Notre-Dame de Paris: more than 6 million visitors since its reopening, on track to become the most visited monument in France

The resurrection went well. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has welcomed more than 6.02 million visitors since its reopening on December 16 , according to figures published in the Tribune Dimanche . That's an average of 35,000 visitors per day. If this attendance continues in the second half of the year, the cathedral should approach 12 million admissions in 2025, and thus surpass the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Montmartre (9 million visitors in 2024), the Louvre Museum (8.7 million), the Palace of Versailles (8.4 million) and the Eiffel Tower (6.3 million).

"Notre-Dame de Paris is today the most visited monument in France," Monsignor Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector of the cathedral, told the newspaper. He said , "The emotion aroused by the fire is only matched by that aroused by the reopening." This is not just a passing fad for the rector , "because every month attendance increases by an average of 1,000 people per day," he explained to the newspaper. This positive dynamic could be fueled by the pace of reopenings, since the cathedral's spire regained one of the 16 statues that adorned its base in June, and tours of the towers will resume on September 20, according to the Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN). And, while the question of paying admission was looming for several months , access to the site remains free.

Above all, the monument seems to be doing better than before the fire that devastated the cathedral on April 15, 2019, since it received around "11 million people" per year, says Bishop Ribadeau Dumas, even if the counting method was less reliable.

Notre-Dame de Paris has reopened its doors after five years of a titanic restoration project , funded by €846 million in donations from around the world. "There is still nearly €140 million left," Philippe Jost, president of the public institution Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, told La Tribune Dimanche. "But to complete the complete restoration of the monument as quickly as possible, [...] we are still at least the equivalent of that," he said.