Our Lady will reopen to the public starting next December 8 after five years of renovation works due to the devastating fire in April 2019 that considerably damaged one of the most emblematic monuments in the world and symbol of Paris.
Specifically, on the previous day, December 7, a ceremonial act in the cathedral, chaired by the Archbishop of Paris, in the presence of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who will address a large number of heads of State and Government, officials, patrons, jointly invited by the State and the diocese, among others.
Then, on December 8, a eight-day reopening of the cathedral, allowing access to Paris faithful and visitors until 10:00 p.m. Finally, Notre Dame will return to normal starting December 16.
Free reservations to access the monument will be made through an ‘online’ platform, in order to limit waiting time at the entrance to the cathedral. They will be available in early December.
Thus, individual visitors will be able to book a time slot the day before, the day before or the same day. However, there will still be a queue on the esplanade without a reservation.
According to a statement from the monument, near 40,000 pilgrims, including 8,000 schoolchildren, have already registered for the cathedral’s pilgrimage service. The visit to Notre Dame consists of a 30-minute silent tour around the cathedral, with five stations.
For its part, the registration of cultural groups will begin in March 2025 on a platform to coordinate the group tickets, who will be received in the cathedral starting June 9 of next year.
Before the fire, Notre Dame was the most visited monument in France with 14 million visitors in 2018 and one of the first in the world.
According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)this cathedral led world visits ahead of others such as the Great Wall of China (9 million tourists), the Sydney Opera House (7.5 million), the Eiffel Tower (7 million), the Lincoln Memorial in Washington (6 million ) or the Colosseum in Rome (5 million).
The Government proposes charging entry
On the other hand, in a recent interview with ‘Le Figaro’, the Minister of Culture of France, Rlove Datiproposed that entry to Notre Dame after the reopening should no longer be free for tourists, so that those who want to access the interior pay a “symbolic fee” of five euros.
Furthermore, Dati explained in an interview with ‘Le Figaro’ that this tax would allow raising some 75 million euros a yearenough to “save all the churches in Paris and France”, within the ideas being considered for the emblematic temple after its reopening in December.
In response, the president of the Paris metropolitan region, Valérie Pecresse, considered it a “very good idea”, although he proposed limiting the payment to “tourists” and not to the “faithful” who come to pray, which led Dati to clarify on social networks that “the services must of course continue to be of free and open access”.
