Photos: These are France’s top five most visited national monuments in 2024

How many have you been to?

The Arc de Triomphe, Mont-Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, Panthéon, and Sainte-Chapelle all made the top five on visitor numbers in 2024
Hannah Thompson
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The official list of the most-visited national monuments in France in 2024 has been revealed, with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the ‘floating’ abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy taking the top two spots.

The figures were published by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN) in a press release on January 6, 2025. In total, it showed that more than 11 million people visited national monuments in France last year, similar to figures for 2023.

The top 5 results show:

  1. The Arc de Triomphe, Paris: 1.75 million visitors

  2. The Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey, Normandy: 1,480,031

  3. The Sainte-Chapelle, Paris: 1,234,676

  4. The Panthéon, Paris: 922,426

  5. The Château de Carcassonne, Occitanie: 643,882

Despite reaching second place, Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey actually saw a fall in visitor numbers last year, in comparison to the 1.52 million seen in 2023.

2023 was an exceptional year with the millennium celebration of the Abbey prompting 23% more people to visit than in a typical year.

Significant rise in visits

And while some monuments did not make the top 5, many still saw a significant rise in visitors, the CMN highlighted. 

These included (in order of visitor numbers):

  • Château d'Angers (Pays de la Loire): 318,206 visitors, up 11% year-on-year

  • Basilica cathedral of Saint Denis (Ile-de-France): 147,718 visitors, up 9% 

  • Château d'If (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur): 116,299 visitors, up 9%

  • Château de Rambouillet (Ile-de-France): 79,139 visitors, up 28%

  • Villa Kérylos (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur): 61,708 visitors, up 18%

  • Château de Carrouges (Normandy): 33,551 visitors, up 20%

A split image of the Château d'Angers, Basilica cathedral of Saint Denis, Château d'If, Château de Rambouillet, Villa Kérylos and Château de Carrouges
The Château d'Angers, Basilica cathedral of Saint Denis, Château d'If, Château de Rambouillet, Villa Kérylos and Château de Carrouges all saw a significant rise in visitor numbers in 2024

The CNM also said that although the Olympic Games led to access restrictions and closures for some Parisian monuments which resulted in a sharp drop in visitor numbers during the Olympic period, Paris’ tourist profile still increased during the Games. 

This “gave the destination a new lease of life and enabled a sharp rise in visitor numbers to resume rapidly after the summer”, it said.

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