Who hasn’t heard of “Open House” events? These are a handful of days each year when private homes, or historic buildings that house government offices, throw open their doors to the public and let you peek inside. This isn’t a recent invention: the French came up with it back in 1984, and since then it’s been adopted by every member state of the European Union.
In my opinion, “Heritage Days” (or in French, Journées du Patrimoine) are an amazing time to be in France, and especially in Paris. During these days you can step into palaces where, on any normal day, you could only imagine the treasures hiding behind their doors. My goal with this article is to help you plan your next trip to Paris, so you can get the most out of everything French Heritage Days have to offer.
When do Heritage Days take place in Paris?
The exact date shifts a little from year to year, but Heritage Days almost always fall on the third weekend of September. So if you’re planning to fly to Paris in the fall, I highly recommend keeping these days in mind and timing your trip around them.
In 2026, Heritage Days took place on September 19-20.
Popular monuments during Heritage Days
Much to my surprise, as you’ll see from the list below:
- Les Invalides
- the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle
- the Senate building (Palais du Luxembourg)
- the Panthéon
- the Hôtel de Ville (Paris’s city hall)
- the Élysée Palace (residence of the president of France)
- the Gobelins Museum in the 13th arrondissement.
- the Palais Bourbon (National Assembly)
- the Château de Vincennes
- the Arc de Triomphe
A good number of the most popular Heritage Days monuments are actually ones you can visit the rest of the year too. Is it because admission is free during Heritage Days? I’m not sure, but if you take my advice, I’d recommend visiting all of these monuments some other time, and saving Heritage Days for the places you can’t get into on any other day.
My picks for monuments worth visiting on Heritage Days
If you click this link, you’ll find hundreds (!) of palaces and monuments you can visit. Of course you won’t have time to see them all, and that’s without even mentioning the endless lines (if you thought you were the only clever reader of this guide, think again 🙂 ).
In other words, it’s worth doing some detailed planning so you can pick the monuments that suit you best. Keep two important criteria in mind:
- your own interests
- how long the line will be (as a rule of thumb, the more famous the place, the longer the wait)
To help you choose which monuments to visit, I’ve put together two lists of places I’ve visited before or plan to visit in the future. Feel free to take some inspiration from them, and who knows, maybe we’ll bump into each other in a line during a future Heritage Days weekend.
Famous monuments open on Heritage Days
These are the “celebrities” of Heritage Days in Paris, and the lines are just as you’d expect (plenty of legendary Francophile battle stories involve people who stood in line for half a day at the Élysée Palace just to see where the president eats his macaron). If you decide to visit these places, bring comfortable shoes, a bottle of water, and a whole lot of patience.
The Élysée Palace (Palais de l’Élysée)
Address: 55 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
There’s no question this is the most famous monument you can visit on Heritage Days, and I’ll admit, I’ve never managed to get inside myself, mostly because I didn’t want to stand in the enormous line that awaits anyone who wants in. But in recent years I’ve started to change my mind, and it’s quite possible I’ll visit in the coming years.
Why, you ask?
- The fascinating history: just imagine the stories these walls could tell, having seen Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon and Napoleon III, and a long line of presidents (one of them died in the Élysée Palace under somewhat embarrassing circumstances).
- The architecture and interior design: this is a stunning palace, and I’d love to peek inside and bring you some photos of the rooms and the impressive garden.
The Senate building (Palais du Luxembourg)
Address: 15 Rue de Vaugirard
I’ve toured this palace, but only virtually.
Of course I have no intention of settling for the virtual tour, and on one of my upcoming trips to Paris I plan to visit in person. The reason is the palace’s fascinating history. It was built in 1625 at the request of Marie de’ Medici (1575-1642), widow of King Henri IV (r. 1589-1610). From that year to this day, the palace has seen the scandalous love affairs of the daughter of the regent Philippe II d’Orléans (1674-1723), served as a prison during the French Revolution, and finally, under Napoleon, became home to the Senate.
Like the Élysée Palace, this one is also very popular, so stock up on patience (and comfortable shoes).
The Bank of France
Address: 31 rue Croix des petits champs
While some countries’ central banks sit in rather plain buildings, France decided to house its national bank, created by Napoleon in 1800, in a palace that once belonged to the Duke of Toulouse, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV.
