We all saw the news in April 2019 — one of the world’s most famous churches, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, caught on fire. And if you somehow missed that, then your Instagram feed was certainly full of every person you knew who’d ever been to Paris posting grainy photos from the early 2000s of themselves at Notre Dame, captioned simply with a #brokenheartemoji. 💔
But six years later, Notre Dame lives again! In fact, it just re-opened to the public in December 2024. So when Matt and I visited Paris at the end of March, we couldn’t miss our chance to check it out. And when I was planning our visit, I was shocked to find out that tickets to visit Notre Dame are free! However, only a limited number of reservations are available per day — and they don’t make it easy to claim those tickets. So here’s exactly how you can get free Notre Dame cathedral tickets.
What You Need To Know About Free Notre Dame Cathedral Tickets
Currently, all tickets to Notre Dame cathedral are free! There are no paid tickets being offered at this time (April 2025). I’m not sure if this will change in the future, because right now all you can visit is the ground floor interior — the nave and the chapels surrounding the altar. But I remember when I visited back in 2011, I was able to climb the bell towers for an up-close look at the stone gargoyles outside, as well as great view of the city. However, this is not currently available, though the bell towers are expected to re-open later this year.
If you want a reserved entry ticket to visit Notre Dame, this is still free. But you need to make your reservation online. Reservations are available for the same day, the next day, and two days away. For example, let’s say today is Tuesday. That means that the reservation system would have openings for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday available — theoretically. In reality, they get released in batches and often get snatched up pretty quickly.
How To Get Your Free Notre Dame Cathedral Tickets
First, you’ll need to visit this website, the official reservation system. Once you’re there, enter the number of visitors and click “next.” Depending on the number of people using the website, you may need to wait a few minutes before you’re able to get to the next screen. As the website says, “several thousand people are trying to buy tickets.” Most likely, once you get to the calendar screen, it will say that all three available days are sold out.
So, here’s what I recommend doing. Knowing that Notre Dame releases the ticket batches starting two days in advance at midnight Paris time (Central European Time), try to get into the website about 5-10 minutes before that. Using our example above, assuming today is Tuesday, that means tickets for Friday would become available TONIGHT at midnight (Wednesday) in Paris. If you’re in the U.S., it’s probably late afternoon on Tuesday. But we were already on the CET time zone in Spain, so I made sure to access the website at 11:55 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Once midnight hit, I kept refreshing, and voilà — lots of ticket slots for Friday were available! We had our choice of the morning, starting at 9 a.m., through 3:15 p.m. We selected our tickets and put in my email, where they sent me a PDF with our tickets. No need to print — just the QR code was enough when we arrived.
When Are Notre Dame Cathedral Tickets Released?
Tickets for 9 a.m. through 3:15 p.m. are released at midnight, two days before.
However, you can sometimes get tickets the same day — it’s just trickier, especially for the morning. That’s because new tickets are generally released about four hours in advance of the timeslot. Just keep in mind that the available timeslots are 9 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., and then they start again at 1 p.m. So there’s no point in looking for tickets at 8:30 a.m., because there isn’t a 12:30 p.m. booking available.
But in some cases, you just have to keep checking. For example, I am working on this blog post on a Thursday — and Notre Dame is open until 10 p.m. on Thursdays. It’s almost 6:30 p.m. here in Spain (and France) and I’m seeing tickets for TONIGHT at 8:30 p.m. available, which is only two hours from now!
So I think your best bet is probably to try the midnight thing — it seems the most predictable — but you may get lucky trying for same day tickets as well.
Can You Get Into Notre Dame Cathedral Without a Reserved Ticket?
Even if you don’t have a Notre Dame cathedral ticket, you can still wait in the general line outside. I hate waiting in line, and it was raining, so I was really happy we didn’t have to spend any time waiting outside. But don’t worry at all if you aren’t able to snag a ticket in advance — luckily it’s not like Amsterdam where tickets sell out 6 weeks in advance and there’s no possibility to buy them at the door. 🙃
How Long Is the Wait To Get Into Notre Dame Cathedral Without a Reserved Ticket?
The line was suuuuuper long. Like it was zigzagged all along the square and I could imagine that people had been waiting for hours. But I was curious for purposes of writing this blog how long the wait time actually was… so we asked one of the Notre Dame line attendants how long the wait usually is when the line was that long. And we were surprised — she said it’s usually only about 20-30 minutes!
To be honest, they seem to let a lot of people in Notre Dame at a time (maybe too many) so I can see why the line moved fast. I’m still glad we had a reserved ticket because we were able to walk right up and go in, but don’t let the line scare you away.
Where Do You Enter With a Reserved Notre Dame Cathedral Ticket?
When you’re facing the cathedral from Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul II, the main square, find the set of doors to the far right and this is where you’ll be able to get your ticket scanned to enter. You’ll also notice this big orange sign! Just remember that your ticket is only valid for 20 minutes after your scheduled time, so don’t be late!
Plan Your Paris Trip
Best Paris Hotels: Paris France Hotels
Things To Do in Paris: Eiffel Tower Reserved Access Summit or 2nd Floor Guided by Lift // Louvre Museum – Exclusive Guided Tour (Reserved Entry Included) // Paris Seine River Dinner Cruise with Live Music by Bateaux Mouches // Paris Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours
Will you be planning a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral? What else are you planning to do in Paris? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
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