Take one sixteen-year-old around Paris and watch what happens. They are free at the Louvre, the Musee de l'Orangerie, the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie. They are free at the Pantheon, but only through the 16 to 25 young-adult band with a mandatory checkout rather than the child band, because the Pantheon publishes its free threshold as under-16s accompanied by an adult with an e-ticket while the Arc de Triomphe, run by the same Centre des monuments nationaux, publishes under-18s. They pay a reduced youth ticket at the Eiffel Tower, where the youth band runs 12 to 24. They pay 15 euros as a child at the Catacombes, where the child band ends at 17. They pay 11 euros as a child at the Stade de France, where the child band runs to 18. They pay 10 euros at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, which publishes no free-under-18 rule at all. And at Parc Asterix they pay the full adult 68 euros, because the operator prints its ticket column as Adults, from 12 years. The same teenager pays a full adult fare on every metro journey, because Ile-de-France Mobilites publishes no youth fare a visitor can buy.
In Brief
Is Paris cheap or expensive with a teenager?
Both, and which one depends entirely on where you walk in. The national museums under the Ministry of Culture are the cheapest teenage city in Europe: under-18s of any nationality are free at the Louvre, and free again at the Orangerie, the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Step outside that ministry and it reverses. The Museum national d'Histoire naturelle sits under the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition instead, and its only free age is under 3, so the same teenager who walked into the Louvre for nothing pays 13 euros to see the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution. Transport gives them nothing at all.
Key takeaways
- Under-18s free at the Louvre, the Orangerie, the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie
- Parc Asterix charges the full adult 68 euros from age 12
- The Catacombes require an adult with any child under 14
- No youth transport fare exists that a visitor can buy
The 18 things worth doing, easiest first
The two hardest things here are physical rather than long. The Arc de Triomphe is 284 steps to the terrace, with a lift whose status the operator publishes two ways at once. The Catacombes are a 1.5 kilometre one-way circuit taking about 45 minutes underground, not wheelchair accessible, and the operator advises against it for claustrophobia and for cardiac or respiratory conditions. Everything else on this page is a normal museum day.
1st, entrance under the Pyramid in the Cour Napoleon
Musee du Louvre
The national museum in the former royal palace, on one ticket covering the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions.
A whole day, and they will be finished- Time needed
- Three hours minimum, and you will not see it all
- Ages
- Under 18 free with ID and no nationality condition. Separately free for EEA citizens and residents under 26
- Cost
- 22 euros for EEA residents and citizens, 32 euros for everyone else. The split is by residency, not by age
- Booking ahead
- Time-slot bookings are recommended, and the museum extends that recommendation explicitly to visitors entering free. Closed Tuesday. Free for all on the first Friday of the month after 6pm except July and August, and on 14 July
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes, and it is the largest indoor day in Paris
7th, Champ de Mars
Tour Eiffel
Four separate tickets are published: second floor by lift, second floor by stairs, summit by lift, and summit by stairs plus lift.
A solid half day- Time needed
- Two to three hours including the queue
- Ages
- Free under 4. Two reduced bands, child 4 to 11 and youth 12 to 24 inclusive, which is the most teenager-friendly ladder in the city
- Cost
- Second floor by lift is 23.50 euros adult, 11.80 for a 12 to 24 year old and 6.00 for a child. By stairs it is 14.80, 7.40 and 3.80
- Booking ahead
- Not stated as compulsory on the rates page
- If it rains
- If it rains: None. Summit access may be restricted in severe weather
14th, Place Denfert-Rochereau
Les Catacombes de Paris
The municipal ossuary in former quarry galleries, published as a one-way circuit of 1.5 kilometres taking about 45 minutes.
A whole day, and they will be finished- Time needed
- Ninety minutes with the queue
- Ages
- Free under 8, child rate 8 to 17, and the rule that matters: children under fourteen must be accompanied by an adult
- Cost
- 31 euros full, 25 reduced, 15 for a child aged 8 to 17, free under 8, audio guide included in each
- Booking ahead
- Yes. The operator publishes a hard cap of 200 visitors on site at once and states that entry may be temporarily interrupted. Free tickets cannot be bought in advance and are issued at the entrance against proof
- If it rains
- If it rains: It is underground, so weather is irrelevant
8th, Place Charles de Gaulle
Arc de Triomphe
The monument and its panoramic terrace, reached by 284 steps with a lift available.
