Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle, Orangerie & Notre-Dame Full-Day Tour Paris

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Paris was begun in 1163 and took almost two centuries to complete; its twin towers rise 69 metres over the Île de la Cité and its three rose windows, each about 13 metres across, are among the finest examples of Gothic stained glass. The fire of April 2019 destroyed the roof and the spire, and after five years of restoration the cathedral reopened in December 2024 with a new oak roof, a rebuilt spire of 96 metres and limestone walls cleaned to a brightness not seen for centuries. Entry is free, but a reserved time slot is the only way to avoid the long queue on the square.

The day starts here with a reserved slot and an online audio guide in ten languages on your own phone, so you visit the nave, the choir and the chapels at your own pace, usually in forty-five minutes to an hour. Bring headphones. The coordinator meets the group afterwards in front of the cathedral for the walk.

The Île de la Cité, where Paris began

The Île de la Cité is the island in the Seine where a Celtic tribe settled before the Romans built Lutetia, and for a thousand years it held the cathedral, the royal palace and the law courts within a few hundred metres of each other. The guided walk crosses the island from Notre-Dame past the flower market, held under its iron pavilions since 1808, to the gilded gates of the Palais de Justice and the Pont Neuf, which despite its name is the oldest bridge in Paris, completed in 1607, with the small triangular park of the Square du Vert-Galant at its tip.

Your coordinator uses the walk of about thirty minutes to tell the story of the city's origins, the medieval royal palace and the religious and political power that Sainte-Chapelle represented. It is the only part of the day that is a walking tour with commentary; inside the monuments you visit on your own with the included tickets.

Sainte-Chapelle and its stained glass

Sainte-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1248 inside the royal palace to house the relics of the Passion, and it is the most complete example of the Gothic style that turned walls into glass. The lower chapel, painted in blue and gold, served the palace staff; the upper chapel, reserved for the royal family, is a cage of fifteen windows 15 metres high containing more than a thousand scenes from the Bible, with a great rose window added in the 15th century. Two thirds of the glass is original from the 13th century.

Your ticket to Sainte-Chapelle is included and you visit on your own; most people need about thirty minutes, and the colours are strongest in the late morning when the sun is high. There is a security check at the entrance shared with the law courts, which is why large bags and umbrellas are not allowed on this tour.

The Conciergerie, palace and prison

The Conciergerie is what remains of the medieval royal palace on the Île de la Cité, abandoned by the kings in the 14th century for the Louvre and turned into courts and a prison. Its Hall of the Men-at-Arms, built around 1310, is one of the largest surviving Gothic halls in Europe, with four aisles of vaulted stone, and the kitchens with their four great fireplaces fed the palace. During the Revolution the building became the main prison of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and more than 2,700 prisoners passed through here on their way to the guillotine, including the last queen of the old regime, whose cell has been reconstructed.

Entry to the Conciergerie is included and self-guided, with a tablet available at the entrance that shows the rooms as they looked in the Middle Ages. Allow about forty minutes before the group meets for the electric shuttle along the Seine to the Louvre.

The Louvre Museum with reserved access

The afternoon is given to the Louvre, the former royal palace that opened as a museum in 1793 and is now the most visited museum in the world, with about 35,000 works on display in three wings around the glass pyramid. With reserved access you enter without the main ticket queue, and your coordinator leads an orientation route through the essential galleries: the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the top of the Daru staircase, the Mona Lisa in the Salle des États, the Venus de Milo among the Greek marbles and Liberty Leading the People in the French painting rooms.

The guided route lasts about two hours and is designed so that you understand the layout of the building and can find your way back to any room later. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, which is why this tour does not run that day. Luggage and large bags are not allowed inside, so bring only a small day bag.

The Tuileries Garden and the Orangerie

From the Louvre pyramid the day continues with a guided walk through the Tuileries Garden, the oldest public garden in Paris, laid out in 1564 for a palace that no longer exists and redesigned a century later in the formal French style with terraces, round ponds and lines of chestnut trees. The central axis runs straight through the garden to the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde and on up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, which is why the view from the far terrace is one of the finest in the city.

In the corner of the garden by the Concorde stands the Orangerie, built in 1852 to shelter the orange trees of the Tuileries and now a museum. Its two oval rooms hold the eight panels of the Water Lilies, painted for this space and installed in 1927, nearly 100 metres of water, sky and reflections lit by daylight from above. Your ticket is included, and the Impressionist and modern paintings downstairs complete the visit.