Letter from Paris: September 17, 2025 News Digest

La rentrée is buzzing with exhibit openings and art events, making Paris a tantalizing cultural cornucopia right now. “Sargent, The Paris Years” at the Musée d’Orsay. Agnès Thurnauer at Musée Cognac-Jay. Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely at the Grand Palais. “Georges de la Tour, From Shadow to Light” at the Musée Jacquemart-André. This is just a sampling of the delights on offer this season. For more inspiration, check out our popular Paris calendar.

One of the autumn’s most hotly anticipated events takes place next weekend. European Heritage Days means monuments fling open their doors to the public with special guided tours and activities- some of the buildings, like the Élysée Palace, Senate, and Hotel de Ville, are not usually open to the public. It’s an exceptional opportunity to explore the city’s cultural treasures, but keep in mind that lines can be long. Check out the official website and note that some (free) tours require online reservations.

Also happening on Sunday, September 21: central Paris and the Champs-Élysées will be pedestrianized, so you can stroll “the world’s most beautiful avenue” without dealing with car traffic. These car-free Champs-Élysées days take place one Sunday a month.

Welcoming more than 8 million visitors since reopening in December 2024, Notre Dame has become the most visited monument in France. According to Le Monde, “projections anticipate a total of 12 million to 13 million visitors by December 8, one year after reopening.” This record-breaking attendance places the beloved cathedral “ahead of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre (nine million visitors in 2024), the Musée du Louvre (8.7 million), the Château de Versailles (8.4 million) and the Eiffel Tower (6.3 million).”

And starting September 20, the tower visits will resume following a restoration. Climb the 424 steps to get close to the gargoyles and admire Paris panoramas from the top of the south tower. Make reservations via the Centre de Monuments nationaux, which manages the site.

In political news, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu took office on Wednesday, September 10, just two days after former Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote. President Macron named the replacement amid street demonstrations protesting budget cuts and political instability. “The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” protests did not match the scale of France’s 2018 yellow vest revolt, but still underscored the cycle of unrest that has dogged Macron’s presidency: mass deployments, bursts of violence, and repeated clashes between the government and the streets,” reported PBS. “Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said nearly 200,000 people had taken to the streets nationwide, while the CGT union, one of France’s largest labor confederations, claimed closer to 250,000.”

Meanwhile France’s debt mountain continues to rise. As reported by France 24, the “credit rating agency Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign credit score to the country’s lowest level on record, stripping the eurozone’s second-largest economy of its AA- status as it grapples with political crisis and ballooning debt.”