Five years after the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral, visitors will be able to enter on December 8. But not all of them, there will be people, lots of people. A ticket office has been set up, it will be free and available online. It will be possible to reserve a time slot of one hour or 30 minutes but only one or two days before the visit. It will not be possible to reserve several months in advance, however.
The diocese says that 15 million visitors are expected to visit the cathedral each year when it reopens, compared to 10 million before the fire. The 6,000 m2 cathedral can only accommodate 2,500 visitors at a time, which is a real challenge for church authorities who rely on online booking to regulate the flow.
For the reopening, only individual entries will be possible. Group visits will only be possible 6 months after the reopening of Notre-Dame. This is to limit access and also to favor individual visits by religious and pilgrims.
A “Visiting Companion” mobile application will also be available for a guided tour of Notre-Dame; it will be downloadable on smartphones from the fall.
The restoration work is not yet finished. The work on the flying buttresses will last another 4 or 5 years. The work on the forecourt around the cathedral will continue for at least 3 years, indicates the diocese of Paris.
Fake entrance tickets are reportedly in circulation. A tourist raised the alarm after finding fraudulent tickets sold for around ten euros. “He charged for a ticket and a visit, with a visit booklet, which was actually a simple PDF, at a fairly substantial price of around ten euros.” reports The Parisian.
