We will be in Paris from January 20 - 24. Can anybody suggest a tour guide for bth Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. We are very interested in architecture and history. San Chapelle requires time stamped tickets, but the website for purchasing tickets seems to be broken. The Notre Dame website lists tickets only a few days before and as of today tickets are sold out for the next 2 days. Ideally we would like to visit both at the same time. Thank you for your suggestions.
Elly Cohen
A tour guide is not needed for either location. The audio guides or a good guide book (hint: Rick Steves) will provide you everything you need to know to understand what you are seeing.
At Sainte-Chapelle there are even boards available in English describing the windows. Are you on the official Sainte-Chapelle website? It seems to be working correctly. Be sure to arrive early to allow for the security screening prior to entry.
For Notre Dame Cathedral, just arrive without reserved tickets and you will have a short wait. I would suggest arriving early, around 9am, before the crowds start filling the cathedral.
If you plan to climb the Towers of Notre Dame reserved tickets are required.
Last May, I didn't have tickets to either, but I lined up before Notre Dame opened and got in sooner than many in the other line for reserved ticket holders. That line was significantly longer than the one for ticketless riffraff like me. As I wasn't particularly impressed with Notre Dame, I got out fairly quickly, walked over to Sainte Chapelle, and got in the same way.
Thank you for your replies. I went back to the Sainte Chapelle website. While the Sainte Chapelle website is functioning, online ticketing is forwarded to an official French website (Centre Des Monuments Nationaux) and that is broken. It seems ticketing for all monuments is broken not just Sainte Chapelle.
Elly
The site was working earlier this week. Try again on Monday. Hopefully their IT team will have it fixed by then.
