Towards the turning of Summer to Autumn, at the weekend around the equinox, Europe-wide, doors open on museums, monuments and more to celebrate history and heritage.

Paris, rich in both, delights in these two days in order to share what is usually kept secret or at least kept behind an entry fee. Come the Journées de Patrimoine as France calls these heritage days, tickets to the usual haunts of culture are free. While the masses tend to rush the those venues, the savvier save their time to see places usually closed to the public. The following is a list of some of Memories France's recommendations for that very strategy. Now, since these are normally cordoned off spaces, visiting them usually means accompaniment by a tour guide and that tour guide is likely going to be speaking French only. If you do understand the langue de Molière, so much the better, but even if your French is limited, we’ve chosen sites for you with a mind to climbing over the language barrier via the fascination of the environs or the rarity of the place’s opening. Check out our selection for 2024!

The Palais Royal

Let’s start with the Palais Royal, just across from the Louvre. Although its square is open to the public and its striped stumped columns are famous the world over, the Journées du Patrimoine weekend allows you to peek inside the palace where the Cardinal Richelieu once resided, until the Orléans family took it over right before the Revolution and turned it into a shopping center for everything. And we do mean everything – Napoleon supposedly lost his virginity to one of its working girls. You would never guess its raucous past judging by the reigning peace in this somewhat snooty oasis off the noisy Rue de Rivoli. But for these two exceptional days you can visit the seat of the Ministry of Culture, its offices, reception halls, and choice pieces of contemporary art, without a guide and no reservation.

• Other activities will cater to the younger set. If you remember the Three Musketeers, in memory of the famous rivalry between the those soldiers and the cardinal’s guard, 5-13 year olds can enjoy an initiation (in French) into fencing!
• Then, the fabled Garde Républicaine of the Revolution and the Commune, still in existence, will parade in all their equestrian glory Saturday at 3pm

The Secrets of the Paris metro system

Usually taken for granted as only a means to getting where we really want to go, what if we looked a bit closer at Paris’s famed public transport? The RATP has a number of activities to please young and old. The following are only two of them.

• Take a ride in an old timey bus, starting from the Maison de la RATP, 189 rue de Bercy 75012 Paris
• Visit one of the métro’s phantom stations, closed since the 1930s, cherished by film directors as a cinema set, little suspected behind a partition at the Porte des Lilas metro station in the 19/20 th arrondissement

The great Parisian Couture houses

Gearing up for Fashion Week, you might want to take a look at the House of Dior, or of Chanel’s Manufacture.

• At 30 Avenue Montaigne, near the Champs Élysées, where you can admire Dior’s vanguard of the latest as well as the lifestyle relics of the 18 th Century that inspired the master’s traditional nipped waists and broad hips in luxurious materials. An onsite café will help you through these long days catching sights unseen.
• At 2 place Skanderbeg in the 19th arrondissement, Chanel’s 19M has opened its doors to the public (only the second time!), to celebrate, this year all aspects of LeSage embroidery. You can also stroll around the manufacture’s inner garden, conceived as an ecosystem of its own within the bustling city.

A bird's eye view of Paris from the top of the Tour St Jacques

If you’re in the mood for the the late medieval style, try the Saint Jacques Tower, well known -- at least from the outside, for any who have traversed Châtelet, as its flamboyant gothic spire rises out of the square of that name. If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of the one-time church tower looks like, rendez-vous at the square of that name. Built between1509 et 1523, supposedly with funds from alchemical gold, the Revolution destroyed the church it was once attached to; the authorities made bullets by dropping lead from its heights. The climb is not for the faint of heart, for
over 300 steps await you before you get to the top.

Learn the art of stained glass making

So you’ve been on our Notre Dame's Island tour and have marveled over the breathtaking windows at the Sainte-Chapelle – you’re dying to know more about the art of stained glass. Now’s your chance, the Maison du Vitrail has got you, at 67 Rue Desnouettes in the 15th . Although this family affair was established in the 1970s, they pride themselves
on their traditional savoir-faire straight out of the Middle Ages. Now for the Journées, they are offering workshops from 9am to 12pm then again, after a nice lunch, from 1-6pm. In French, as far as we know, but the hands aspect of the atelier might well defy language barriers.