This is one of the most beautiful palaces in Paris, and its Hall of Mirrors could easily rival its famous sister at Versailles. On top of that, over the years the bank has acquired hundreds of works of art, some of which you can see during your visit.
In short, the answer to “where’s the money” has never been more interesting or more beautiful.
The Palais-Royal
Address: 8 Rue de Montpensier
Who among us hasn’t visited the Palais-Royal gardens and strolled among the elegant shops lining the arcade, built by the Duke of Orléans (you can read about them and the palace in the article Palais-Royal: What Really Happened Within the Palace Walls and the Pastoral Garden?). The problem is that the palace itself, which today serves as the home of the French Ministry of Culture, is closed to visitors on a normal day.
Luckily we have Heritage Days, so we can wander the halls of the palace that Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) built for himself and that later became a den of vice when the Orléans family lived there. There’s plenty to see, but the lines at the entrance are just as long.
The Sorbonne (La Sorbonne)
Address: Place de la Sorbonne
I’ll end this section of the article with the Sorbonne. For years I tried to get in, to see the chapel where Richelieu is buried, but the guards at the entrance demanded a French student ID, and without one there was no entry. I know some people have managed to sneak in, but if you want to discover all the beauty inside this impressive building without any of the awkwardness of trespassing, Heritage Days are a perfect opportunity.
If you’d like to get to know the Sorbonne’s history better, feel free to read the article La Sorbonne: When a University Became a Place of Ignorance and Extremism.
Less famous but fascinating monuments (at least in my opinion)
To avoid standing in line for hours, I recommend heading to the smaller, less famous places. The fact that they don’t have the Élysée Palace’s PR machine doesn’t make them any less interesting. Sometimes it’s quite the opposite.
Here are a few places I picked out for you:
Hôtel de Beauvais
Address: 68 Rue François Miron
There are plenty of grand palaces in Paris, but very few can compete with the Hôtel de Beauvais when it comes to the story behind its construction (if you don’t know this remarkable story, read the article Hôtel de Beauvais: So What Did You Get in France for Raping a Minor?).
Today the palace serves as a courthouse, and you can’t even get into its courtyard on a normal day. So Heritage Days are the only days you can visit this palace, and I highly recommend not missing the chance.
The Mazarine Library, in the Institut de France building
Address: 23 Quai de Conti
The Institut de France building, which houses the Mazarine Library, is one of the most famous and beautiful buildings in Paris (if you don’t know it, I recommend reading the article The Story of the Pont des Arts and the Institut de France, or the Privilege of the First Look at Paris).
On a normal day it isn’t so easy to get inside, so Heritage Days are a great opportunity to do just that. You can see the impressive library with its collection of ancient books, and of course the chapel where Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661) is buried, whose dome graces the Paris skyline.
Hôtel de Brienne
Address: 14 rue Saint-Dominique
I’ll end this article with the Hôtel de Brienne, which sits in the heart of the aristocratic 7th arrondissement. Somewhat ironically, the palace that now houses the French Ministry of Defense is tied to three women in particular. The first is Madame de Prie (Jeanne Agnès Berthelot de Pléneuf, marquise de Prie, 1698-1727), who built this palace. Her name isn’t well known to the general public today, but for a few short years, as the mistress of the prime minister the Duke of Bourbon, she managed to control the entire royal court (thanks to her, young Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska instead of a French princess, and Voltaire was briefly welcomed at court, among other things). In the end, Madame de Prie failed to hold onto her political power and was exiled in 1726 to the town of Courbépine, where she took her own life out of sheer boredom about a year later.
The next woman to leave her mark on the palace was the Princesse de Conti (Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, 1693-1775), sister of Madame de Prie’s lover. After years of marriage to an abusive husband, she moved in here, and later had a brief moment back in the spotlight when King Louis XV chose her to formally present Madame de Pompadour at court (in exchange, the king covered her debts).
After the death of the Princesse de Conti, the palace changed hands several times, until it came into the possession of Maria Letizia Bonaparte (1750-1836), mother of Napoleon, Emperor of France. She, in turn, sold the palace to the state, and since 1817 it has been home to the French Ministry of Defense.
There’s no doubt that the splendid history and the grandeur you’ll find inside are well worth the time spent visiting.
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