Timed tickets for museums in paris

Yes, this is true.

I will add that in October the Louvre was the main one needing pre booking. Watch the calendar for your time frame (when it becomes available) to see what the bookings looked like. You may be ok booking a few days to a week out.

I’d pre purchased tickets for the Orsay but there was literally no one there when I got there either in the prepurchase line or the “buy now” line.

Do you have some museums in mind?

Hi, thanks for the response. How far in advance should I schedule for St. Chapelle. I wonder if I can schedule times same day for most things.

I am in Paris right now and while we had a timed entry ticket for the Louvre, there was a sign during entry (from Carrousel entrance) for those with tickets and those without and we saw people appearing to purchase tickets inside. We did not need timed entry for Natural History museum or Invalides or D’Orsay.

As for St. Chappelle, I’m not going there this trip, however it is usually a good idea to book ahead. As it is located inside the police prefecture, I am not sure how they’re doing it right now with the trial going on (expected to continue till May). There is definitely a heavy police presence around it.

Also depends on what time of year you go as to whether you want to book a ticket ahead. As you can imagine, it’s not too crowded anywhere in January. Busy but not the summer hoards :-) Before we came, I monitored the websites’ booking pages for appointments, checking each day and there were tons of slots available each day.

Thank you

I seem to remember St. Chapelle requiring pre-booked entry long before the current pandemic.

No, there was no pre-booking at Sainte-Chapelle pre-pandemic, except for groups. There was always a security line, though.

I last visited St.Chapelle in October of 2019. I don’t recall that it was required, but I knew lines were often long there so I chose to pre-book our tickets. When we arrived there was indeed a long line and I flashed my ticket at the guard at the front of the line asking where to go if we had a ticket and he motioned us through rather than to the end line.

Funny memory — the place was packed and the din of voices was deafening. Somebody did a loud “Shhhhh!!” And the entire place stopped talking and it was silent for like 20-30 seconds.

There are loads of posts about this.

Last October, I booked the Louvre 3 days before, not the ideal time, was in the afternoon, and had to spend 20 minutes in line to get in, but it was fine. I tried to not book too far in advance because I wanted flexibility with the weather.

St Chapelle and Conciergerie required timed bookings, depending on when you're going I would not try to book the day of. I booked the day before and got 9 am the next day (Saturday). Right now, there's still extra security during the week due to the trial.

"The trial" is the Bataclan terrorist attack defendants, right? (I haven't been keeping up with Paris news and the general U.S. media hasn't mentioned it since it started last year.)

That is correct, and security around the Palais du Justice has been very heavy.