This is a extra special edition of the SundayMonday (and the very first not on a Tuesday!) because I wanted to collect my favorite Paris Catholic spots in one place! Enjoy, and if you’re headed to Paris anytime soon and need a buddy — I’m in!
After writing my recent newsletter about my trip to Paris, I realized that many of my recommendations were niche Catholic things — which tracks because 1) I am me and 2) Paris and Catholicism (and France) have an interwoven, rich, 1000+ year history, and there are churches every few blocks which means there is a lot to see and there are little gems and surprises everywhere you look.
Even if you’re not Catholic, no trip to Paris would be complete without Notre Dame! And I think many things on this list are fascinating and beautiful to explore no matter your faith background. You don’t have to be Catholic to stay at Sacre-Coeur or enjoy Mont Saint-Michel!
Many of the things below I found because someone mentioned them to me, others from simply wandering into a church and seeing a poster. I made some Catholic friends while in Paris and many of them had suggestions, which I added! Since I would have loved a post like this for reference before my trip, I wanted to collect my thoughts here, which you can save and share with anyone going (or dreaming of a trip) to Paris!
Below I have organized my thoughts on:
Sunday Mass in Paris
Churches / experiences not to miss
Staying overnight at Sacré-Cœur
Two day trips from Paris (Lisieux + Mont Saint-Michel)
Please note these thoughts are heavily biased based on what I love, and I hope to add to it! Also — as I mentioned above, I found many of these things while wandering into churches I passed, and I love scheduling a trip to Paris with plenty of time to wander — if you visit these, let me know and please report back on any other cool Catholic things you find!
1. Where to go to Mass on Sunday
I highly recommend going to Mass in French while you’re in Paris! It’s such a beautiful language, and I think experiencing Mass in another language is one of the special things about being Catholic. You can bring a Magnificat, print out the readings in English, or read them in advance, but I promise you won’t get lost in the Mass. We love a global church!
People start lining up about 30 minutes before the Mass starts to get a good seat. I highly recommend arriving by 9 or 9:15 to attend Lauds at 9:30. When the 8 am Mass ends, they’ll let you in, and if you go up one of the side aisles, you can usually get pretty close to the front. If you’re there for Lauds, you get to join the priests for morning prayer, which runs from about 9:30 to 9:50, and then stay in your fantastic seat for Mass, which begins at 10. After Mass, they’ll let you go under the ropes, and you can do the walking tour of the Cathedral (it’s very, very crowded right after Mass, but moving slowly means you have more time to see everything). There are other Mass times too, here.
Also: Notre Dame has the Crown of Thorns! It’s on display every Friday from 3-6:30pm. On first Fridays, they do a full procession! I went on a non-first Friday, and was able to kneel in front of it and pray my sorrowful mysteries. Very cool.
Sainte-Trinité, Sunday at 7 PM
If you want a taste of heaven, I cannot recommend the 7 PM Sunday Mass at Sainte-Trinité more. It might be the most beautiful Mass I’ve ever attended in my entire life. It’s also the largest young adult Mass in Paris, and there were more than 1,000 young adults there when I went… Every seat was taken. The music, incense, and reverence were absolutely glorious. They also have a tradition where you turn to the people around you at the beginning of the Mass and offer them your intentions, which I loved. I told the priest that it was a “taste of heaven.” I recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t consider yourself a “young adult,” and especially think it’s a gorgeous Mass for families. It’s up near the Opera neighborhood.
Saint-Sulpice, Sunday at 6:45 PM
On my first trip to Paris, I stumbled into the 6:45 PM Mass at Saint-Sulpice, and it was beautiful. Saint-Sulpice is an extraordinary, gigantic church near the Luxembourg Gardens, so it’s worth seeing regardless, but I really loved this Mass. I also especially love the St. Joseph Chapel inside Saint-Sulpice and have had some really incredible prayer there. So even if you don’t make it for Mass, I highly recommend stopping in.