A whole day, and they will be finished- Time needed
- An hour
- Ages
- Under 18 free. Free 18 to 25 for EU nationals and non-European legal residents in France
- Cost
- 22 euros from 1 April to 30 September, but 16 euros on Wednesdays in that period, and 16 euros throughout from 1 October to 31 March
- Booking ahead
- Not required. Pushchairs are not allowed inside but may be left with access control staff. Maximum luggage 40x40x20 cm
- If it rains
- If it rains: None, the terrace is open air
1st, the Concorde end of the Tuileries
Musee de l'Orangerie
The Tuileries pavilion holding Monet's Nympheas in two oval rooms, plus the Walter-Guillaume collection.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- Ninety minutes
- Ages
- Free under 18 with no nationality condition. Free 18 to 25 for EU citizens and non-EU long-term residents in the EU
- Cost
- 12.50 euros online or 11 at the door, which is the reverse of the usual arrangement. 8.50 discounted at the museum only, and 10 online on Friday nights
- Booking ahead
- Free for all on the first Sunday of each month with a reservation. Friday late opening until 9pm during exhibition periods, reduced rate from 6pm
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
5th, inside the Jardin des Plantes
Grande Galerie de l'Evolution
Seven thousand specimens in a hall opened in 1994, and the clearest illustration on this page of why the ministry matters.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- Two hours
- Ages
- Free under 3 only. There is no free-under-18 rule here at all, because the museum sits under the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition rather than the Ministry of Culture
- Cost
- 13 euros full and 10 discounted for the permanent installation. 16 and 13 with a temporary exhibition, or a family pass at 52 euros
- Booking ahead
- Online ticketing, or on site subject to availability. Closed Tuesdays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
5th, rue Cuvier
Menagerie, the zoo of the Jardin des Plantes
One of the oldest zoos in the world, about 150 species, with a stated policy of favouring small and medium-sized animals.
A solid half day- Time needed
- Two hours
- Ages
- Free under 3 and nothing else. The reduced band is for EU residents under 25, so a non-EU fifteen-year-old pays full price where a French one pays 10 euros. At the Louvre both are free
- Cost
- 13 euros full, 10 reduced, family pass 40 euros for two adults over 25 and two young people aged 3 to 25
- If it rains
- If it rains: Partial
5th, Place du Pantheon in the Latin Quarter
Pantheon
The neoclassical mausoleum holding the crypt, and normally a panoramic dome walkway above the Latin Quarter.
A solid half day- Time needed
- An hour
- Ages
- Free under 16, and only when accompanied by an adult holding an e-ticket. Free 16 to 25 for EU nationals and regular non-European residents in France, but with a mandatory checkout
- Cost
- 16 euros in the summer season and 13 on Wednesdays, 13 euros in the winter season. The operator's published price seasons still ran to 31 March 2026 when the page was read, so check before you go
- Booking ahead
- The adult books, since the free under-16 category is defined by an adult holding an e-ticket. The panorama is closed for renovation with no reopening date published
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
1st, on the Ile de la Cite
Sainte-Chapelle
The royal chapel and its upper-level stained glass, run by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- An hour
- Ages
- Under 18 free, excluding groups. Free 18 to 25 for EU nationals and regular non-European residents in France, also excluding groups
- Cost
- Published on the operator's own tariff page; no reduced band by age exists beyond the free ones
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes, though the glass wants daylight
1st, on the Ile de la Cite next to Sainte-Chapelle
Conciergerie
The medieval royal palace and revolutionary prison, also run by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- An hour
- Ages
- Under 18 free, with no group exclusion printed, which is the third different wording the same operator uses across its own sites
- Cost
- Published on the operator's own tariff page. Group rates exist but there is no reduced band by age
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
7th, Quai Branly under the Eiffel Tower
Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
The national museum of the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, with a garden and a living green wall.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- Two hours
- Ages
- Not published for museum entry, which is itself the finding. The rates page prints a full and a reduced price and never says who qualifies. Age wording appears only under shows and concerts
- Cost
- 14 euros full and 11 reduced for the museum. A concert is the sharp deal: 8 euros for an under-18 against 25 for an adult
- Booking ahead
- Timed tickets are required for everyone on the free first Sunday of the month. Note the bag rule if your teenager carries a rucksack: bulky backpacks, scooters and cabin baggage are all prohibited
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
Saint-Denis, north of Paris
Stade de France stadium tour
A guided tour of the national stadium entering by porte H, published at about an hour and a half.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- Ninety minutes plus the journey
- Ages
- Free under 5, and children 5 to 18 at 11 euros. This is the widest child band in Paris and the only place where being 18 still buys the child ticket
- Cost
- 16 euros adult, 11 for 5 to 18, free under 5, and a family rate of 44 euros for two adults and two children
- Booking ahead
- Yes, and check the fixture list first. Tours do not run on event days, and the events calendar is published separately from the tour calendar
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
Plailly, Oise, about 35 km north of Paris
Parc Asterix
A theme park whose entrance ticket the operator describes as covering all shows and attractions for the day, excluding games of skill and arcade games.
