Notre Dame

Maybe it wiil settle down but right now ND is an appalling miserable tourist trappy experience. YOu are in an enormous crowd walking the circuit. I would be surprised if they allow tour groups -- there are a lot of security guards hustling you along and the central section where the seats are is often roped off for mass and visitors can't wander in to see the rose window and organ etc. I love the Cathedral but visits now are not very satisfying.

There are many posts in the forum from back in 2025 when Notre Dame was reopening about
getting tickets, etc. Especially look for posts from emilyofnotredame.

But I believe that guided tours from a paid outfit will not get you into the cathedral in a "cut-the
line" manner. You would have to either reserve timed entry through the official website, or wait
in line (even last summer when it was jammed, the line moved pretty fast).

Note there are free tours given by a volunteer organization at various times of the week.
CASA tours of Notre Dame

We booked with a tour operator and skipped the line. The guide could not guide us inside. The central isle was closed. I did not enjoy it at all. Our visit a year before the fire was a better visit.

Forum contributor "emilyofnotredame" has the most up-to-date info re Notre Dame. I would just like to say please do not pay someone to get into the church. It is a house of worship and there is no entrance fee. No tours for pay are allowed by the church and in my opinion desecrate the purpose of the cathedral. It is not there to be a money-maker for anyone. Rather it is first and foremost a place of worship.

The towers are not under the jurisdiction of the church, so there is a fee to go up, but that is the state that runs it. Reserve ahead of time for that.

My experience from last spring is to visit the Cathedral in the early morning before the crowds arrive. There was a huge difference in noise and crowds between 9am arrival and 10am arrival.

You can tour on your own. The Notre Dame inside walk in the Rick Steves' Paris guidebook is helpful. You can also rent an audio guide at the shop inside the Cathedral.

There are free tours of the interior of Notre Dame given by a group of cathedral volunteers called CASA. I did an English speaking one a few weeks ago and it was excellent. You meet near the base of the left tower where Rue d'Arcole runs into Notre Dame.

Here is the calendar of when the tours are presented both interior and exterior.

https://www.acck.fr/GuidesCasa-calendrierCasa/

No reservations needed (or taken). Lasts about 1h15 minutes and they provide headsets so you can hear the guide.

editing to add: There is also an official app you can download. I downloaded it but did not use it inside since I was going the tour with the volunteer. Here's the link to the link, hahaha.

https://www.notredamedeparis.fr/en/visit/mobile-app/

Hi! Tours are now allowed inside, but only on certain days and during certain hours.

Tour guides/tour operators/travel agencies are not allowed to sell time slots/reservations to visit the main floor, and payment for the tour itself can't be a condition to enter (ie. tour guides can't say that you have to pay for their tour to be allowed to enter the cathedral). Be very cautious of any tours that are sold through 3rd party sites like TripAdvisor, Viator, GetYourGuide, Headout etc. They're often very misleading, very overpriced, and they're are usually more scammy than not.

There are no advanced reservations/time slots specifically for tours of under 6 people and there's no "skip the line" access. Even if they say they can, it's absolutely not true, and they are using loopholes that are against the terms & conditions.

CASA (Communautés d'Accueil dans les Sites Artistiques/Welcome Communities in Artistic Sites) is a volunteer organization who offer free guided tours. They are the "official partners" with the cathedral and the Diocèse. Their tours focus more on the religious and spiritual topics of Notre Dame, and less on the architectural and "technical" topics, such as the restoration techniques, etc. I'm not saying this in a negative way, only so that you know what to expect. Advanced reservations are not required for individuals, tours have up to 20 people in a group. The link to their tour schedule is here: https://www.acck.fr/GuidesCasa-calendrierCasa/

For individual visits, the first batch of new time slots to visit the main floor of the cathedral is released at midnight (Paris time), for the date 1 day ahead (FYI, this has changed from the previous 2 days ahead. I'm not sure yet if this is only a temporary change, or if it's long-term). For example: At midnight (Paris time) on April 1st, time slots are released for April 2rd. Any dates beyond April 2nd will automatically be greyed out/appear to be full. New/additional time slots are then released sporadically up until the day of. However, the release of time slots can be inconsistent, and not every time slot is offered every day.

But you can always visit the main floor of the cathedral without a time slot/reservation by waiting in the "Access without reservations" queue, which is on the left side of Notre Dame (if you're facing it), and is marked by blue signage/banners. The wait time varies, depending on the combination of: the season, the day of the week, the time of day, if there's any liturgical services happening at that time, if there's any special events happening at that time, etc.

For the lowest crowds, I recommend visiting on a weekday before 10:00am. Please note that although Notre Dame opens at 7:50am on weekdays (and at 8:15am on weekends), the back half of the cathedral (the ambulatory, the back chapels and the reliquary of the Crown of Thorns) doesn't open until 8:45am on weekdays.

Or, if you're available on Thursday evening, the ideal time to visit is between 8:00pm and 9:00pm! Notre Dame is open until 10:00pm on Thursday, but I recommend entering by 9:00pm at the latest because we start closing/clearing people out of the building around 9:30pm.

FYI, "Tours de Notre Dame", means "Towers of Notre Dame". If you see "Tours de Notre Dame", it's referring to visiting the (bell) towers of Notre Dame, not a guided tour of Notre Dame. Guided tours/tour groups, regardless of size, are not allowed inside the bell towers.

You can visit the bell towers independently, but you must buy tickets/reserve a time slot in advance (they have an admission fee since they're considered a tourist site). Tickets/time slots are not available onsite, and there is no standby queue. Due to the limited number of time slots available, I recommend buying tickets at least 3-4 weeks in advance (5-6 weeks in advance during peak season, and/or if you have a specific date/time of when you want to visit).

Can anyone recommend the best way to go about this for the best experience?

I went twice April 2025, on my own, and both visits were wonderful. If it was crowded, I didn’t notice it and it didn’t bother me at all.

I went in late Sep 2025 and it wasn't an enjoyable experience. In fact, I don't remember much about it at all. It was a massive crowd and we were elbow to elbow moving like a huge herd of cattle down the side aisles. The middle was roped off for Mass.
The line outside wasn't that bad, it moved quickly. But the inside was jam packed.

I did enjoy a side visit to the Treasury museum though.

Also of note is that there are concerts in the cathedral.... and some in July.

Concerts

Since ND has been open after its renovation, of course the crowds are bigger. I imagine the crowds will lessen over time. I hope so, but when I get there again, I will plan on going to an early weekday mass, then looking around after.

I know this is considered a bucket list item for many, but Paris (and France) is likely full of very nice churches. You won't get the bragging rights but you'll get the cathedral experience. Search around, or even just pop into a church when you pass by. I do this in London and have had some very lovely visits.

Phred...D'accord!

In January, we were interested in Notre Dame. So, at 6 PM, we attended a service. We are atheists, but enjoy the use of sacred spaces for sacred worship. In addition, there was a stunning singer whose voice was exceptional. The best thing you can do is go to a service. We have attended services in many churches. You go right in, and there are 20 other people.

Thanks to all of you who contributed so much useful information! I knew I was asking the right people!