Museums

Thanks for that boots-on-the-ground info, phred. Did you just show up at D'Orsay and buy tickets on the spot or had you booked a slot the day ahead as I have seen noted? Perhaps not since you mentioned "had you been in a planning mood" :-) I had noted several instances where people have said you have to book a slot ahead now (for D'Orsay, Louvre etc) and wondered if that were actually the case. I hate making reservations for anything LOL

I had recalled that D'Orsay had some deal with somebody last time I was there (2019) but it was the Opera Garnier. I was just making some notes the other day regarding my upcoming visit and this is on their (Opera Garnier) website:

Offer available to holders of a Musée d'Orsay ticket (offer valid within the limit of 8 days after the date of issue of the Musée d'Orsay entrance ticket); To holders of the Musée d'Orsay Carte Blanche (offer valid during the validity period of the member's card). The reduced rate for the purchase of a ticket to the Musée d'Orsay is also offered to holders of a ticket to visit the Palais Garnier, within the limit of 8 days after the purchase of this ticket.

This is for: a reduced rate of 8 euros for the visit of the Palais Garnier (10 euros during the exhibition period).

I literally just walked up to both museums and walked right in. That is the state of tourism right now in Paris. Which doesn't mean the city isn't full, because it is of course full of its residents, but those two sites were easy peasy. Have no info on the Tour d'Effel and had no interest in the Louvre but not sure I would risk ever going there without reservations (apparently there are also two sneaky back ways into the Louvre, Google can help you).

I happen to know at least one of those sneaky ways into the Louvre :-). I’ve used it a few times — MUCH better than standing in line at the Pyramid :-). Although I had heard it had been closed during the pandemic but is now open again. And yes, I agree probably not a good idea showing up at the Louvre without a slot booked. It was that way prior to the pandemic as well. I am contemplating going back to the Louvre on my upcoming trip as I haven’t been during the last couple. I think I will pop in to D’Orsay for their evening hours this time. I’ve been enough times now that I just want to have a little visit with the Impressionists :-). I also have no interest in ET other than glimpses from wherever she pops into view. I am going end of January and expect that it will be less crowded (tourist-wise) as it usually is in January, but add in the current situation, perhaps even less so.

We also just got back from Paris on Saturday, so we might have crossed paths :)

Similar experience for us, although we purchased the four-day Museum Pass, so we did already have entrance tickets (I added up everything we planned to do and it saved us money on admissions, even though it's no longer as convenient as it once was).

We made advance reservations for the Orangerie and Eiffel Tower (we knew we'd want to go to those). For Rodin, we showed up at 10 right when the museum was opening - no line. Orsay, we went Tuesday afternoon with a ticket but without a time slot - no line for us, although there was a long line to buy tickets. We hadn't planned to go into the Louvre, but my son changed his mind about wanting to go in, and on Tuesday I was able to book a time-entry slot for 10am on Thursday. We showed up at 9:30 and they let us in. There was NO LINE at the Pyramid entrance (which I've never seen, this was my 5th visit to the Louvre), so dang it, we walked in through the Pyramid! Things were getting crowded when we left at noon.

There was a long line to buy tickets at the Arc de Triomphe when we went on Monday mid-morning (which we skipped with our Passes). We did have a reservation for Sainte-Chapelle and needed it (security was extra tight due to the ongoing trial, and the sign said there were no more reservations available when we visited on Wednesday afternoon).

Overall, there was more flexibility in our museum visits that there has been on any of our previous trips!

We always use the Carousel entrance to the Louvre and have probably been 35 or so times over the years and have never had a long wait there.

FNAC in my experience of trying it 2 or 3 times over the years always has a longish wait (my perception -- I HATE lines and so waiting 15 minutes to buy tickets or 20 minutes is a longish wait to me). On the other hand, you can buy tickets/reservations on line and put the tickets on your phone and not have to wait in lines anywhere except the short entry lines to show your PS and then your ticket. We did this for all our museums this fall and it worked perfectly. I put the tickets in the 'notebook' on my I-phone and they are easy to surface quickly and I can put tickets for the whole party on the same file.

As Janet says, it’s no longer necessary to buy tickets through FNAC now that just about every museum has its own online ticket office. There are probably a couple of exceptions, but for the vast majority of museums, there is no need to go to FNAC even if you’re buying individual tickets due to a decision not to get the Museum Pass.