Advice on Museum pass and other tickets

You can check the museums and other sites that are included on the Paris Museum Pass on their website, the ones you mentioned are included--I visited all of them, plus a few more, last May. I bought my pass when I arrived, first museum was the Pompidou and there was a short line, maybe 8 people, ahead of me. I was in Paris for 6 days and made excellent use of the pass, once you know what you want to see you can check the individual admission price and calculate if it will benefit you, aside from the obvious benefit of skipping the regular ticket buying line.

No need or value in buying the Museum Pass ahead. Just buy when you arrive at airport or tourist office or a museum that is less traveled e.g. Conciergerie or Cluny for example. The pass will allow you to use special lines most places but rarely at Ste. Chapelle and never at the Notre Dame Tower. For the Tower arrive well before it opens to minimize wait time; they only let 20 up every 10 or 15 minutes so the line gets enormous.

The Kings apartment tour can be booked on the Versailles web site. That lets you skip the long security line as it has a separate entrance. It is 7 Euro on top of your pass including for kids who are free to the chateau itself. book Monet's garden tickets ahead to avoid the long line to get tickets; I think you can get print at home for that.

book tickets up the Eiffel Tower 90 days out; they disappear fast. If they don't have tickets to the top , you can get tickets to the second floor and buy tickets to the top when you get there.

Another place that you can buy a Paris Museum Pass without long queues is at a branch of FNAC, the French books/music/AV/tech store chain. There are ones dotted around all over Paris and they sell PMPs with no extra charge.

Here is the info on the King's Apartments tour. Some of the other tours look good too, if your French is up to it.

It seems obvious, but you don't want to plan for Giverny or the Eiffel Tower on a day that's covered by your Museum Pass. That would be a "waste" of pass-covered time.

Another pass to consider is the Navigo Decouverte, the weekly transit pass. It runs from Monday to Sunday, so maybe not good for you, but it's really handy and includes travel as far as Versailles and the airport.

If you are going to Giverney, you might want to consider going to the Marmatton Museum in the 16eme.

thank you all for great advice!! Merci

The 6 day Paris Museum Pass is 74 Euro and to have it sent to USA is another 24 Euro (I believe per pass but double check that). If you purchase ahead, no problem, you date the back of it yourself for the starting date once you are at your first museum; it is for consecutive dates only. Buy at Tourist Info desk in Charles de Gaulle if you can, or first museum you visit (but hopefully not Louvre or you will be in queue). Versailles is covered by Museum Pass. The the museum pass list is very long for Paris and "around Paris." www.en.parismuseumpass.com; you will find the complete list there. What you have listed are all on the Museum Pass. Check each museum website for those you plan to visit; most are closed on one day a week; most have a night every week when they are open late.

Monet's Gardens tix can be purchased at www.giveny.org; no specific entrance time. Print at home.

Just to be clear -- Museum Pass covers the Notre Dame Tower, but the church itself is free. If the line is too long, come back at another time (line moves pretty fast, though)

I don't think it's necessary at all to buy a museum pass ahead of time. I picked mine up at a TI with no line (but you could easily go to a less popular museum that honors museum passes and get one quickly.

I do think you should plan your use of the museum pass ahead of time. Look at everything you want to see, figure out which are covered by the pass, and lump them together in some logical way that uses the pass efficiently. I spent 7 days in Paris, including arrival day. The first weekend was Heritage days, so virtually everything was free. Activating a pass then would have been a waste of money. Later, I spent five days in Paris. I used a four-day pass and planned to pick up a few things that weren't covered by the pass on my last day.