Basil

I am interested in knowing if the museum passes truly provide priority passage into the museums in Paris. I have come across that information in the guide books. Does the pass prevent one from waiting in lines and allow you to go through first?

Thanks!

PalenQ

Yes but you may still have to wait a bit for other pass holders in front of you. But i know at the Louvre it's a snap -separate entrance.

Versailles someone said yesterday a bit of a hassle getting to the special entry but usually no problem.

But hopefully others have a better persepctive as i've used a pass just the first time this last February when lines were not long anyway.

DancingBearMD

Varies. Quick entry at the Louvre and a particular advantage at the Orsay. No linejumping at the towers of Notre Dame, nor do I believe at Sainte-Chappelle. At the Orangerie we waited in a "with tickets" line which gaves us a small advantage. Wasn't an issue at many other sites.

ppm

The husband and I were there in early July '06. We used our passes at the Louvre, Orsay and Versailles (all very easy, able to skip to the front). We visited ND early morning so there was not a line. In regards to St Chappelle, you will have to pass thru security with everyone else, but then you will be able to skip to the front of the line (probably saved us 10 minutes waiting outside in the heat/humidity).

PalenQ

be interested in others experiences with this

amyb

I used it in May 2006 and skipped to the head of every line. At Ste. Chappelle, the line was around the church out to the street. I went to the head of the line and right through the security check, skipping ahead there as well. I used it at over a dozen places and never was refused "priority passage".

PalenQ

It seems in busier seasons the value of the pass is that it is a line-cutter.

Last Feb i couldn't judge that because there were no lines. Also with the pass you can come to the Louvre, see a portion of it and return the next day or so and see another - rather than doing an exhaustive visit of what is called the world's largest museum at one time as you may if you were buying tickets and waiting in long lines.

amyb

PalenQ, I found that the other benefit is I would pop into places that I might not ordinarily if I had to pay for them. So if I was passing by some place covered by the pass and had a few minutes, I didn't feel as though I was "wasting" money by zipping in and out. Not to mention, it doesn't take too many visits to more than earn your money back.

PalenQ

amyb - my experience exactly - last Feb i bought the pass at Concergerie, used it for a quick look there - all that it merits, then went to nearby Sainte Chapelle and onto Pompidou Center Modern Art and Arts-et-Metiers in the afternoon - individual tickets would have cost more already and i had the pass valid the whole next day, where i zoomed thru the Orsay, Pantheon, Cluny and Louvre - i would not have gone in some of these except i was in the area and had the pass.

And it's some of the lesser museums, like Cluny and Arts-et-Metiers that i enjoyed the most.

I find mega museums like Orsay and Louvre more a pain and just go in them to see what the museum is like not really to dwell on the art.

I can walk many miles a day and not get fatigued but a few minutes in a museum shuffling around really tires me out.

I can't wait to go back and get another museum pass.

janisj

amyb: I don't see how the pass let you jump the security queue at St Chapelle. Every time I've visited, the line to buy tickets is the only one the pass lets you bypass. But that is inside the complex after one has already cleared security.

Basil: The pass is good for queue jumping at Musee d'Orsay and Versailes. But you can also miss the queues by buying your tickets in advance. The pass doesn't help w/ the Towers at Notre Dame. There are so many entrances to the Louvre you can easily get in w/o much waiting. At other places, lines are seldom much of a problem.

So you might want to buy the Pass - but base the decision more on whether it saves you money.

surfmom

I went back to my trip report and here are my thoughts. (This is from an Easter week trip with dh, dd5 and dd7).

Musee d'Orsay - After seeing the long line here, we were a bit bummed, however, as soon as we had gotten in the back of the line, a security man told us to go around to entrance 3 (group entrance) with the children. Of course, we were thrilled to avoid the line! We decided to purchase museum passes at this point.

Musee Picasso - We were happy to avoid the line to purchase tickets (thanks museum pass!) and checked our backpack and headed inside. (line was about 15 people)

Arc de Triomphe - Again, we were happy to avoid the line to buy tickets (about 20 people) and got in line for the stairs. We weren’t quite so happy about the thought of carrying the stroller up 284 steps… and at that point, an employee pulled us over and we walked to another leg of the Arc and we went up the elevator! This made two parents very happy! We walked the final leg to the outside top and since the girls don’t really understand driving in 6 lanes of traffic, the traffic circles around the Arc weren’t quite so impressive to them.

Louvre - used the pass for the side entrance on a Wednesday night -- no line.

Notre Dame Towers - Got in line for climbing the towers about 9:30. They let in groups of 20 every 10 minutes and we were in the 2nd group of 20 arriving at 9:30. We were surprised how quickly the line grew and were happy to have been there early. No line jumping with museum pass.

