A cultural travel guide to the world

Etiquette & taboos

Etiquette & taboos

Understanding local customs is where a journey begins. Find the topics that matter to you and feel at ease wherever you go.

France

1 rules found

Cultural sensitivitiesPhotos & dronesCountry-wide guidance · 法国

France: Check the signs before taking photos; no flash or selfie sticks

Do

  • In permanent galleries, handheld photos for personal, non-commercial use are allowed
  • Check the signs at temporary exhibitions, which often ban all photography for copyright reasons
  • Put your camera away in rooms marked with a no-photo sign
  • Check each museum's official rules on large bags and the cloakroom

Don’t

  • Don't use flash at any time; strong light can damage old paintings and artefacts
  • Don't bring a selfie stick to the Louvre or other museums that ban them
  • Don't block paintings or walkways for long
  • Don't touch the exhibits

Security staff enforce the flash and selfie-stick bans; you will be stopped, and banned equipment may have to be checked in or left behind.

Verified Oct 19, 2026Source: American Friends of the Louvre: FAQ

Site-specific notes 18

Taken from the "don'ts" on each site page here. Open a site for its full etiquette and background.

Eiffel Tower

  • Never carve or scribble on the tower's ironwork
  • don't crowd around for photos at Métro entrances or sight entrances
  • beware the 'friendship bracelet' scam — if someone accosts you insistently, just walk away.

Louvre

  • Don't touch the works or lean on display cases
  • don't hog the best spot in the 'Mona Lisa' room for long
  • don't eat or drink inside.

Nice Carnival

  • Climbing over the parade barriers
  • throwing objects at the floats
  • walking through the float procession

Bordeaux

  • Pressing companions to drink more
  • entering winemaking areas without permission

Strasbourg

  • Making loud noise in the old town's residential streets at night

Cité de Carcassonne

  • Climbing over railings or parapets
  • photographing private courtyards and residents' windows

Loire Valley Castles

  • Touching the furniture and furnishings indoors
  • trampling flowerbeds or lawns
  • talking loudly inside the historic buildings
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Musée d'Orsay

  • No flash photography — strong light damages 19th-century paint layers
  • do not lean close to or touch the paintings — the galleries maintain a viewing distance and staff will remind you
  • do not eat, drink or occupy the benches for long sleeps in the galleries

Mont Saint-Michel

  • Never go down onto the flats alone: the incoming tide can move several times faster than walking pace, and the quicksand and fog have killed — a safety taboo locals stress again and again
  • do not feed the island's many gulls, which will dive to snatch food
  • do not use flash, talk loudly on the phone or eat and drink in the abbey cloisters and church

Arc de Triomphe & Avenue des Champs-Élysées

  • Never walk across the circular traffic of the square — the many radiating streams of traffic have no pedestrian crossings and it is extremely dangerous
  • do not climb the stone railings at the base of the arch or carve or scribble on the reliefs
  • do not sit or lie on the tomb steps, eat there or take loud selfies

Palace of Versailles

  • Do not touch the furniture, tapestries or gilded decoration in the galleries — silent infrared alarms run beyond the barriers
  • no flash photography inside the palace, and no eating, drinking or loud phone calls
  • do not climb the garden sculptures, picnic on closed lawns or pick flowers from the beds

Baguette

  • Don't walk in and order without a greeting
  • don't squeeze the loaves one by one to choose

Notre-Dame de Paris

  • Don't talk loudly or use flash during services
  • don't enter in revealing clothes
  • don't block the queue lanes in the square for long