D'Orsay tickets

Hi Jeremy , first the Rodin/Orsay Combo ticket is no longer on offer ,so, thats not an issue.
Second, why do you need advance tickets.. you know a simple option is just to arrive 20-30 minutes before it opens, and if trip is within next month or two, even then lines are not going to be staggering anyways.. As for Louvre advance tickets not ever needed to avoid lines.. you simply use the alternate entrance through the Carosuel shopping mall and buy tickets from machine, i have done this numerous times, and in height of summer so I know this works.

Hi Pat, Thanks for the info! Very useful. So it sounds like we should try to get there by 9am on Tuesday then? This will be on March 12th, so the week before Palm Sunday (I hear it's more crowded during that week). As far as the Louvre is concerned, the alternate entrance sounds like a plan. I went a long time ago with my parents, and my dad says this is what we did but I don't ever recall that. But I think that's what we'll be doing this time around.

Is this the entrance to the Carrousel underground shopping center (with the red awning)? Sorry, you have to copy and paste the link (links aren't working for whatever reason): https://maps.google.com/maps?q=99+Rue+de+Rivoli,+Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+France&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=48.862847,2.334884&spn=0.000489,0.001206&sll=48.862848,2.334884&sspn=0.001955,0.004823&t=h&hnear=99+Rue+de+Rivoli,+75004+Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+France&z=20&layer=c&cbll=48.862847,2.334884&panoid=v2tCT6O1vPCwLYg1-Cw2iQ&cbp=12,170.86,,0,7.27

ha ha jeremy, I am computer illiterate, there will be no "copy and pasting",lol
but yes the entrance is off Rue du Rivoli, the awning is burgundy colored as I recall. It always sounds more complicated then it is to find, simply if you were in the courtyard facing the Pyramid, you would turn left, walk through the arches to Rue du Rivoli, turn left again and the awnning is not far down, walk in entrance to mall. You will then go downstairs/escaltors , ticket machines then are there, or you can still proceed and buy at entrance from machine, or even as you walk through the mall if you take a right turn there is a TABAC that also sells tickets( we used them this summer a machine at entrance was broken ) .. .Anyways, I know I do a poor job with details, but trust me it will be pretty evident where to go ,, there is a flow of people you will be walking along with.. plus there are signs..

Thanks Pat! That was very clear, and I think it confirms what I see in the link I posted above. The Carrousel should be interesting - I'm pretty positive I didn't go down there the last time I was in Paris (10+ years ago!), if it was even around back then. BTW: if I buy the normal tickets to the D'Orsay, are the tickets good for the entire day? Meaning, could I leave the museum and or just come back at later time in the day to visit after initially purchasing tickets?

As a public service, here's the website Jeremy posted, as a clickable hotlink. Jeremy: The Helpline will not allow hotlinks if the URL contains certain characters (?, # and % among others). And, given the 2000 character limit, even if I can hotlink, some are too long to fit in. So, I often use http://tinyurl.com/ to shrink the URL; the new, small ones it creates are also hot-linkable.

lol, I can't click-thru on that link because my firewall blocks it. It probably works fine for 99% of everyone else :)

Jeremy yes you can in and out on same day ticket but still will wait to go back through security each time( which is not too bad since you will go in the "ticket holders" line) .

Kim's suggestion of using the FNAC website is excellent. I used them in the past for special guided tours in the museums. I do remember doing some print outs at home.

Another option, and what I usually do, is to buy your tickets at FNAC, a large store selling consumer electronics, CDs, DVDs, books, etc. they add about a euro or so service fee to the price of the ticket, but it,s well worth it in my opinion. the easiest FNAC to visit for tourists is probably the one on the Champs-Elysées, between metro stations Franklin D Roosevelt and George V (on the right-hand side of the street if you're looking up towards the Arc de
Triomphe). You go down an escalator to enter into the store, and then all the way back to the desk for the "billetterie" (ticket office). The nice thing is that the FNAC on the Champs is open quite late, and even on Sundays when most other things are closed. You can check out the ticket options (or even purchase, but pickup is still in store, I beieve . . . Although it,s true, now that I come to think of it, I think now you can even print your own tickets on your home printer) by going to the FNAC website, FNAC.com. There isn't an English option from the front page, but don't worry --- click on the purple "Spectacles" tab on the far-right, and on that next page you get an Engish flag so you can check out the info in English. Just remember that if you buy tickets online and pick them up in the store, you must take the same credit card that was used to purchase the tickets to the store to pick them up, no exceptions (plus an identification).

I really put my Paris Museum Pass to good use. At first the price seems a little steep, 60 bucks for two days. But I just went to the head of the line at the D'Orsay, the Louvre, St. Chapelle, Versailles, everwhere and never had to buy a ticket or wait in line. For only a couple of attractions, it's probably not cost effective. But if you're planning on seeing more than just a couple of things it pays for itself quickly. I got mine at St. Chapelle, but their website advertises that you can order online and they'll mail it to you before departure.

Thanks all! Frank, I think I briefly considered the Paris Museum Pass at first but for some reason decided not to... probably because I didn't think we were going to visit so many places. But now that I think about it, we might have been better off getting it. Of all the places on the list of qualifying museums, we're planning on visiting: Louvre - 10euro D'Orsay - 9euro
Arc De Triomphe - 9.5euro Versailles - 18euro The thing is, I already got the Versailles tickets but those happen to be via a special "buy one get one free" promo, so it came out to be 9euro per person. If we stick with visiting just those four sites (assuming the prices hold) I think it'll be just under the 39euro cost. So roughly about the same at the end. Now, if we didn't find that Versailles deal then we'd be SOL - so it's a good thing I came across that! Otherwise I would have really been kicking myself... Now, if we end up wanting to see more museums, I'll definitely be kicking myself...! I think we'll probably just stick with those four though so as not to overwhelm ourselves considering we're there for about 3 full days or so...

It's never worth kicking yourself. At least you are free to do what you want once you get there. If you had bought the pass, you'd be running yourself ragged trying to get the value out of it. It's like at the buffet where people pile on the food to get the most for their money but pay for it later in other ways.
You did good Jeremy!

I agree with Frank. The Paris Museum pass is the way to go. With the visit to only a few sites you get your money back and save lots of time by not waiting in the ticket line.

Shouldn't be too bad in March, but keep in mind that some of these sites have security lines which must be "stood in" no matter whether you have tickets or not. These often appear to be designed to keep the numbers of people entering to a trickle instead of a swarm, as they don't appear to actually be too concerned about security.