Paris Museum Pass

The security line at the Carrousel for passholders is rarely more than 10 minutes; the security line at the Orsay for passholders is rarely more than 15 minutes and usually except in very high season, 1 or fewer minutes. The line at the Pyramid is always the longest wait for the Louvre.

There is no need to buy the pass on line and then have to wait in a long line to retrieve it. Choose a museum in the pass with short lines e.g. the Cluny and get it there. You would probably have waited less than 45 minutes to get it at the Louvre by choosing the Carrousel entrance. Any ticket buying that requires you to buy on line and then go and line up somewhere is not saving you time or money.

I don't think you ever get to skip security, which was probably the lines you are talking about. The wait would have been longer if you had to stand in line to buy a ticket, then stand in line for security.

We made the mistake of entering the Louvre at the pyramid instead of the carousel entrance and had a longish wait, I would say it looked worse than it was. We purchased our museum pass at the Louvre which was also time consuming as they were sold by one person in a separate office and it was one purchaser at a time being let in. I would buy the pass a tourist office next time. I do think it is a great deal if you are visiting lots of museums and Versailles.

We purchased ours at the Picasso Museum with zero wait. At the Louvre using the alternate entrance had no wait for security and that was on a Sunday.

I purchased Museum Passes from a street vendor across from the Conciergerie. No wait.

I definitely didn't realize there was a second entrance for the Louvre! We entered at the Pyramid, and the line for passholders for security was 45 minutes. for the Orsay, we looked in the RS book for the correct entrance (C), and when we showed the guard our pass, he sent us to the back of this massive line for security, which would have been at least another hour, if not two. This was on December 29th.

You can buy your Museum Pass at the TI at CDG airport with very little waiting. We're fans of the Museum Pass in part because it encourages visits to smaller museums and quick pop-ins just because we're in the neighborhood.

Evidently there is no correct-every-time answer for using the Museum Pass at the Louvre -- we stood in line for security at the Carousel entrance but were able to walk right in and through security using the Pyramid entrance on another visit. Maybe it's just timing ... or dumb luck.

Bob, thanks for the tip on buying the Paris Museum Pass at the TI at CDG! I'm going to Paris in February and have been pondering where to buy the pass.

Rita - You can also purchase on the Eurostar train from London if you are going by way of that!

As I understood it, passholders had to enter through the pyramid entrance this year. I think the old short cut no longer applies.

I will say that I showed up early at the Louvre (took a lot less time to get there by Metro than I planned), was first in line and since I didn't have any bags I was simply waived through security.

I hadn't planned to go straight to the Mona Lisa but found myself the first person in the place, by quite a bit. A Canadian couple caught up to me, they were first in the online tickets line. We had at least five minutes with the Mona Lisa to ourselves - they took my photo and I took theirs - before anyone else caught up.

I think the best way to get the pass is at one of the lightly traveled museums. I agree about getting it the day before, you don't have to start using it right then. You can get the pass at the ticket window without visiting the museum. Make a quick stop to pick it on a non-museum day up then start the next day early with a plan and pass in hand.

I have traveled to Paris over a dozen times. It is not true that ' you have to stand in the security line as well as the ticket line'. At major museums there are separate security lines for pass/ticket holders; they are generally much shorter than the main security lines. At the Louvre, there is a separate security line at the Pyramid, but that is the major entrance and so can be crowded both with unticketed and ticketed tourists. The Carrousel security line can by bypassed to the right with the pass or ticket or membership card. At the Orsay the main security line for unticketed people is to the left; the ticketed security line is around the corner of the building to the right. Usually we just walk in there; sometimes there is a 15 or 20 minute wait. On days there is a wait, the main line can take a couple of hours. One place where you do have to stand in the same security line is Versailles. A place where having the pass doesn't give priority is the Notre Dame Tower.

If I arrived at the Orsay and the passholder line was longer than the main security line then I would go stand in the shorter security line. Can't understand why anyone else would stand in the longer line faced with the choice.

The pass enabled us to bypass the huge security line at Pompidou, and go to a much shorter one to left. Security lines were much shorter at Orsay and Orangerie.

Jane - The only line we had to stand in at the Louvre was the security line for the Museum pass holders, which was 45 minutes. We essentially walked right into the Orangerie, by-passing a huge line there, which was nice.

At the Orsay, there were two security lines: one to the left for non-ticketed visitors, and one to the right for folks with the museum pass. One line was probably an hour long, and the other looked to be almost two hours long. Maybe we just hit it on a bad day, as it seems like others have not had the same issue?

We purchased the Pass with no wait at all at the the Conciergerie. Convenient, as it's in close proximity to St. Chapelle, Notre Dame, and other central sites. (And we otherwise probably would have overlooked the short but interesting tour of the the Conciergerie.) Also, by not purchasing on-line in advance, you eliminate the risk of having a "sunk" cost in the event of an unexpected cancellation of your trip.

The Louvre has several entrances. The only one that usually has a long line is the Pyramid. Often pass holders can use the Richelieu entrance with no wait; if that is closed, the bypass at the Carrousel entrance is usually very short and the Lions gate when it is open generally has no line. I have never seen a line longer than about 15 minutes at the pass entrance for the Orsay, but it looks like you didn't luck out there. Of course as more and more people seek line avoidance strategies, those strategies become less and less effective. You used to be able to virtually walk into the Louvre with no wait at the Carrousel entrance but because it has been publicized in groups like this one, that is less true. Still this fall without ticket or pass, we had only a 15 minutes wait at the Carrousel entrance and those with passes and tickets walked past to the bypass line and had even shorter waits.

Kevin,

When I was in Paris last April, I bought my museum pass at the Tabac shop near Rue Cler. I really had no wait at any museums at that time. While at the Louvre, there was a less than five minute security line. I have had to wait in a long 80 minutes on A hot Sunny day in July to get into the Orsay once. Museum. I think it was the day the Louvre and Verseillle was closed. I like the pass because you go to the little museums that are often not seen. My favorite museum find last year was the Cluny Museum. I can't wait to go back in February next month. Have fun anyway you decide.