Museums in Paris

The Paris Museum Pass. Other "passes" you may see online are commercial deals that usually don't pay off.

I agree with Doug. Do not combine with transportation. I priced them out and discovered that you will do better choosing what you want to do and paying individually. For transportation, use the 10 ticket package called "carnet" pronounced car-nay. It can be used on the Metro or buses. You can share these little cardboard tickets with anyone. Make sure you keep them so you can show the "conductor" that you paid for your ride.

Also, note that there are probably 10 or 12 (anyway, quite a few!) museums in Paris that are not only excellent, but are free! Two of note are the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts in the Petit Palais (http://petitpalais.paris.fr/), which has a delightful collection and is surprisingly tourist-free, and the Carnevalet, at 23 rue de Sévigné (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnavalet_Museum), which pretty much blows my socks off. And it's in the Marais, so that's cool.

The problem with the Paris Museum Pass is that it is only good for CONSECUTIVE days, which means a marathon run for half your stay, then . . . . what? If you are really museum-lovers, then go for the 6-day passes. The more days you buy, the cheaper it is per day. But you will have to plan it pretty well to make it pay. On the other hand, if you break even, it is worth it for the convenience. Also, if you have the pass, you will probably drop in on a few museums that you wouldn't have paid separately to visit. Consider getting the Navigo Decouvert for transportation. You need a small (much smaller than passport-size) photo each, and a €5 one-time fee. Then you can get a weekly pass (runs from Monday through Sunday). If you are going to be on the go, it will save you a bit over the carnets, and it is much more convenient than digging for the tickets and remembering which you've used and which are new. The Navigo is good for the metro and for buses. Because you aren't counting the cost per ride, you can just hop on a bus for a short ride, saving a few minutes time and a kilometer of walking (your feet will say thanks).

thanks a bunch. My husband has been to Paris 4 times and he took me there 10years ago for a week and now we will be there for 2 weeks. I love Paris and love speaking French!

The Paris Museum Pass provides unlimited priority access to over 60 museums and monuments in and around Paris. The most important feature of the Museum Pass is the priority entrance. Remember, the most popular museums and monuments have line-ups regardless of the season, so the priority access is a valuable benefit. The museum pass is also very good value, considering individual entry prices to most museums and monuments averages over $15 per person. With the Paris Museum Pass there is no admission charge, no waiting in lines, and no limit to the number of times you can visit the participating museums and monuments in the Paris region. The pass provides priority entry to the permanent collections, and unlimited in & out access until December 31, 2011. Passes are valid for 2,4, or 6 consecutive days, beginning on the first day of use. More info at http://en.parismuseumpass.com/ Some of the most popular museum and monuments included in the Paris Museum Pass are: Arc de Triomphe, Musée de l'Armée and Napoléon's tomb, Museum of Modern Art, Cité des Sciences, Conciergerie, Delacroix Museum, Sewers of Paris, Louvre, Crypt of Notre Dame, Musée D'Orsay, Musée Picasso, Musée Rodin, Chateau Fontainebleau, Chateau Malmaison, Basilique Saint-Denis, Château Versailles, plus many more. Museum passes are not required for children, since most museums and monuments in Paris are free for children under the age of 18. Children can still take advantage of the priority access, when accompanying parents with museum passes. Children should have ID to prove their age and relationship to pass holders. When you are planning your visit to Paris, keep in mind that many museums are closed either on Mondays or Tuesdays. Sale Prices from $40: 2 day pass - 30 euros 4 day pass - 45 euros
6 day pass - 60 euros

A lot will depend on how many museums and monuments you will want to visit. As mentioned above, the Paris Museum Pass comes in 2-day, 4-day and 6-day versions. No 3-day or 5-day. If you will be going to Versailles, the admission is 25Euro so the museum pass will cover this. If you intend to visit many museums and monuments, the 2-day pass just won't make it. Too much to cram in. Also, the 10-ticket Carnet works great except for going out to Versailles. The Carnet tickets work only in Zones 1 and 2. Versailes is in Zone 6. You'll need a 6.4E round trip ticket on the RER train to get out there and back. It's quite easy.

Well you don't need a MP for more then 2 or 4 days at most. Frankly,, in all my visits I have only purchased one, once, for 2 days and that was because it was in the summer, I wanted to go to Versailles and this was before the online ticket option,, but after they did away with a pass that gave you a train ticket and admission ( Forfait Loisirs) .. so lines were as I knew they would be long. Nowadays,,esepcially in winter, a pass is not really needed if you are purchasing it for line skipping. First,, I have never had to line up for more then 5-10 minutes for the Louvre,, and I always go in high season. USE alternate entrances,, its the simplest secret of all. The Orsay ,, buy ticket day or two before, there is a window to prepurchase tickets there ,, for another days use. OR visit the Rodin Museum first,, and get the same day combo pass for it and the Orsay,, they are close together to walk between. Eiffel Tower,, does not accept pass, you can prepurchase online though.
Notre Dame church is free,, the Towers are not and do accept the pass but it does NOT allow line skipping there ever. Frankly unless one likes to see alot of sights each day you save no money,, and in winter,, and even in summer , one can save line time at many places even without it.

If you visit several museums each day for six days in a row, you may suffer from "museum overload" and not appreciate what you see as much as you would if you space out your visits a bit more. Since you have two weeks, I suggest that you buy two-day passes one week and two-day passes the next week. Visit some free museums on days you don't have passes. Or visit private museums that are not covered by the Paris Museum Pass. Two excellent ones are the Musee Marmottan which has a wonderful Monet collection and the Musee du Luxembourg. Here are a couple of corrections to information given in previous posts. A single t+ ticket from a carnet is good anywhere the metro goes (some lines end in zone 3) and on the RER in zone 1 only, not zones 1&2. Versailles is in zone 4, not zone 6. A ticket on the metro and RER between central Paris and Versailles costs €3.20 each way. Go here for a page listing all your transportation ticket and pass choices with links to detailed explanations of each one. Bon voyage et bonne chance!

We purchased museum passes when we visited Paris a few years ago and found them helpful. I believe we had it for 2 days. We added up the cost of the sights we would want to see that were covered by the pass, and it made much more sense to get the pass. We were also dedicated to not overdoing it at any museum, however. I think we spent a whole hour and a half in the Louvre, and most of that was spent relaxing in the sculpture garden area watching an unusual dance recital. It also enabled us to visit some museums for a few minutes that we otherwise would not have visited, like the Rodin, which is an excellent museum. For us, it wouldn't have been worth the price of admission, but because were in the area, we ducked in for a few minutes. If you purchase a pass, you need to be aware of why you are doing so. We did have a pretty full two days, but it worked out really well for us. We visited in October and didn't need it for the line jumping, but it was sure nice to be able walk straight in instead of stopping to pay at each sight. I think my favorite use was the chateau in Chantilly, which was absolutely empty, a nice change from the over-crowded Versailles.