A whole day, and they will be finished- Time needed
- A full day
- Ages
- Adult from TWELVE. The operator prints its ticket column as Adults, from 12 years, and the child band is 3 to 11 inclusive
- Cost
- 68 euros for anyone aged 12 or over and 59 euros for a child aged 3 to 11, at the ticket office, with the operator noting prices as of 4 April 2026 and subject to change
- Booking ahead
- Not published as compulsory. The opening calendar is served by a script and does not appear in the page text at all, so the dates cannot be read from the operator's own page
- If it rains
- If it rains: None
Across the city, run by the Ville de Paris
Paris skate parks and espaces de glisse
The city's free skate and glide spaces, published as facilities of the Ville de Paris.
A solid half day- Time needed
- As long as they want
- Ages
- Free at every age, with access rules published per site
- Cost
- Free
- Booking ahead
- None. The Bercy site was under renovation when the city's pages were read
- If it rains
- If it rains: None
Several independent operators across the city
Escape rooms
Team-based rooms priced by group size rather than by age, which makes them one of the few Paris activities where a teenager costs the same as an adult by design rather than by accident.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- An hour to ninety minutes
- Ages
- Priced by the team, not by age
- Cost
- Lock Academy publishes a sliding per-person price from 55 euros at two players down to 30 euros at six
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
Several sites across Paris and the inner suburbs
Arkose climbing gyms
Indoor bouldering gyms, which is the standard wet-afternoon answer for a teenager who does not want another museum.
A whole day, and they will be finished- Time needed
- Two hours
- Ages
- Climbing published from age 4
- Cost
- Not published at any URL that could be read, so no figure is given here
- If it rains
- If it rains: Yes
5th, between the Seine and the Latin Quarter
Jardin des Plantes
The botanical garden the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle sits inside, and the free half of a day whose paid half is the Grande Galerie or the Menagerie.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- An hour
- Ages
- Free at every age
- Cost
- Free to walk. The galleries and the zoo inside it are not
- Booking ahead
- None. Note that the Galerie de Paleontologie was published as temporarily closed when the museum's pages were read
- If it rains
- If it rains: None
The whole Ile-de-France network
Getting around on the metro, RER, bus and tram
The regional fare system run by Ile-de-France Mobilites, and the mirror image of the museums: the museums hand a teenager a large discount and transport hands them none.
Easy on everyone- Time needed
- Every day of the trip
- Ages
- There is no teenage band a visitor can buy. No youth day ticket and no under-18 discount appears in the authority's own product catalogue
- Cost
- 2.55 euros for a single Metro, Train and RER journey across all zones, and 2.05 euros on bus and tram. The old carnet is gone and the authority says so on the product itself
- Booking ahead
- Navigo Jour and Paris Visite are rechargeable through the authority's app. The Navigo Jeunes Week-end that older guides describe does not appear in the current catalogue at all
- If it rains
- If it rains: Not applicable
What parents ask about Paris
Why does the same organisation publish three different ages?
The Centre des monuments nationaux runs the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie and the Pantheon, and it publishes a different free-entry wording on each. The Arc de Triomphe says under-18s. Sainte-Chapelle says under-18s excluding groups. The Conciergerie says under-18s with no exclusion printed. The Pantheon says under-16s accompanied by an adult with an e-ticket, and files 16 to 25 as a separate band with a mandatory checkout. Its own central ticketing page uses a fourth wording again, children under 18 with photo ID and EU or EEA young people under 26. All four are live on the operator's own domains and all four were read on the same day. The practical effect is that a sixteen-year-old walks into three of them without a ticket and needs one, free but issued, at the fourth.