Sainte Chappelle - after going through the security line, were a bit overwhelmed with the line for tickets. It stretched around the back of Sainte Chappelle and all the way to the exit from security. Thanks museum passes for blowing us past this line! (over 100 people)

Pompidou Centre - no line. used pass to go into Museum of Modern Art which we would not have paid for. Enjoyed it very much with our girls interpreting what they saw.

Invalides - short line for tickets here that we were able to bypass. The girls were less than impressed with Napoleon’s Tomb, but were very interested in the side rooms (note, the stained glass windows are gorgeous in these rooms!).

Rodin Museum - short line that we bypassed

Orangerie - Another great use of the museum pass and we were inside. We tried to walk straight through to the water lilies galleries but the guard sent us downstairs first. After quickly viewing the paintings downstairs, we went back up the stairs and walked in the same entrance. We weren’t sure why we weren’t allowed to go in there the first time – we felt as if we were being ‘forced’ to view the paintings downstairs when we weren’t interested. The girls weren’t impressed with the paintings – they thought the water lilies would be large, not the overall paintings. I, however, was very impressed and could have spent more time there. I was also impressed with the display of them – I thought it was a beautiful way to display the large canvases with the diffused light from above.

note on museum passes: I know many have debated the cost/benefit factor. We decided to purchase them and weren’t sure about whether we would want 4 days or 6 days. We considered just buying 4 days and if we thought we would want an additional 2 days, we would purchase a 2-day pass. However, the incremental cost between 4 and 6 days was only 15 Euros, so we just decided to do 6 days. We weren’t planning on visiting a ton of museums and probably they didn’t ‘pay’, however, with kids, we decided there was a price for the ‘front of the line’ factor. It was nice knowing that we could just walk into any museum also. As it turned out, we saved almost 20 Euros per person by purchasing museum passes as well as the front of the line privilege. I would definitely do them again. Certain museums I would not have paid to go into, but even going into them for a short visit was fun (Modern Art, Invalides).

surfmom

sorry for the incredibly wordy reply. I know a veeeerrrrryyyy long answer to a short question.

I also found this in my notes that I wanted to share:

Museums – Wow! We thought they were fabulous with kids. From the woman at the Louvre seeking us out to send the girls up front to see Mona Lisa, to the man at Musee d’Orsay who sent us to another entrance to avoid the line, to the people at the Arc de Triomphe who sent us on the elevator since we were carrying a stroller. I get a sense that they enjoy seeing children at these places and were very accommodating.

amyb

JanisJ, read again, I didn't say I skipped security, just that I skipped ahead of the line there two. There are two lines, one to buy tickets, then one at security. Skipped to the head of them both.

janisj

I did read/understand what you wrote - and I still don't get it. The security queue is before the ticket queue and it is not divided into ticket holders/non-ticket holders. Maybe something was handled differently the day you visited - but the many times I have been there, everyone had to wait in the same line for security w/ or w/o tickets or passes.

ppm

amyb, how did you manage to skip to the head of the security line? Granted, I have only been to St Chappelle once but I have many friends who have visited and they've never heard of this. If there is a "secret" please let us know!

amyb

You guys had me wondering, so I went back to my travel journal. I specifically noted that I passed the queue all the way around the church, went straight to the entry showed the pass and got to the head of both... "no problems and I was out again and passing a large tour group of kids I'd seen going in as I was going out." I was traveling solo this time, and just did it because I thought I could (the last 4 times I'd been was before they had security there, so I only used the pass to skip the ticket window previously). I actually was in Ste. Chappelle twice that week, once during regular hours and once for a concert at night, and don't recall the order of either, but I joked in my journal that it was just as easy getting in during the day as it was for the concert. Sorry if you guys didn't have the same luck!

twk

OK, I went to Ste. Chappelle in 2004 and had a similar experience to amyb in that I recall going around a very long line, straight to the entrance, and going right in after showing my pass (and dating it as this was our first use--back then you could still buy the pass at Metro stations). Don't know if things have changed since then or not.

janisj

OK - the security queue is just down a passageway from the street and a left turn.

The queue to get inside the church itself is located quite a walk after leaving the security queue. You go back outdoors (but still w/i the Palais of Justice complex) and then to the ticket kiosk. The pass does let you bypass the second line at the entrance to the Chapel.

There is no way I can see the pass would let you jump that outer security queue.

Fodorite018

We were at Saint Chapelle just last week and the lines were as janis described. Passholders had to wait in the security line along with everyone else. After that though, the day/time we were there, the pass would not have been helpful as they were very efficient and there was no line. The security line was long, but once inside the square area, we walked right over to the counter, bought our ticket and went in.

Christina

I think the issue is that they didn't use to have security queues at these places, so it was just the entry line. They didn't use to have one at the Louvre, either, but they do now, and no pass gets you out of security.