmx40cmx20cm).
Plan on spending approximately one hour visiting the Bell Towers from start to finish.
The Bell Towers Visit
When I last visited the Bell Towers in 1995, I recall it being a dark, claustrophobic, and exhausting experience that left me with wobbly legs and no desire to return anytime soon. But the renovations have really improved the visitor experience. This graphic from Le Parisien is the best I’ve seen so far showing the route through the Bell Towers:
Once you go through airport-style security, you start up the spiral stone stairs of the South Tower (Tour Sud). There are signs throughout telling you how many stairs are above (and below) you, stylish new lighting, and sturdy railings to hold onto. And most importantly, there are two breaks on the way up!
The first is the new gift shop (#1), a tall room with two chimeras on display, scale models of the cathedral and towers to see where you are, historic oil paintings on the walls, and an interactive video screen to explain the major events in Notre Dame’s history (and all information is in French, English, and Spanish).
The next pause point is the renovated “Quadrilobe Room” (#2) at the foot of the belfry, named for the flower-shaped windows. Here you’ll find the old wooden beams completely cleaned, and a new double-helix wooden staircase installed taking you up into the belfry to see Notre Dame’s largest bell cast in 1646, named Emmanuel (#4), which only rings for special occasions (and Marie, a smaller bell added in 2013).
They limit how many people can go up to the final levels to avoid crowding, so you may be asked to wait for some moments between different levels.
When you ascend to the very top of the South Tower terrace (#3), you are given five minutes to enjoy the view from all four sides (there are signs showing what you’re looking at). It is secured by a security fencing on the sides and top, so there’s no risk of falling or dropping anything over the side, but there’s no protection from wind or rain, so you will get wet if it’s raining. Needless to say, if you go on a clear day the panoramic views over Paris are absolutely worth the climb!
After the South Tower, you descend one staircase before crossing between the towers on a platform known as the “Cisterns courtyard” where rainwater was once collected (#5). Here there’s information about the chimeras (which some people erroneously call gargoyles) which you can see up close on both towers, and a glass window with a view into the “Forest” of massive wooden beams that was rebuilt to hold up the roof and spire (it was not well lit, so I didn’t take a photo).
You then enter the North Tower (Tour Nord), where the eight bells that ring throughout the day are located (#6). If you time your visit right, you might get to hear them in action up close.
When you’re ready, you descend the stairs of the North Tower (#7) – all in one go – down to the exit on the Rue du Cloitre Notre Dame (where you’ll find a few cafés where you can sit to let your wobbly legs recover).
More About the Renovations: Some Completed and Some Ongoing
Read my original article about the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral if you’d like photos and details of the renovations, as well as the ongoing works on the exterior’s flying buttresses and the green spaces surrounding the cathedral, scheduled through 2027: Everything You Need to Know for Notre Dame’s Reopening
Bonus Videos for Members: Heather’s Visit to the Newly Reopened Notre Dame Cathedral & Bell Towers
Here is the video I made of our visit to the renovated Bell Towers on September 28th, 2025, just a week after their reopening:
ICYMI, I recorded this video during my first visit in December 2024, and wrote an article in January 2025 explaining How I Got In Three Times in Three Weeks:
The renovation looks fabulous! I visited on two occasions, once in 2014 when I was able to see the Crown of Thorns and once for Mass in 2017. Both times I thought the interior was very dark, foreboding, and not very interesting. Now it is very bright, and the chapels are beautiful! I would really like to go back, not certain that I will get the chance.
We visited Notre Dame in June and again in early July, and attended Mass on one of the visits. The line for reserved tickets is closed about 30/45 mins prior to the Mass time and a sign is put up in the same place for people wanting to attend Mass. Once the Mass begins, they turn that space back to being the reserved line. If you look at the time slots on the website for Reservations so will see there is a break in the schedule which corresponds to the Mass times. At least that was how they did it during the summer, I haven’t looked at it since.