2. Churches to Not Miss
There are something like 160 churches in Paris, and they are all free to enter and open most of the time. One of my favorite things to do was just walk into churches as I passed them, and I stumbled upon some really incredible places that way. Here are some of my favorites:
The Miraculous Medal Chapel (140 Rue du Bac)
This is a must-do!! The Miraculous Medal, a very popular Catholic devotion, has its origins on Rue du Bac, in the gorgeous 7th arrondissement, where Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Labouré three times at this very spot. Pro tip: get there early to buy miraculous medals before Mass, as the priest asks everyone to raise up whatever they want blessed at the end of Mass. The daily Masses usually run about 30 to 45 minutes, and you’re quite close to the Musée d’Orsay, Sezane, and a bunch of yummy restaurants in the 7th. It’s a great little Catholic gem to work into your day.
One of my favorite churches that I stumbled upon was Saint-Louis d’Antin, which is in the Opéra district, so it’s a great place to go if you’re shopping or wandering around that part of Paris. They have SEVEN daily Masses on weekdays, and the ones I went to were packed. They also have confession available throughout much of the day and adoration in the afternoon, which is really nice. I loved discovering a church with so much going on in the middle of such a busy part of the city. It’s a great place to stop for Mass or confession if you’re nearby.
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (St. Geneviève)
St. Geneviève is the patron saint of Paris, and she has a beautiful shrine at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in the Latin Quarter. Her original relics were destroyed during the French Revolution, but her historic tomb and some surviving relics are still there. It’s a great church to visit because you can pray to the patron saint of Paris, and the church itself is beautiful. It’s also up near the Latin Quarter, so you can wander around there afterward, and it’s close to the Luxembourg Gardens, which is my favorite part of Paris.
When I walked into Saint-Eustache, which I completely stumbled upon, I was just awestruck. Which is crazy, because it was probably the 28th church I’d seen that week. But it was absolutely stunning, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s near the Louvre and Les Halles, so it’s easy to stop in if you’re exploring that part of Paris. This is one of those churches I probably wouldn’t have found if I hadn’t made a habit of walking into every church I passed.
When St. Thérèse (little flower) was very sick as a child, this is the church where her family offered a nine-day novena of Masses for her. There’s a beautiful little chapel to St. Thérèse inside, and every time I’m in Paris, I go there and light a nine-day novena candle for everyone who has given me prayer intentions. It’s become one of my favorite little traditions. The church is in the 2nd arrondissement, and it’s a really beautiful place to stop and pray, especially if you have a devotion to St. Thérèse.
3. Spending the Night at Sacré-Cœur
Overnight adoration at Sacré-Cœur
On my first trip to Paris, I saw a sign in Sacre-Coeur for this but didn’t have time to join on that trip, so this is something I’ve wanted to do for two years! You can stay overnight at the hotel in Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre for €15 to €50, in exchange for committing to 1 hour of overnight adoration. Sacré-Cœur has had perpetual Eucharistic adoration since 1885, and you get to be part of that, which is really special!
All overnight guests need to check in by 7:30pm, and they give you a bracelet for access to the Basilica after closing. You can sign up in advance for a communal dinner in the hotel or eat in Montmarte, then join for 9:30 Compline and Mass at 10 (both optional) after which they close the basilica to everyone who isn’t staying overnight. I chose my adoration time (5am) when I checked in, so I went to bed shortly after Mass, then woke up at 4:45 to wind my way through the corridors and stairs up to the Basilica by 5. It’s beyond words to describe what it’s like to be in that gigantic Basilica with only 1-2 other people. I prayed until the 7 am Mass started, when they re-opened the Basilica to the public.
After Mass, you can eat breakfast with the other overnight guests, and I highly, highly recommend doing that because I made a friend! There were probably about 50 of us staying overnight, and I was surprisingly one of the youngest people there, although I think it’s normal for there to be other families, kids, and young adults, too. Many of the guests were Parisians who come once a year - my new friend comes every year for her birthday! I loved that it was a true French Catholic cultural experience and not just for tourists like me :) I was very tired the next day, but it was 100% worth it, and I will absolutely do it again!
