Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0
Paris Landmarks — Louvre & Notre-Dame
A museum with new pricing, a cathedral back from the brink — both anchoring central Paris
The Louvre and Notre-Dame anchor opposite ends of central Paris and opposite ends of a museum-versus-monument day, and 2026 changed something about each of them worth knowing before booking either.
The Louvre introduced its first-ever nationality-based pricing in 2026: €22 for EEA residents (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), €32 for everyone else. Every standard ticket, regardless of price tier, comes with a timed entry slot built in — book online and you get a 30-minute arrival window that routes you past the general queue entirely, the actual skip-the-line mechanism rather than a separate paid add-on. Children under 18 enter free regardless of nationality, and EEA residents aged 18-25 get in free too. The ticket also covers same-day or next-day entry to the nearby Musée national Eugène-Delacroix. Book well ahead — slots for popular dates and times fill up weeks in advance. With limited time, three works cover the essential Louvre: the Mona Lisa (Denon Wing, 1st floor, Room 700), the Venus de Milo (Sully Wing, ground floor, Room 345), and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Denon Wing, 1st floor, at the top of the Daru Staircase) — all three sit close enough together to hit in under an hour if that's all the time a match day allows. See live rating and reviews on Google Maps
Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December 2024 after the five-and-a-half-year restoration following the 2019 fire, and the cathedral itself is free to enter for everyone. There's no ticket sales system at all — entry runs through a free online reservation system, strongly recommended April through October but not strictly mandatory; walk-ins are accepted. Hours run Monday-Friday 7:50am-7pm, Saturday-Sunday 8:15am-7:30pm, until 10pm on Thursdays, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. The bell towers, reopened separately on 20 September 2025, require their own paid ticket (€16) bought exclusively through the Centre des Monuments Nationaux site — the cathedral's free entry doesn't extend up there. One date is worth flagging directly: the cathedral closes entirely 24-26 September 2026 for a papal visit, a detail that won't affect a May-June 2027 Roland-Garros trip but is worth knowing the cathedral does close for specific events. See live rating and reviews on Google Maps
Both sit close enough to the Seine and to each other that a single day covers both comfortably, museum in the morning, cathedral in the afternoon, or the reverse.
Why it's special
These are the two landmarks that most define what "seeing Paris" actually means to most first-time visitors, and both are, independently, undergoing their own real moment: the Louvre adjusting its entire pricing model for the first time in its history, and Notre-Dame back from a fire that genuinely threatened to be permanent. Visiting either right now means visiting them at a specific, notable point in their long histories, not just ticking a box on a tourist checklist.
Notre-Dame in particular carries weight that's easy to underestimate until you're actually standing inside it. The restoration wasn't a foregone conclusion in 2019 — plenty of structures don't come back from fires this severe, this fast, this completely. Walking through a cathedral that was, five years ago, genuinely at risk of permanent closure, is a different experience than walking through one that's simply always been open.
Insider tips
- 1
Book Louvre timed-entry slots as far ahead as possible — popular dates and time windows during May-June (Roland-Garros season, also peak Paris tourist season) sell out weeks in advance, and the timed-entry system only works if you actually have a confirmed slot.
- 2
Notre-Dame's bell tower ticket (€16) is entirely separate from the free cathedral entry and sold exclusively through the Centre des Monuments Nationaux site — don't expect to buy it at the cathedral door or assume free entry covers it.
Practical info
- Hours
- Louvre: check official site for current daily hours, typically closed Tuesdays. Notre-Dame: Mon-Fri 07:50-19:00, Sat-Sun 08:15-19:30, Thu until 22:00.
- Cost
- Louvre €22 (EEA) / €32 (non-EEA), free under 18 and EEA 18-25. Notre-Dame free entry; bell tower €16.
- Access
- Louvre and Notre-Dame both bookable as guided tours via GetYourGuide; Notre-Dame also free walk-in entry, bell tower tickets via the Centre des Monuments Nationaux site only.
- Book
- Louvre Museum Tour — Mona Lisa & Iconic MasterpiecesNotre-Dame — The Restored Masterpiece Guided Tour
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- Getting there
- Louvre: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre (Métro Lines 1, 7). Notre-Dame: Cité or Saint-Michel (Métro Line 4, or RER B/C). Both sit within walking distance of each other along the Seine's Right Bank/Île de la Cité.
- Address
- Louvre: Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris; Notre-Dame: 6 Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris
What to avoid
Don't assume EEA and non-EEA Louvre pricing applies uniformly to every ticket type — this is specifically the standard admission price distinction introduced in 2026; check the exact ticket category you're buying rather than assuming the headline €22/€32 figures apply to every pass or combo ticket on the site. And don't skip Notre-Dame's free online reservation thinking walk-in access is equally reliable April through October — walk-ins are accepted, but the cathedral's own guidance specifically recommends booking ahead during those months, meaning a walk-in visitor risks a longer wait or a less convenient entry time than someone who reserved.
