TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY...

A FEE TO ENTER THE RENOVATED NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS?

Notre-Dame de Paris in flames, April 15, 2019.

As if Notre-Dame hasn’t gone through enough, it’s now the centre of a new fuss.  With the grand re-opening due in a few weeks, culture minister Rachilda Dati has proposed a €5 entry fee for tourists, estimated to raise €75 million per year. "Notre-Dame de Paris would save all of the churches in Paris and France,” she said. “It would be a magnificent symbol."

While the church has never turned up its nose at money, it recognises a poisoned chalice when it sees one.  The Sagrada Familia may charge €26 per person and the Duomo di Milano €10 but Spain and Italy are perceived as Christian states, while France is secular. In December 1804, Napoléon I took the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and placed it on his own head, signifying he would rule not “by the grace of God” or the approval of Rome but at the will of his subjects.

 Today, 51 percent of French people profess no religion. Of the rest, 10 percent follow Islam and 34 percent are Jews. Only 29 percent identify as Catholic and, of those, a mere 8 percent regularly attend mass. Why then, they ask, should they pay to enter any church, even Notre-Dame?

What Dati would like is a two-tier system, under which locals would have privileged entrance to national monuments but foreigners would have to pay more. "Is it normal,” she asks “for a French visitor to pay the same price for entry to the Louvre as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor?” She’d like to see "non-EU visitors pay more for their entry tickets, and for the supplemental funds to go toward financing the maintenance and renovation of national heritage sites." Much of her animus seems to be directed at Great Britain, severed from the EU by Brexit. Hell hath no fury like a state scorned.

Her hope is that increased charges would restrict the flow of tourists which already strains the country’s resources, particularly those of Paris. There’s always the risk, however, that visitors will just shrug, pay the extra, and keep coming.

As things stand, no fee has yet been approved for Notre-Dame, but visitors will need to book a (free) ticket to enter the renovated cathedral. Spaces are expected to be available a day or two in advance. But don’t be surprised to be asked to put your hand in your pocket.

The following is another extract from my forthcoming book OFF-BEAT WALKS AROUND PARIS, to be published shortly by Museyon.