Wilfredor, CC0Monuments and museums to visit in France
Sixteen monuments and museums to visit in France, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Pont du Gard, with the official ticket office, who enters free and what is closed.
Cities
Jeremy Segrott, CC BY
Places to visit
Cristian Bortes, CC BYMuseumCentre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou-Metz. The partner the Centre names first, with free and unlimited access for POP’ members.ParisTemporarily closed
Shadowgate, CC BYMuseumTimed entryMusée Rodin
The Age of Bronze rotunda. A room with eighteenth-century wood trim, antique mirrors and pale parquet, among the museum’s finest.Parisfrom €14
Samsonsol, CC0MuseumTimed entryThe Paris Catacombs
“Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort”. The inscription stands over the entrance to the ossuary.Parisfrom €31
Diego Delso, CC BY-SACastleCastle and ramparts of the Cité de Carcassonne
The Porte Narbonnaise. Two spur-shaped towers, each 30 meters high, joined by a large guard room on the second floor, with the Saint-Louis barbican facing them.Carcassonnefrom €13
Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SACastleTimed entryChâteau de Chambord
The double helix staircase. Two ramps twist around a hollow core: people on different flights see each other but never meet.Chambordfrom €31
Antoine Montulé, CC BY-SACastleTimed entryChâteau de Chenonceau
The gallery over the Cher. Credited to Catherine de’ Medici and built from the plans of a Venetian palace, it rests on five arches over the river and served as a hospital ward in the Great War.Chenonceauxfrom €19
Ludvig14, CC BY-SACathedralNotre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral
The Royal Portal. The oldest of the three sculpted portals, from around 1150: look at the statue-columns with their rigid bearing and hint of a smile.ChartresFree entry
GFreihalter, CC BY-SAAbbeyCluny Abbey
The great transept. Together with the Eau Bénite bell tower, it is all the 12th-century church keeps in elevation.Clunyfrom €11
Matthias Holländer, CC0AbbeyTimed entryRoyal Abbey of Fontevraud
The Plantagenet necropolis. Eleanor of Aquitaine made Fontevraud the burial place of the sovereigns of England. The official site says her effigy rests here today.Fontevraud-l’Abbayefrom €8
EmDee, CC BY-SAAbbeySénanque Abbey
The abbey church. A tau-cross plan whose liturgical east end faces north, squeezed by the narrow valley.Gordesfrom €8
Giorgio Galeotti, CC BYArchaeological siteCarnac Alignments
The Ménec alignments. Some 1,100 stones in 11 columns, with the largest, around 4 meters, at the wider western end.Carnacfrom €13Wilfredor, CC0LandmarkTimed entryArc de Triomphe
Rude’s Departure of the Volunteers. Better known as La Marseillaise: the winged spirit of Liberty shouts and raises her sword over the volunteers of 1792.Parisfrom €16
Cheng-en Cheng, CC BY-SALandmarkMontparnasse Tower
The Arc de Triomphe terrace. The ticket includes the terrace, 284 steps up, with a 360° view over Paris.ParisTemporarily closed
Chabe01, CC BY-SALandmarkTimed entryPanthéon
The Apotheosis of Saint Genevieve. From the crossing, look up through the open lowest dome to the Gros painting on the second one.Parisfrom €13
Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SALandmarkTimed entryPont du Gard
The canal on the third tier. Walk inside the channel where water flowed 2,000 years ago, reachable only on the guided tour.Vers-Pont-du-Gardfrom €8
Pedro Szekely from Los Angeles, USA, CC BY-SAChapelTimed entrySainte-Chapelle
The windows of the upper chapel. Fifteen windows, up to 15 meters tall, tell the Bible story in 1,113 scenes, ending with the relics arriving in Paris.Parisfrom €22Map
16 places on the mapOpen the full map
Monuments and museums to visit in France: where they are
Of the sixteen monuments and museums to visit in France on this page, seven are in Paris, which has its own page: the Arc de Triomphe and its 284 steps, the Panthéon and its crypt, the Sainte-Chapelle and its 1,113 glass scenes, the Musée Rodin with The Thinker, and the Catacombs and their 1.5-kilometer one-way circuit.
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Two Paris places are closed: the Centre Pompidou since 22 September 2025, for a renovation due to end in 2030, and the Montparnasse Tower observatory, for several years, with no reopening date. In the Loire Valley, Chambord shows the double helix staircase and Chenonceau its gallery on five arches over the Cher, and Fontevraud holds the painted effigies of Henry II, Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the south, Carcassonne keeps two walls and the counts’ castle, the Pont du Gard stands 49 meters high, and Sénanque is a working Cistercian monastery. Elsewhere, Chartres Cathedral covers 2,500 m² of stained glass with free entry, Cluny was the highest abbey church for almost 400 years, and Carnac lines up 3,000 monoliths over 4 km.
Who sells the tickets
Seven of these places are run by the Centre des monuments nationaux and sold on its official ticketing site: the Arc de Triomphe, the Panthéon, the Sainte-Chapelle, Carcassonne, Cluny, Carnac and, at Chartres, the Treasury and the heights tour.
Its rules repeat at the Arc de Triomphe, the Panthéon, the Sainte-Chapelle, Carcassonne and Cluny: free entry for under-18s (under-16s with an adult at the Panthéon), for 18 to 25-year-olds who are EU nationals or regular residents in France, and for a disabled visitor with one companion, online purchases that are final, and free entry for everyone on the first Sunday of the month from November to March. At Carnac, only the guided tour is paid. The others sell for themselves: Chambord, Chenonceau, Fontevraud, Sénanque, the Pont du Gard, the Musée Rodin and, through Paris Musées, the Catacombs. Chenonceau names www.chenonceau.com as its only official site.
What to know before you plan
- Timed entry. The Sainte-Chapelle sells a 30-minute slot, the Catacombs release their timed tickets seven days ahead, and every Chenonceau ticket carries a château visit time. The Arc de Triomphe ticket gives no specific day, and visitors enter in order of arrival.
- Free where it counts. Entry to Chartres Cathedral is free, the megalith trail at Carnac is free with no closing times, walking onto the Pont du Gard costs nothing, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe is free to everyone.
- World Heritage. Carcassonne, Carnac, Chambord, Chartres, Fontevraud, the Pont du Gard and the Sainte-Chapelle are on the UNESCO list.
- Languages. Sénanque is visited with a French guide or the HistoPad. The Catacombs audio guide comes in French, English, Spanish and German, and Chambord’s HistoPad in twelve languages.