Hi,
We're planning on being at Notre Dame at 7:50 am when it opens to visit the church. We then have tickets for the ND Towers climb at 9:15 am.
There is a particular item I want to purchase in the gift shop (that doesn't open until 9:30 am). Would we have to wait in line to get into the cathedral AGAIN just to go into the gift shop after our Towers climb?
Thanks.
There was a very small gift shop in the first part of the tower visit. I'm not sure if it opens any earlier, or if it would have your item, though.
The exit from the towers goes outside into a sort of courtyard, and I don't think there's any way back in from there. You can't get back to the tower gift shop once you've passed it, either, because the tour is one way (up one tower and down the other).
FWIW, across the river from ND there are several hundred (mild exaggeration) gift shops unless your heart's desire really truly is only available at the cathedral
Hi! The main floor of the cathedral and the bell towers are each managed by a different organizations. They each have different staff, different opening hours, their own reservation/ticketing system, and their own queues/entrances/exits, etc.
If you visit the main floor of the cathedral first and then exit to visit the bell towers, yes, you will need to queue again to re-enter the main floor to go to the gift shop. There is also gift shop in the lower level of the bell towers (the first stop on the visitor route), but the merchandise is entirely different than the gift shop on the main floor/inside.
All of the items in the main floor gift shop are available online, and they do offer international shipping: https://boutique.notredamedeparis.fr/
Or, if it's something you need urgently and you won't have time to go back inside after you visit the bell towers, let me know and I will see what I can do to help. (I'm pretty much at Notre Dame every day!)
As an FYI, although Notre Dame opens at 7:50am on weekdays (and at 8:15am on weekends), for the unforeseeable future, 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.
