Château de Vincennes Tickets: Price, Hours and Free Entry

What the €13 ticket covers

The château's English practical page lists one individual price, €13, with no separate rate for EEA or non-EEA visitors. One ticket opens the whole paying circuit. The French practical page is more precise: it covers the Sainte-Chapelle and the lower floors of the donjon (the keep). The same page says the Pavillon du Roi can be visited free on your own.

The Revelacio tablet and headset are included. The practical pages describe an audio-immersive route of about 1h30 in French, English or Spanish, with versions for adults, families with children aged 6–15, and visitors with reduced mobility. Staff hold a valid identity document while you have the tablet, so bring a passport or ID card rather than only a phone.

Tablets are issued up to 1h30 before closing and must be back at the ticket office by 4:30pm, or 5:30pm in the high season. Worked out from that rule and the 5pm winter closing, between 22 September and 20 May you need to collect a tablet by 3:30pm.

Discounts

The partner rates are from the French page; the English page lists the same offers with less detail. Bought at €13 each, a couple pays €26. With a Eurostar ticket they pay €13 for both.

Who gets in free

Both practical pages list free entry for:

• under-18s (under-16s must be with an adult);
• 18–25-year-olds who are EU nationals or non-European regular residents of France;
• a visitor with a disability and one companion;
• jobseekers (the French page says EU and EEA jobseekers; the English page asks for a certificate less than six months old);
• holders of a valid Pass Éducation;
• everyone on the first Sunday of November, December, January, February and March, and on European Heritage Days in September.

Free tickets are issued at the ticket office on proof of identity, and the CMN ticketing page says every visitor, children included, needs a ticket. The accessibility page accepts the French Mobility Inclusion Card or a foreign equivalent as proof, and says a parking card, or a card marked only "priority", does not entitle the holder to free entry.

Worked out from the first-Sunday rule, the next free Sundays are 1 November 2026, 6 December 2026, 3 January 2027, 7 February 2027 and 7 March 2027. These fall in the shorter winter hours, so a free Sunday gives you the same 10am–5pm window as any other day.

Opening hours and closures

The practical pages state only the rule; the clock times in the last two columns are worked out from it. The ticket office closes 45 minutes before closing time, which is also the last entry to the Sainte-Chapelle, and the last entry to the keep is 30 minutes before closing. The château is closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.

The Sainte-Chapelle closes every day for a midday break, from 12pm to 2pm or from 1pm to 2pm. The pages give both and tell you to check the home page for the current times. If you arrive at 10am, see the Sainte-Chapelle first and do the keep afterwards. If you arrive around noon, start with the keep.

The site may close early or change the route during extreme heat or bad weather, and some outdoor areas are exposed to wind or unheated, so dress for the courtyard in winter.

Booking

The château's pages link to the CMN online ticketing, and e-tickets can be printed or shown on a phone. Neither the practical pages nor the ticketing page describe a timed entry slot for individual visitors, and the ticket office sells tickets on site until 45 minutes before closing. Groups may need to book, and groups are not admitted to the keep or the Sainte-Chapelle on Sundays.

The ticket office takes cash, bank cards, cheques, chèques Culture and ANCV chèques-vacances.

Paris Museum Pass

The château's practical pages do not mention the Paris Museum Pass. If you hold one, check the pass's own list of sites before relying on it; our Paris Museum Pass guide explains the break-even. The CMN's own annual Passion Monuments membership, listed on the practical page, gives a year of unlimited entry to more than 80 monuments.

Getting there

The château is at avenue de Paris, 94300 Vincennes, in the town of Vincennes rather than in Paris itself. The practical pages list:

• Metro: line 1, Château de Vincennes station.
• RER: line A, Vincennes station.
• Bus: 46, 56 and 86.
• Car: no parking inside the grounds, except for disabled visitors with a disability parking card.

Our guide to Paris transport tickets and Navigo passes covers which ticket to use for the ride out. The Sainte-Chapelle here is a different building from the better-known one on the Île de la Cité, which has its own tickets and time slots; see our Sainte-Chapelle guide if that is the one you meant.

Bags, security and site rules

The château is still a military site, and the practical pages set strict limits:

• Bags must fit within 30 × 40 × 15 cm, and there is no cloakroom or luggage storage.
• Pushchairs are not allowed inside the buildings and must be left outside.
• Only guide dogs and assistance animals are admitted.
• Smoking is banned across the whole site, indoors and out.
• Food and drink are allowed only in the dining area of the keep courtyard.
• The site applies the Vigipirate "urgence attentat" security level.

A carry-on suitcase will not pass the size limit. If you are heading to the airport afterwards, leave it at one of the options in our luggage storage guide before you set out.

How long to allow

The tablet route alone is about 1h30, and the French guided tour included in the ticket also lasts 1h30. Allow two hours on site, plus the Sainte-Chapelle's midday break if your visit straddles it. For a December trip, note that the château is shut on Christmas Day and New Year's Day; our roundup of Paris museums open at Christmas and New Year lists alternatives for those two days.