Notre Dame tower climb booked - access to main cathedral?

When I went (before the fire), our access to the tower climb was a separate door from the main entry. We saw the inside but it was a different entry point from the tower. It might have changed since the fire but that's how it was before.

No you'll stand in line outside and at the end of the visit you'll be outside. I just did this in October.

According to the website, tickets for the towers don't include access to the cathedral.

https://tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr/en-GB/session-products

Time slots/reservations for the main floor and the bell towers are independent from one another. You will also need to exit the main floor and re-enter to visit the bell towers (or vice versa).

The main floor of the cathedral & the treasury, the bell towers, and the archaeological crypt are all managed by different organizations. They each have different reservation systems to book time slots, and they each have different queues/entrances/exits.

The entrance to the bell towers is outside of the cathedral, to the right side of Notre Dame (if you're facing it). There's a small opening marked by 2 stone columns.

You can still 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.

Thank you - this is super helpful

Arrive 10 minutes before a mass or vespers service. There are multiple each day. Regardless of how many hundreds of people there were in the courtyard waiting for entry, there was ever only a line of 1 or 2 people to get a seat for service.

It doesn’t hurt to ask the doorkeepers in French, “Is this the door for vespers”, or something similar.

I walked right on in with no wait and got a seat 4 rows from the front—even have a music sheet the usher lady gave me which is a nice reminder of the service.

And if you like, you can exit your seat at any time and join the masses shuffling around the perimeter of the cathedral.

Bob voyage!

Neel,
I would hope that anyone leaving a service (and Vespers is a religious service, not just a concert) while it is going on would do so as discreetly as possible to not distract from those there for worship. I am sure those on the forum would all be aware of this. Just a thought.