We would like to visit the Notre Dame Tower and then the Cathedral on a Thursday night. How long does it take to visit the Tower? We will get a timed entry ticket for the Tower and hope to get an online reservation for the Cathedral when it becomes available.. How long do people spend visiting the Cathedral? We know the Cathedral closes at 10 pm that night. With that in mind, would a 6:30 pm timed entry to the Tower leave us enough time to visit the Tower and then the Cathedral?
Thanks.
Posted by
2 posts
I'm going to piggy-back onto the previous question. I've figured out how to make an online reservation to enter the cathedral, but I'm mystified about booking a space to climb the tower! Any advice out there?
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11762 posts
https://www.tours-notre-dame-de-paris.fr/en/visit/practical-information
Scroll down to where it says tickets.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
17044 posts
As to how long it takes to visit the cathedral...it depends you. I went last October, entered about 10A, and while it was quite quick to get in, once inside it was shoulder to shoulder and you just kind of moved around the outside of the nave with the throng. I think I stayed inside about 45 minutes and decided it was more humanity than I wanted to deal with.
You do not need a timed entry to visit the Cathedral. Yes, they offer them but seriously you can easily get inside with the regular line especially since you are going later in the day.
And yes, depending on how quickly you are able to climb the stairs up and down you should have plenty of time. I assume you are going in the summer when it's light late?
I have not gone up in the towers as I have a fear of heights but I know they shoo you along once you are to the outside gallery upstairs so I'd say an hour. I'd recommend you just get the timed entry for the towers and then head inside when you are done without bothering with another timed entry.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
17044 posts
And there is a current thread on how long the tower climb takes. Some forum members are saying 1h20m.
Posted by
🇫🇷 Paris, France (📍Probably at Notre Dame)
95 posts
Hi! Generally speaking, visiting the bell towers takes approximately 1-1.5 hours. There's a very limited, and fixed, amount of people allowed in each area at a time and visiting each of the 7 areas has to be done in a sequential order. You might have various periods of additional wait time while waiting for capacity to open in the subsequent area(s). Depending on the day/time (ie. peak season, in the afternoon, etc), it can take up to 2 hours, but if you're visiting in the evening, it should take the "standard" 1-1.5 hours.
Since you're visiting on a Thursday and planning to visit the main floor of the cathedral afterwards, 6:30pm is the perfect time to visit the bell towers because the ideal time to visit the main floor is between 8:00pm and 9:00pm! So the timing will work out great.
FYI, Although Notre Dame is open until 10:00pm on Thursday, but we start closing/clearing people out of the building at 9:30pm, so I recommend arriving at 9:00pm at the latest so that your visit isn't rushed!
Visiting the main floor takes approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour (depending on how "thoroughly" you want to visit).