The Paris Palace That Became a Revolutionary Prison

What you see inside the Conciergerie

La Conciergerie (on the Seine embankment) has four dark conical towers and the gilded, square-faced Tour de l'Horloge clock rising straight off the quay. The building was a medieval palace before it became a prison of the Revolution. The visit opens into the Salle des Gens d'Armes, a vast pale hall under rib vaults, lined with rows of bare stone columns and empty of furniture.

Collect the HistoPad at the door. It costs nothing. Come in the morning; a late-afternoon arrival loses half the experience. Last entry is 17:30.

Sainte-Chapelle across the courtyard

Sainte-Chapelle (the same courtyard) is a single room enclosed on all sides by 15-metre stained-glass lancets in deep cobalt and ruby. Slender painted-and-gilded columns carry a star-painted blue vault, and almost no wall is left between the windows. Strollers are barred from the upper chapel.

Groups are sold as packages: €130 for eight people at one monument, €180 for eight across both. The minimum is eight people and the maximum 24.

Tickets and the price split that arrived in January 2026

On its own, the Conciergerie holds a flat €13 adult price for all nationalities. Sainte-Chapelle moved to two-tier pricing on 12 January 2026: €16 for EEA visitors, €22 for everyone else. The twin ticket covering both monuments is €23 for EEA visitors and €30 for non-EEA visitors.

Self-guided groups pay €11.50 a person from 20 paying adults at the Conciergerie, and guided group slots are booked in advance through the monument.

Guided tours and cruises from this stretch of the Seine run seven days a week. Some are sold out on 24, 25 and 31 December 2026, though other dates remain bookable. Book ahead for a late-December date.

Notre-Dame and the tower climb, five minutes east

Notre-Dame de Paris (five minutes' walk east) needs no ticket. The diocese runs it, not the monument service, and free timed slots release 48 hours ahead. Inside, the restored limestone is honey-pale and scrubbed, the nave startlingly bright, the floor new blond stone. The forecourt gives you the west front, the twin square towers and the great rose window.

Forecourt redevelopment works started on 31 August 2026, with archaeological digs running into 2027. The cathedral stays open and the approach is a building site.

Towers of Notre-Dame de Paris (separate entrance from the cathedral) is a different monument with its own operator and its own ticket. Entry is €16 and online booking is compulsory, with nothing sold at the door. The climb is 424 steps with no lift and no toilets, and some passages narrow to 45cm. It is not advised for anyone with heart trouble or vertigo. At the top you get five minutes on the chimera gallery, beside the stone-horned creature resting its chin on its hands, the new lead spire behind it.

The crypt at the island's eastern tip

Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation (the island's eastern tip) is free and five minutes from the Conciergerie. A tight white concrete staircase sinks below ground into a bare stone courtyard with an iron-barred gate onto the river. Past that, a dark tunnel is walled with 200,000 tiny lit glass crystals. It closes on the first Monday of every month and on 1 May.

The ten minutes either side of your slot

Marché aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II (Place Louis-Lépine) is across the road from the monument and opens daily 08:00 to 19:30. Green-painted cast-iron and glass pavilions shelter potted plants and cut stems that spill across the pavement under the arcades. Browsing costs nothing and there is no door policy, though the aisles are narrow. The Sunday bird market that older guidebooks still mention closed permanently on 31 December 2022.

Square du Vert-Galant (the island's downstream point) is the sit-down for an early arrival, two minutes from the ticket office. A weeping willow marks the point, worn cobbled steps drop beneath the arches of the Pont Neuf, and the Louvre faces you across the right-hand channel. The garden is open 24 hours and closes without notice in high winds.

Pont au Change (the bridge facing the monument) gives the angle that explains the building. From the parapet, which carries Napoleon III imperial 'N' medallions, you look straight at the four round towers and the gold-and-blue Tour de l'Horloge mirrored in the Seine. The facade reads as a fortress palace only from the water.

Place Dauphine (behind the Palais de Justice) is a triangular cobbled square of matched 17th-century houses in pink brick and pale stone under steep slate roofs. Red-flowering chestnuts shade a gravel strip where locals play pétanque. The restaurant terraces around the square take bookings and the benches take anyone. Routine tree maintenance fences off a corner from time to time.

Where to sit down

Le Caveau du Palais (Place Dauphine) has a narrow bistro frontage on the cobbles, pavement tables under the chestnuts, and a low beamed stone-walled room inside. It opens seven days, with lunch from 12:00, drinks through the afternoon and dinner until 22:00. Prices run €€€. Book ahead, because the room is small.

Brasserie Les Deux Palais (3 boulevard du Palais) is the nearest proper sit-down to the entrance, open 07:00 to 23:00 daily. The glass-roofed terrace looks across at the gilded railings of the Palais de Justice, and the room behind it has mirrored walls, a painted ceiling and red banquettes. Prices run €€, and you pay central-tourist rates for the position. Reservations are taken online and by phone.

Au Vieux Paris d'Arcole (rue Chanoinesse) occupies a canon's house of 1512 on a quiet back lane, its mauve frontage swallowed by one wisteria 7 metres high and 22 metres wide, lilac in spring. A few tables sit out on the cobbles. The kitchen is Aveyronnais: Aubrac beef, aligot, coufidou. Lunch and dinner run daily and a head costs €20 to €60. Reserve, and expect the rooms to be small.

Berthillon (29-31 rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Île) is one bridge east on Île Saint-Louis, a slim shopfront with gold-on-dark lettering and a wood-panelled tea room behind. Cones of intensely coloured fruit sorbet come over the counter, prices are €, and no bookings are taken. It shuts on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Books along the quay

Les Bouquinistes de la Seine (both banks) are rows of dark bottle-green metal boxes bolted along the parapet, lids propped open on iron stays, filled with battered paperbacks, old prints and vintage magazine covers. They were recognised as French intangible heritage in 2019 and defended against removal in 2024. Each bookseller keeps their own hours, so not every box is open on the day you walk past.

Shakespeare and Company (37 rue de la Bûcherie) is five minutes across the Petit Pont, a yellow-and-green shopfront facing the cathedral across the river. Books stack floor to ceiling, a steep narrow wooden staircase climbs to the rooms above, and a coin-filled wishing well sits in the floor. Entry is capacity-capped and the aisles are tight. The café inside runs at €€, and this is the indoor shelter to aim for if the weather turns.

Seeing the river facade from the water

Vedettes du Pont Neuf (1 Square du Vert-Galant) boards on the stone quay a few paces from the monument and passes directly under the Pont Neuf, the Conciergerie's round towers rising above the waterline. The round trip takes one hour, with live English and French commentary and an app in six languages. Tickets are €15 online and €17 at the kiosk. Children aged 4 to 12 pay €7 online and under-4s go free.

Best time of day to go

Morning is the useful half of the day at the Conciergerie, since the tablet stops going out in mid-afternoon and the last admission comes an hour later. The memorial keeps its own clock: weekday mornings are reserved for pre-booked guided visits, and unaccompanied entry is free from 15:00. At Shakespeare and Company, early morning and late afternoon are the uncrowded windows, and the shop runs until 20:00, or 21:00 from Thursday to Saturday.

Who the visit suits

It suits a visitor with a morning on the island and an interest in how one building served a king and then the Revolution. The tablet does the explaining, and the stone rooms are otherwise bare.

Before you go

Two closures decide the date, the memorial on the first Monday of each month and Berthillon on Mondays and Tuesdays. Book the tower climb online and reserve any table on Place Dauphine before you travel. See the Paris guide and the Paris hotel search.