The Les Invalides opening hours are 10 am to 6 pm every day, according to the official site of the Musée de l’Armée, which holds the museum, the Dome Church and Napoleon’s tomb. The official page lists no seasonal change and says ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing, with closures on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. This guide gives the hours by day, the best time to go, how to get there and what to know at the door. If you want to book, my comparison of every Les Invalides ticket covers the entry ticket and the guided tours.
Les Invalides Opening Hours
Today, Saturday 7 November 2026, the Les Invalides opening hours are 10 am to 6 pm. The week looks like this:
Day
Official hours
Monday
10 am to 6 pm
Tuesday
10 am to 6 pm
Wednesday
10 am to 6 pm
Thursday
10 am to 6 pm
Friday
10 am to 6 pm
Saturday
10 am to 6 pm
Sunday
10 am to 6 pm
The Les Invalides opening hours include no weekly day off. The official opening times and prices page lists closures only on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, and a late opening on the first Friday of each month from 6 pm to 10 pm, with the ticket offices closing at 9 pm. The place called Hôtel des Invalides on Google Maps has no hours at all. The general site invalides.fr covers the wider complex.
Last Entry and Closing Days at Les Invalides
Last entry is the part of the Les Invalides opening hours to plan around. The official page says ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing, so the last sale is about 5:30 pm on a normal day, and the 6 pm figure is not the time you can still walk in. My advice is simple: if you hold a dated GetYourGuide voucher, arrive well before 5 pm, and if you hold the 24-hour entry ticket, do not use it on 1 January, 1 May or 25 December, when the museum is closed. Check the opening hours of Les Invalides on musee-armee.fr for the exact dates before you go.
Hotel Des Invalides Opening Hours
Searches for Hotel des Invalides opening hours land on the same building, because Hôtel des Invalides is the full name of the complex and Les Invalides is the short one. Wikipedia describes the Hôtel des Invalides as a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement containing museums and monuments relating to the military history of France, plus the Dome des Invalides, per Wikipedia. The Les Invalides opening hours above apply to the museum and the tomb, which are what visitors queue for. The grounds and the esplanade in front of the building are listed on Google Maps as open 24 hours.
Les Invalides Paris Opening Hours
For Les Invalides Paris opening hours in a busy season, plan around the 6 pm close and not around the sunset. According to Open-Meteo, November sunset in Paris is around 5:10 pm and December around 4:54 pm, so a late visit in winter ends in the dark. In June the sun sets around 9:56 pm, which leaves a long evening for the Esplanade after the museum shuts.
Les Invalides Tickets and Hotel Des Invalides Tickets
Hotel des Invalides tickets and Les Invalides tickets are the same product. On GetYourGuide I found one self-guided entry ticket at $19, which lists the permanent collections, the Dome Church with Napoleon’s tomb, the Museum of Plans-Reliefs, the Museum of the Order of the Liberation and temporary exhibitions. It scores 4.6 from 11,162 reviews, is valid for 24 hours and is non-refundable. Guided versions start at $53, and private tours run to $272.
Les Invalides: Napoleon's Tomb & Army Museum Entry
★4.6 (11,162 reviews)
24-hour ticket
My pick: The one I'd book for most visitors: $19, 4.6 from 11,162 reviews, the tomb and the army museum on your own.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Permanent collections
✓ Dome Church (Napoleon's tomb)
✓ Museum of Plans-Reliefs
✓ Museum of l'Ordre de la Libération
✓ Temporary exhibitions
✓ Access to family activities on Saturday and Sunday at 11 AM and 2:30 PM in French, subject to availability (tickets at €7 per child on site)
Not included / not suitable
✕ Guided tour
✕ Free tickets are necessary to enter but only available on-site
✕ Multimedia guide (available to purchase on-site for €5)
✕ Tickets for family activities (available for €7 per child on-site and subject to availability)
Meeting point: Avoid the long queue at the cash desk. You can enter Les Invalides and show your tickets to enter the museums. As the Invalides gathers multiple museums and the Dome, you might have to show your ticket to enter each part of the site. Keep the ticket with you until the end of the visit. Rue de Grenelle, Paris, France
Duration: 1 day
Cancellation: This activity is non-refundable
“This place was amazing. Napoleon's tomb was so worth seeing. If you like military history, its worth seeing.” – GetYourGuide review
Les Invalides Ticket Price and Hotel Des Invalides Ticket Price
The Les Invalides ticket price of $19 is the reseller price on GetYourGuide, and the museum’s own price page lists the Museum and exhibitions ticket at €17 full price and €12 discounted, with €10 on late-opening Fridays and a €5 ticket for ages 18 to 25 with EU residence. The Hotel des Invalides ticket price is therefore the same question as the Les Invalides one: compare the museum’s rate with the $19 listing and decide whether the date flexibility is worth it. The listing says free tickets are necessary to enter but only available on site, so visitors who enter free still collect a ticket at the cash desk. It also lists a multimedia guide at about 5 euros and family activities at 7 euros per child, both bought on site and not included.