Does nationality change what a teenager pays?
For under-18s, almost never. The Louvre, the Orangerie, the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie all attach no nationality condition to their under-18 free band, so a visiting teenager from anywhere is free. Above 18 it changes completely, and the Louvre has the sharpest version of it in the city: EEA residents and citizens pay 22 euros and everyone else pays 32, so a non-EEA visitor gains a 32 euro ticket on a single birthday. The Menagerie is the awkward exception at the younger end, because its reduced band is written as EU residents under 25 rather than as an age alone, so a fifteen-year-old from outside the EU pays the full 13 euros where a French fifteen-year-old pays 10.
Is there anything a teenager is too young for?
One rule genuinely bites, and it runs the opposite way to the pricing. The Catacombes publish that children under fourteen must be accompanied by an adult, on a separate family page recommend starting at about ten, and cap the site at 200 visitors at once. That is the only hard accompaniment rule found on a major Paris attraction. Otherwise the constraints are physical rather than legal: 284 steps at the Arc de Triomphe, a 1.5 kilometre underground circuit at the Catacombes with the operator advising against it for claustrophobia and for cardiac and respiratory conditions, and the summit of the Eiffel Tower closing in severe weather.
What is closed in Paris right now?
More than usual, and some of it for years. The Centre Pompidou closed on 22 September 2025 and is published as shut until 2030, with its Studio 13/16 teenage space moved to the Gaite Lyrique. The Pantheon's panoramic dome walkway is closed for renovation with no reopening date published. The Galerie de Paleontologie inside the Jardin des Plantes was published as temporarily closed. The skate park at Bercy was under renovation. And the Arc de Triomphe lift is published two ways at the same time: one operator page says it is under maintenance until further notice and another says it is available. Both were live on the same day, and both readings are recorded here rather than reconciled.
What could not be checked?
Three things, and they are named rather than filled in from elsewhere. The Musee d'Orsay refused every one of ten URLs tried with an HTTP 403, so it carries no entry on this page despite being an obvious inclusion. Disneyland Paris held every page behind a virtual waiting room, and the only operator document that loaded was its own park guide, which contains three height figures in the whole file, so no Disneyland prices or ride heights are published here. And the child fare rules for the metro, free under 4 and half fare from 4 to under 10, sit on transport authority pages that returned 403, so those two figures are the only ones on this page not read directly from the page that states them.
Getting around with children
This is where Paris takes back what the museums gave. Ile-de-France Mobilites publishes no youth fare that a visitor can buy: there is no teenage day ticket, no under-18 discount and no visitor youth band anywhere in its own product catalogue, and the Navigo Jeunes Week-end that older guides still describe does not appear in the current list at all. A single Metro, Train and RER journey is 2.55 euros across all zones and a bus or tram journey is 2.05, and the old cardboard carnet has been withdrawn, which the authority states on the product itself. So a fifteen-year-old who walked into the Louvre for nothing pays exactly what their parents pay to get there.
Where to base yourself in Paris
With teenagers the calculation changes from the usual one. You are not optimising for a park or a nap, you are optimising for the metro, because everything on this page except Parc Asterix and the Stade de France sits inside the city and the whole roster is reachable underground. The Latin Quarter puts the Pantheon, the Jardin des Plantes, the Grande Galerie and the Menagerie within a walk of each other, which is four of the eighteen entries here.
- Paris family rooms
- Where to stay in Paris
- Best Area to Stay in Paris With a Family
- Paris with teenagers
- Day trips from Paris
- Free cancellation on most rooms
- No booking fee
- Prices on Trip.com
What to skip
Four things. The first is assuming a teenager is a child: Parc Asterix charges the full adult 68 euros from age 12, and the Eiffel Tower does the opposite by keeping its youth discount to 24, so the two poles of the city are eight years apart on the same question. The second is assuming the free-under-18 rule is a Paris rule. It is a Ministry of Culture rule, and the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle sits under two different ministries and gives nothing away above age 3. The third is buying an Orangerie ticket online, which costs 12.50 euros against 11 at the door, the reverse of almost every other attraction. The fourth is the Wednesday you did not know about: between April and September the Arc de Triomphe is 16 euros on a Wednesday instead of 22, and the Pantheon does the same, which is a real saving that needs no age rule at all.
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