Hotel de Ville, Paris----tours in English?
 

We've seen it from the outside and photos of the inside look beautiful. How do you arrange this?
I've found tours in French but not English.
Are there any?
Can you book ahead or just wait in line and hope to get in?
Can you see any of the inside without a tour?

well, I've been in it, meeting some officials! I was a student one summer in Paris and I don't recall how, my school has some reception or gala there or something. It is beautiful.

They do have some exhibitions there at some times (photos or whatnot) where you can see part of it for that reason. They had one last summer, for example, but it's only in 1-2 rooms that I recall. I think they usually have at least one a year.

YOu do have to sign up to get on one of the French language tours, they are very limited (1-2 per week), there is a welcome desk/office on rue de Rivoli where you sign up. If you just want to see it, you could just try to book one anyway, better than nothing, I suppose. I would not expect to get in by just going. They do have English (and some other language) tours for groups but not for individuals.

It's open during the Journee du Patrimoine, also, next week https://quefaire.paris.fr/fiche/6432...hotel_de_ville

The web page has an English version: http://next.paris.fr/english

You can also contact the Paris City Hall at: http://next.paris.fr/english/english/contact-us/p8319

The website says call 2 months in advance which I did. I spoke with a gentleman who said to email 2 weeks in advance and "they'll see" if they can accommodate us. The phone number I called was 00 33 1 42 76 54 04. I'll email them in a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I have long wanted to see the inside of the Hotel du Ville so if we can't get in this year, we'll just have to take a trip during the Journee du Patrimoine week...

nola-----time is short. Would you post the site to email them about a visit?

My husband and I toured Hotel de Ville in March. I called prior to leaving for Paris and was told I needed to call after Thursday afternoon or Friday morning for a tour the following Friday. I ended up calling on the Thursday afternoon we arrived in Paris and was surprised that they had space for the next day.

Although they told me the tour would be in both French and English, it wasn't. The tour guide let me know at the beginning that she was sorry but it would be French only. I didn't understand anything that was said, it was still very interesting to see the beautiful rooms.

Here is the website I used for the phone number for what they call individual visitors (as opposed to an organized group), there were probably 50 or so people on our tour.

http://next.paris.fr/english/heritag...134_port_19140

TPAYT--I hesitate to put anyone's email in such a public forum but there's no way to private message on fodors. Oh well, he said Daniel . colomar at paris . fr I plan to call when we arrive in France on 10/3. We won't get to Paris until late 10/13 so hopefully they can fit us in the Thursday or Friday that we're there... It would be great to have English but I just want to see the inside of that beautiful building!

nola & tracilee
Thanks so much for the detailed info. We'll definitely try to contact them when we arrive.