DuckTheLine at the Notre-Dame de Paris Towers

With its 13 million visitors per year, Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most visited and iconic monuments in the world. Climbing the 422 steps of the towers and enjoying one of the most beautiful views of Paris is thus on the agenda for more than 450,000 tourists, both French and international, every year. But before that, each visitor must first face an average wait time of three hours in long queues to access them. Enough to discourage many of them. But that was before the arrival of DuckTheLine!

As Delphine SAMSOEN, Administrator of the Notre-Dame de Paris towers within the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, reminds us, “the question of visitor reception is strategic for historic monuments welcoming a large public.”

Waiting should no longer be seen as an inevitability, both for the institutions and for the visitors.

“Today, it is these visitor reception methods that are being deeply challenged by the innovations implemented at the Notre-Dame Towers. Reinventing monuments without waiting times and thus saving more than 400,000 hours of free time annually for our visitors. This is a real challenge.”

A Simple Solution

DuckTheLine is an ideal solution for foreign tourists wishing to make the most of their time in Paris.
“Tourists dreamed of coming to Paris, but not of waiting 3 hours in front of the gates as they used to do until now. Something absolutely had to be done so that visitors could regain the pleasure of climbing the Notre-Dame Towers. Thanks to DuckTheLine, waiting becomes a pleasure people can go have a coffee, or visit the Conciergerie and return at the appointed time,” emphasizes Philippe BELAVAL, President of the CMN. “They can now enter a virtual queue and enjoy one of the most beautiful panoramas of Paris without stress,” he adds enthusiastically.

“This new system will delight tourists but also the local public, who will be able to reclaim the monument and make appointments in the morning, avoiding the long tourist queues,” specifies Delphine SAMSOEN.

Dealing with annoyed and tired visitors, managing several languages, controlling crowds gathering in public spaces… Working conditions at a place like this can be difficult for the staff. Delphine SAMSOEN observes, “It is also progress for the staff who will no longer face visitors exasperated and fatigued by waiting. Before DuckTheLine, our teams had to tell visitors at 4 pm that queueing was pointless due to waiting times, which was quite frustrating. Today, we offer them the possibility to register from home, which is much more comfortable.”

DuckTheLine has thus enabled the management of 100% of this large visitor flow and ensured the safety and comfort of visitors by freeing up the public space around the monument.