You can register online, and they didn’t confirm my reservation until about a week before my stay, so don’t freak out if you don’t hear from them immediately. And definitely stay for breakfast!
4. Two Catholic Day Trips from Paris
I have taken two day trips from Paris and both were excellent. You could definitely spend more time in both places, but if you’re based in Paris with a half- or full-day open, I highly recommend going to…
Lisieux to see St. Thérèse:
I took a 7:30 am train from Paris and arrived in Lisieux by 9:15. Once you get there, there is a lot to see, and there are slightly funky hours, so I recommend making a plan (although my plan fell apart when my beloved French friends closed Les Buissonnets early and I had to climb the hill up there twice). Here’s the site with opening hours: Plan your trip to Lisieux. It includes the Carmel, where St. Thérèse lived as a nun and where you can visit her tomb, Les Buissonnets (her childhood home), the gigantic basilica dedicated to St. Thérèse on the hill, and her family’s parish church, the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre.
Personally, my favorite things were going to Mass at the Carmel, visiting Les Buissonnets, and spending time in her family’s parish church. I really, really loved the parish church because it was so special to go to the place where she prayed as a little girl (I actually knelt in all of the confessionals because she probably knelt in one of them at some point). There are also little flower shops in Lisieux, so I bought roses for St. Thérèse because I love that she gives me roses, and I thought it would be fun to give her roses in return.
A reinforcing note on checking schedules: I managed to miss almost every single opening time on this day trip. I walked uphill for something like 30 minutes to get to Les Buissonnets, only to arrive just as they were closing the doors. Which was a bummer. And I think I just barely made it to Mass at the Carmel. So definitely look up the hours beforehand, and give yourself more time than you think you’ll need. But it ended up being fine, because I spent more time in her parish church, which was clearly where I was supposed to be that day. I absolutely loved Lisieux!
On my most recent trip, I went to Mont Saint-Michel, and it was incredible. I booked a bus tour that left Paris around 7 AM, and we arrived around noon. We had about three hours on the island, which was a perfect amount of time to walk up to the abbey, wander around, and come back down for lunch. I spent about an hour exploring the abbey at the top, and by some miracle, I was able to walk into La Mère Poulard, the famous restaurant at the base of the mountain with the giant omelettes they’ve been making for generations. I paid $115 for the trip (totally worth it to not worry about transport), and while four hours on a bus each way sounds like a lot, I was actually grateful for the forced break to read and rest in the middle of my trip.
I think they offer Mass Tuesday - Friday at noon, which we would have just barely made, but I was there on a Monday! So maybe visit on a day that’s not Monday if you’d like to attend Mass .
There are a lot of stairs — something like 500. Wear sneakers and bring and umbrella/rain coat so you can brave the elements and not slip. There were many members of our group who enjoyed Mont Saint-Michel from the bottom of the island — it’s almost more spectacular to view from below!
That being said, I think next time I would try to stay overnight. I learned from some new Parisian friends that you can actually arrange to stay with the religious community at Mont Saint-Michel, which I think would be incredible. It would allow you to see tides rise and fall around the island, as well as enjoy a more quiet experience as most tourists are there from 12-3. If you’re short on time, though, I really do think the bus day trip is worth it. You could also take a train and arrange transportation from there, or drive, but personally I would probably take a train out of Paris before getting in a car because driving in Paris is terrifying.
In conclusion
Paris is an amazing place to be Catholic and see Catholic things. There are tons of other trips I want to take around France (Lourdes, Paray-le-Monial, Rouen), so I guess I have reasons to return. There are a zillion other things you can do besides the above… I limited myself to my very favorites. But Churches are free and open! Many are hundreds of years old, with abundant art, stories, and saints. Through the French Revolution and World War II, many were ransacked during the Revolution and World War II, and many have since recovered art that was taken from them. The church stood against all odds — and is growing and thriving today. I rarely have seen daily masses or adorations or confession lines as full and vibrant as I did in Paris. So enjoy the exploration, and please let me know what you find!