Explore inside the magnificent Hotel de Sens

You’ve often passed the Hotel de Sens, a medieval archbishop’s residence in the Marais, 1 rue du Figuier, with its quaint volumes and towers, and even a formal garden. A present the Forney decorative arts library, this once sheltered Queen Margot, royal heroine who was wedded because “Paris is worth a Mass”, portrayed by Isabelle Adjani in the movie after Dumas’ novel. For the Journées it can be freely visited, and its exhibit on advertising in 1920s Paris is free. Paris Historic will be giving a continuous running commentary on the exterior architecture. We offer a tour of this entire fascinating
neighborhood that will reveal to you, among many other mysteries, the secret behind the cannonball lodged in the wall.

Visit the oldest library in Paris

If it’s libraries you’re after, why not go to the oldest one in Paris, the Bibliothèque Mazarine? Forney’s building might be older, but as a collection of books, the grandpappy of them all in Paris is the collection of the Cardinal Mazarin, baroque France’s éminence grise, opened to the public in 1643. 350 years later it is still a functioning library, specialized for researchers, but as Parisian heritage, that means you can visit it this weekend at 23 Quai de Conti in the 6th.

Architectural heritage and artisans at the City Hall

City Hall in Paris has to be worthy of one of the world’s premier urban centers and the Hôtel de Ville does the job. It’s architecture is a fairly accurate reproduction of the Renaissance building that the Commune burned down in 1871. Inside too, where we rarely have the opportunity to go, an embarassment of riches awaits – discover the seat of Paris’s mayor, it’s counsel hall, its ceremonial halls, and visit an expo about the building’s history. With the rich architectural heritage of Paris in a starring role, enjoy demonstrations by stone cutters, carpenters, cabinetmakers and more. A particularly special event will shed light on the women artists whose work is present in Parisian churches. And this is not even the end of it! Come to City Hall and have a ball exploring.

Visit the prestigious halls of the Academie Française

Ah the Académie Française with all its legend and prestige, established under the Sun King to preserve and foster the language; the Institut de France is its home. There are also four other academies housed here (l’Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, l’Académie des sciences, l’Académie des beaux-arts et l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques) all devoted to the glory and influence of French culture at home and abroad, including members like Victor Hugo or Louis Pasteur, See the halls where these luminaries preside, their libraries and even the building’s cupola, at 23 Quai de Conti in the 6th.

Discover the artists of the Academy of Fine Arts

Saturday is the only day open for the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Academy of Fine Arts, a jewel with its architecture spanning the 17th century to the present. We particularly recommend coming to the hallowed halls that trained so many painters and sculptors in the museums of Paris, in the style of the great masters, whether the students embraced that tradition or rebelled. You can wander freely or take a French-language tour or, more specifically, you can take a (French language) tour highlighting the women artists who worked so often in the shadows of the men. 14 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th.

See inside the French Senate

You might in fact want to know how, like sausage, the laws of France are made, and visit the Senate building in the Luxembourg Gardens. To do so you have to be able to face a wait in line, but it might be worth that and the jostle of some  25.000  other visitors to take a peek inside this one-time palace and Revolutionary prison, based on Florence’s Pitti, that Queen Marie de Medici had modeled after her childhood home. The library’s ceilings are signed Delacroix and you can tour the greenhouses, with its renowned orchids.

Go underground!

You’ve been on our catacombs tour and it’s left you wanting more underground eeriness! Come see these hollowed-out galeries of gypsum mined from the 12 to the 17th centuries. You may not find any bones here but the place is replete with mystery and archeological treasures. Meet at the Institut Cochin, 22 Rue Mechain in the14th.

Try gourmet chocolate at Alain Ducasse

Finally, for dessert, famed chef Alain Ducasse, of several Michelin stars, opens the doors of his 40 Rue de la Roquette chocolate manufacture in the 11th , for the first Journées time. The great gourmet shows you the crème de la crème of the bean’s finest flower of production. This is another offering in French but, with the visuals, not to speak of fragrance and taste, you’re not likely to miss too much. It’s chocolate, what’s not to like?

This is a mere smattering of the incredible secret places you can visit in Paris during the Journées du Patrimoine. You can find countless more possibilities on the website of the Paris Tourist Office. We wish you luck in finding just what suits your passion, and a great celebration of the culture, in bastions of heritage all over the city, intra muros and beyond.