Paris Catacombs tickets: €31, sold only a week ahead, and what to do when they sell out

💡 The Short Version: The official ticket is €31, with an audio guide, from the Paris Musées ticket office. It is sold only for the next seven days, each ticket is for a time slot and cannot be changed or refunded, and no tickets are sold at the door. The Catacombs are closed on Mondays, and no bag larger than 40 × 30 × 20 cm is allowed in. Or book a tour: GetYourGuide is on the list of sellers the Catacombs authorise, so its entry ticket with audio guidead (from £32.57, adults only) is the fallback when the official slots are sold out, and the guided tours with restricted roomsad go where the standard ticket does not.

The tickets, compared

Official prices are from catacombes.paris.fr, read on 30 September 2026; GetYourGuide’s price is its lowest “from” price the same day. €1 is £0.857 at the ECB rate of 29 September.

• The seven-day window: the official ticket office sells only the next seven days. A ticket is for a time window; entry outside it is not guaranteed.
• No changes: tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded, and the date cannot be moved.
• Free tickets are not booked ahead. The Catacombs say holders are guaranteed entry even when the website shows the visit fully booked, and anyone with them enters in the same time slot.
• Buy from an authorised seller. When the official slots sell out, the Catacombs publish a list of sellers to check against; GetYourGuide is on it.
• GetYourGuide’s price is higher: £32.57 is about €38, against €31 from the Catacombs.

Tours worth paying for

Two kinds are worth the extra. One adds a Seine cruise to the standard ticket. The other adds a guide and rooms the standard route does not enter. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 30 September 2026.

Entry with audio guide

From £32.57 · 4.7 stars from 12,313 reviews · 1 hour

Paris: Catacombs Entry Ticket and Audio Guidead is the standard visit on GetYourGuide’s own calendar, with the audio guide in four languages. It is sold to adults only.

Catacombs with a Seine cruise

From £77.05 · 4.6 stars from 1,101 reviews · 1½ to 3 hours

Paris: Catacombs, Audio Guide and River Cruise Optionad pairs the entry ticket and audio guide with an optional cruise on the Seine. Seine river cruises compared has the operators’ own prices.

Guided tour with restricted rooms

From £119.14 · 4.7 stars from 1,022 reviews · 2 hours

Paris: Catacombs Special Access Tourad takes a small group into restricted areas with a guide. Paris Catacombs Skip-the-Line Guided Tour and Special Accessad is the same price (4.8 stars from 414 reviews, 1½ hours). Paris Catacombs Guided Tour With Restricted Roomsad adds timed entry and two restricted crypts, from £170.56 (4.8 stars from 81 reviews).

What to see

Skulls and thigh bones stacked in the ossuary of the Paris Catacombs. Photo: Jorge Láscar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The circuit is 1.5 km, one way, in the tunnels of former limestone quarries about 20 metres underground. Allow 45 minutes to an hour. The Catacombs let in no more than 200 visitors at a time, and may stop entry for a while when it is very busy (catacombes.paris.fr, 30 September 2026).

A quarry gallery with carved inscriptions on the Catacombs route. Photo: Jorge Láscar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

• The quarry galleries: plaques carry the names of the streets above, and the quarry engineers carved their initials and the year into the stone.
• The ossuary: the bones of several million Parisians, moved here from the city’s cemeteries. The entrance is under the inscription “Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort” (“Stop, this is the empire of death”).
• The route: there is one way round, in at the Place Denfert-Rochereau and out at 21 bis avenue René-Coty, about 700 m from the entrance.
• The audio guide is narrated by Héricart de Thury, the engineer who created the ossuary, and starts by itself as you walk. It is in French, English, Spanish and German and lasts about an hour.
• What to skip: nothing; the circuit is short enough to do whole.

On the day

The Barrière d’Enfer on the Place Denfert-Rochereau, beside the Catacombs entrance. Photo: Coyau, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

• Hours: 9:45 to 20:30, Tuesday to Sunday, with last admission at 19:30. Closed on Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December; open on 14 July, 15 August, 1 November and 11 November.
• Getting there: the visitors’ entrance is at 1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, on the Place Denfert-Rochereau, 14e. The metro and the RER B stop at Denfert-Rochereau, and buses 38 and 68 pass. See Paris metro tickets.
• Bags: nothing larger than 40 × 30 × 20 cm. Carry it in front of you or in your hand. There is no cloakroom, because the exit is 700 m from the entrance, and no strollers.
• The queue: the Catacombs warn that waiting at the entrance can be long, even in winter.
• Steps and cold: 131 steps down and 112 up, on an uneven, slippery floor in dim light, at a constant 14 °C. The site is not accessible to wheelchair users. The Catacombs do not recommend it for people with a motor disability, claustrophobia, or cardiac or respiratory problems. Children under 14 must be with an adult.
• Rules: no food, drink or alcohol, no tripods or flash. Photos for private use are allowed.
• The Paris Museum Pass: the Catacombs are not on the pass’s list of sites (parismuseumpass.fr, 30 September 2026), so book a ticket as above. See Paris Museum Pass: is it worth it.

On a Monday, when the Catacombs, the Orsay and Versailles are closed, the Louvre is open. The 4-day itinerary has a spare city day that fits the Catacombs in, and the best time to visit Paris lists every closing day. For the rest of what to book, see what to book before you go; for a base on the Left Bank, see where to stay in Paris.