Attendance numbers 2025: well-oriented indicators

France. A year without covid, without the Olympics, without heatwaves, without yellow vests. Everything was in place to ensure that attendance at heritage sites in France would be good in 2025. And this is what happened if we are to believe the first figures that have been communicated. Thus the major Parisian museums (excluding the Center Pompidou, which closed during the year) welcomed 3% more visitors compared to 2024, returning to their pre-covid level. Visitors, it seems, did not shun the Louvre after the burglary of the Apollo gallery: the most visited museum in the world slightly exceeded its 2023 figures (2024 was marked by the Olympics) but did not regain its 2019 scores. On the other hand, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie is struggling to regain its visitor numbers, another challenge for its new president.

But it is the Parisian national monuments (Sainte-Chapelle, Panthéon, Arc de Triomphe) which have benefited the most from the good tourist season. One site, however, is far ahead of all the others, including the Eiffel Tower, and that is Notre-Dame Cathedral, which one year after its reopening welcomed more than 11 million visitors. The cathedral towers (managed by the Center des monuments nationaux), opened later in the year, were also full. The opportunity to remind you that another cathedral, much less visited and therefore more comfortable, is well worth the (small) detour: that of Saint-Denis.

Outside of Paris, the figures take longer to arrive, but a positive trend is emerging like the curves of the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey, another jewel of the CMN highly coveted by the public establishment which manages the entire site. Even the Château de Chambord, although handicapped by the partial closure of the François 1er wing, set a new attendance record. Half as visited as Chambord but benefiting from a great program, Chantilly continues to show double-digit growth.

The Château de Chantilly is emblematic of places which, relying on favorable national conditions (no covid, heatwave, etc.) post records due to exceptional programming, as was the case for the exhibition on “Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry”. The Fabre Museum in Montpellier (see ill.) is undoubtedly the museum in the Region which has benefited the most from the “exhibition effect” thanks to the retrospective on Soulages which welcomed its 100,000th visitor on January 2, 2026. In Paris, riding the public’s enthusiasm for fashion exhibitions, the Quai Branly recorded its best figure for a temporary exhibition (286,000) with “Au fil de l’or, the art of dressing from the Orient to the Rising Sun”, allowing the museum to boost its visitors.