Reims Tourisme & Congrès · Central Reims
Reims Tourisme & Congrès, the city's tourist office, runs 90 minutes with a licensed guide in the cathedral where the kings of France were crowned. Pick it to see what you'd walk past alone: the sculpture of the west front, the Chagall windows and the story of the coronations.
Notre-Dame de Reims is where 25 coronations took place, the last for Charles X in 1825, and UNESCO lists it with the Palace of Tau and the former abbey of Saint-Remi. The tour starts at the tourist office at 6 rue Rockefeller, beside the cathedral, and runs 90 minutes with a licensed guide: the kings and the coronation rite, the west front with its smiling angel, the windows by Marc Chagall and Imi Knoebel, and the damage of September 1914, when German shells set the roof on fire.
Check the language before you book. The tourist office lists the English tour on Saturdays at 2:15pm only, with French visits on other days; a French tour in a cathedral this rich is still worth it if you follow some French, and hard going if you don't. Check the language on the slot you pick.
Entry to the cathedral itself is free, from 8am to 7:30pm on weekdays and 7:15pm on Sundays, with no visits on Sunday mornings from 9 to 12 during services. What you pay for is the guide. Booked direct at the tourist office it costs from EUR 11, children under 12 go free, and it's included in the Reims Épernay Pass. The towers are a separate visit, run by the Palace of Tau.
Meet at 6 rue Rockefeller, beside the cathedral.
The portals, the kings and saints in stone, and the smiling angel.
Where the kings were crowned, and why it happened in Reims.
Marc Chagall's windows at the east end and Imi Knoebel's modern glass.
About 90 minutes in all, a short walk from the cafés of the centre.
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Yes. The cathedral opens at 8am, entry is free, and it closes at 7:30pm on weekdays and 7:15pm on Sundays and public holidays.
On Saturdays at 2:15pm, per the tourist office; other slots are in French. Check the language on the slot you pick.
UNESCO counts 25 coronations; the last was Charles X in 1825.
Two days covers the cathedral, two houses on the hill and a grower tour without rushing. Our things to do in Reims guide plans it out.
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Ninety minutes with a guide in the cathedral where the kings of France were crowned.
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