My full price comparison, with the guided options, is in my Les Invalides tickets guide.
Les Invalides Meaning
Les Invalides means roughly “the disabled”, and the name comes from what the building was for. Wikipedia says the complex was a hospital and an old soldiers’ retirement home, and the tour listings say Louis XIV founded it to house wounded soldiers. Wikidata records the opening year as 1687 and the architect as Libéral Bruant, per Wikidata. The Dome, the part with Napoleon’s tomb, is the tallest church building in Paris at 107 metres, per Wikipedia.
Best Time to Visit Les Invalides
The best time to visit within the Les Invalides opening hours is the window you can afford to spend fully, which means arriving at 10 am if you can. I have no official source for the quietest hours, so I rely on reviewers. One reviewer of the SMART CITY TOUR suggested doing the tour in the morning so there is time left to explore the WWI and WWII galleries alone, and I agree that a morning slot protects the afternoon.
For the season, Open-Meteo’s 2025 data for the site shows these months:
Month
Sunshine hours per day
Rainy days
January
2.7
17
April
11.0
7
June
12.9
10
July
12.1
15
August
11.5
7
November
4.3
13
The museum and the Dome are indoors, so the Les Invalides opening hours stay useful in any weather, and rain matters less than for the Esplanade. If you want the walk across the lawns and the view of the gilded Dome in good light, April, June and August were the best months in that data.
How to Get to Les Invalides
Arriving on time matters because the Les Invalides opening hours leave no slack at 10 am. The address per Google Maps is 129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris. The nearest metro stations by Google Maps are Varenne, about 4 minutes on foot, La Tour-Maubourg, about 5, Saint-François-Xavier and École Militaire, about 8 each, and Invalides at the top of the Esplanade, about 12 minutes. Those walking times are my estimates from straight-line distance, multiplied by 1.3 at 4.8 km/h. Check lines and service on the RATP site, because I take only the station names from Google Maps.
The Esplanade des Invalides, about 9 minutes from the museum, is a pleasant approach from the river. One guided tour meets in front of La Tour-Maubourg station, another at the Rond-Point du Bleuet de France in front of the monument, and a third on the Esplanade side at 129 Rue de Grenelle. The One Journey Tours walk starts at Place Vendôme and finishes inside the site. Match the meeting point on your voucher with the map, since the sides of the complex are far apart.
What to Know Before You Go
Before you leave, re-read the Les Invalides opening hours on the official page. The official visitor facilities page says the cloakroom is free with your entrance ticket and takes bags up to 55 x 35 x 25 cm, and that the Dome Church with Napoleon’s tomb is not accessible to disabled visitors because of its staircases. It gives no security or dress code rules. From the listings I can tell you three things. The $19 ticket asks you to keep it until the end, because you may have to show it at each museum and at the Dome. The guided tours do not include hotel pickup or gratuities. And the museum is a big complex, so allow 3 hours if you want the tomb and a wing of the collection.
“This place was amazing. Napoleon's tomb was so worth seeing. If you like military history, its worth seeing.”
— GetYourGuide reviewer
If a guide appeals, the hub has the cheapest option that stays inside the museum. For ideas on what else to see nearby, the Eiffel Tower is about 22 minutes away on foot by my estimate, and I list the rest in my Les Invalides tickets comparison. For other sights, start from the TicketGuide24 home page.
If you are choosing a ticket, the Les Invalides tickets comparison has ratings and review counts for every option, and the official hours are the first thing to confirm on the day.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Les Invalides opening hours?+
The museum's own site lists the Musée de l'Armée, which holds the museum, the Dome Church and Napoleon's tomb, as open 10 am to 6 pm every day. It is closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, and ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing. Check the Les Invalides opening hours on musee-armee.fr on the morning you go.
What time does Invalides open?+
The museum's site shows it opening at 10 am every day. The guided tours I compared meet before or away from the entrance, so read your confirmation for the meeting time and place.
Is Hotel des Invalides open on Sundays?+
The museum is open on Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm, like the other six days, and has no weekly closing day. It closes only on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, so confirm on musee-armee.fr before a holiday visit.
How long should you spend at Les Invalides?+
The guided tours I compared last 2 to 3 hours. A reviewer of the $19 entry ticket, who visited without a guide, wrote that they did not have enough time to see it all, especially the WWI and WWII area, so I would plan 3 hours.
Do I need a ticket for Napoleon's tomb?+
The tomb lies in the Dome Church, and the $19 entry ticket I compared lists the Dome Church with Napoleon's tomb among its inclusions. The listing says free tickets are needed to enter but only available on site.
Where is the Les Invalides entrance?+
The museum's address per Google Maps is 129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris. One guided tour meets on the Esplanade side at the same address, and another at the Rond-Point du Bleuet de France in front of the monument.
