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France should charge visitors a small fee to see the Notre-Dame cathedral to help the country keep its world-famous churches and cathedrals in shape, the culture minister said.
Rachida Dati told newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published late on Wednesday that by charging only 5 euros per visitor Notre-Dame could raise 75 million euros ($81 million) a year.
In France, where secularism is part of the national identity, the state is in charge of maintaining the country's religious sites, including 15,000 classified as historic monuments, which are usually free of charge.
Notre-Dame has been undergoing reconstruction after a fire severely damaged its roof and spire. President Emmanuel Macron had pledged to rebuild Notre-Dame within five years, drawing massive private-sector financial support.
"As a good Christian, you are supposed to contribute and give some money to the church. But that's supposed to be from your heart, not from charging the money," said Soraya Arango, a tourist from Mexico who visited the cathedral.
French tourist Jean-Marie Delprat said he welcomed Dati's initiative.
"One has to understand that it is necessary to do maintenance work, and not only here. There are other churches," Delprat said.
Dati, a former Paris district mayor, also said tourists from outside the European Union should pay more to visit non-religious landmarks.
"Is it normal that a French visitor pays the same entrance fee to the Louvre as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor?" Dati said, adding: "I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more for their entrance ticket and for this supplement to go toward financing the renovation of our national heritage."
The minister said many of the country's famous buildings attracting millions of tourists per year were in a degraded state and that new funding sources were needed to address mounting preservation challenges, especially in the capital.
She said the ministry was working on implementing a new pricing policy, which is likely to require coordination with various public and private entities, from January 2026.
"A country that gives up on carrying out major cultural projects gives up on being a great nation," Dati said.
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