Booking your visit to Les Invalides
Six bookings are compared on this site. They are not aimed at the same people, and the difference almost never lies in what they open — they open more or less the same thing — but in how you are accompanied inside, and how much time you have.
Most bookedLes Invalides: Napoleon’s Tomb & Army Museum Entry
8 people maximumNapoleon’s Tomb & Invalides Small-Group Guided Tour
Entry reservedLes Invalides & Napoleon’s Tomb Guided Tour
Imperial ParisNapoleon Walking Tour with Les Invalides & Tomb Entry
Invalides includedParis Museum Pass, 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days
400 metres awayRodin Museum Entry Ticket, museum and garden
How to choose in thirty seconds
If this is your first visit, you have half a day and you happily read museum labels, take the entry ticket on its own. That covers nine visitors in ten, and the Army Museum is one of the best-labelled in Paris.
If you would rather be told than read, and ninety minutes is enough, take the small-group tour, capped at eight people. If you want the same thing in French, with entry already reserved and a slightly wider pace, look at the skip-the-line guided tour.
If you came to Paris for Napoleon rather than for Les Invalides specifically, the walk in his footsteps links the Place Vendôme, the Tuileries and the Carrousel arch to the tomb across three hours on foot. And if you are stacking Paris monuments over several days, the Paris Museum Pass changes the arithmetic of the whole trip.
The sixth is not a Les Invalides format at all but a neighbour: the Rodin Museum, four hundred metres away along the rue de Varenne. It makes the best half-day in the 7th arrondissement and almost nobody plans for it in advance.
The comparison, line by line
Three formats, the same spaces behind them, three different experiences. The full table of all six is on the comparison page.
| Our pickLes Invalides: Napoleon’s Tomb & Army Museum Entry | Napoleon’s Tomb & Invalides Small-Group Guided Tour | Paris Museum Pass, 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it opens | Army Museum, Dôme, Relief Maps, Order of the Liberation | The same spaces, narrated | Les Invalides and many Paris monuments |
| Duration | Ticket valid all day | 1 hr 30 guided | 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days |
| Pace | Yours | The group’s, eight people maximum | Yours, across several days |
| The tomb | Included | Included and narrated | Included |
| Best for | Most visitors | People who want to understand, not read | Trips of three days and up |
| The catch | No commentary | Cannot cover the whole museum | You must collect the pass in person first |
| Book this → | View → | View → |
Whichever format you pick, arrive by the Place Vauban if the tomb is your priority. You then walk straight in at the foot of the Dôme, before the groups coming up from the esplanade. Both entrances are described on the getting-there page.
Book the entry ticket
Live availability for the main ticket — the one that opens the Army Museum, the Dôme and the tomb — is below. Exactly what it includes is set out on its own page.
Those dates don’t work?
Browse the other tickets and tours available around Les Invalides and the 7th arrondissement, and pick the day that suits you — instant confirmation.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a separate ticket for Napoleon’s tomb?
No. The tomb is inside the Dôme and the Dôme is included in the Army Museum ticket. There is no ticket for the tomb alone: see what the ticket opens.
Is the ticket valid all day?
Yes, and that is what makes it comfortable: you can go out for lunch in the neighbourhood and come back to finish the museum in the afternoon. The breakdown is on the how-long page.
Is it better to book ahead?
It is not compulsory, since there is no timed slot. Booking avoids the ticket-desk queue, which is real in summer and during school holidays: see the booking page.
Which format for a first visit?
The entry ticket alone, in the great majority of cases. A guide becomes useful if you want the continuous Napoleonic story rather than the objects: the comparison is on this page.