Museum Hop Till You Drop in Paris
 

Warning : This may be seriously injurious to those who think that holidays are for relaxing!!

Attention: For serious art-lovers only!!

I’ve just spent one week in Paris, spending all day everyday in either museums or monuments. In my previous trips to Paris, I have explored the normal touristic destinations but never had time enough to devote to museums. First trippers may who wish to fit in as much as they can into their holidays may also find my tips useful. Though I have marked it as a trip report, it is more of a tips & tricks of travelling..

Where to Stay: It doesn’t matter. Whichever arrondissement you elect to stay in, you’ll end up having to take public transport from place to place. I stayed in a hotel in the 1st last time, but I didn’t like it much. I liked my apartment in the 9th close to Folies Bergère much better; it was a normal residential area. In both cases, plenty of commutes by metro were inevitable.

Hotel or Apartment : There is a case for both. I was alone and stayed in a tiny studio apartment. It was comfortable and the location convenient for the metro. For those considering apartments, the points to look for (in addition to location) is availability of lifts in the building, washers/dryers if you need them and internet connection. The additional costs of agent’s fees, renter’s insurance and cleaning fee are not always evident. With an apartment you can save some eating out costs if you are prepared to make simple meals or bring in take-away.

Museum Pass : I bought the 6 day pass for a hefty Eu 69. On calculating after the trip, I visited Eu 104 worth of museums, though of course I went to a couple only because I had the pass. The main advantage is bypassing the ticket queues at the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay where ticket queues are very long. It did not save any time in the other places. On the whole I recommend it for those who do want to museum & monument hop.

Which Museums & Monuments : It is important to plan ahead by checking the list of museums and monuments in Paris and selecting the ones which interest you most. It is impossible to see them all anyway, so being selective is the key. My area of interesting is paintings from the 15th to the early 20th century and my selections were based on that. I visited the following museums: Louvre, Orsay, Petit Palais, Orangerie, Cluny and Rodin. I also visited the following monuments: Notre Dame (free), Basilque St. Denis, Invalides (free) & Napoleon’s Tomb, Versailles, Sainte Chapelle, Basilica at Montmartre (free) and the Pantheon.

Transport Pass : Transport passes seem too expensive to make sense. When you buy a carnet of 10 tickets, each ticket costs only Eu 1.27. A daily pass is Eu 8.55, nearly 7 trips to break even. Even if you buy a 5 day pass, you’ll need to make 5 trips to make it worthwhile. In one week I used two sets of 10 tickets and a return ticket to Versailles for a total of about Eu 32. I also took taxis to and from Gare de Lyon (total Eu 28). I did cleverly route myself so that I was not crossing to and fro across the ciry. I travelled only by Metro or RER. The buses seemed frequent but the traffic so heavy that the going would have been slow. The Metro is easy to figure out and the correspondences and exits very clearly marked at each station. I found the Plan de Quartier (Plan of the area) stuck on walls close to exits very useful to get oriented. These maps show the streets around the metro and the various exits are clearly marked. Important: Do not throw away tickets until you finish the complete trip. You need the RER ticket for exiting stations. There are random checks on the Metro (I was checked once) and there is a heavy fine if you don’t have a valid ticket.

For those with Reduced Mobility due to disability, injuries or age : Paris is hard. Only a few Metro lines have escalators or elevators, at most times you will need to climb a lot of stairs, for entry & exit but also for correspondences between lines. This page gives a very useful list of stations which have lifts or escalators. http://www.ratp.fr/fr/ratp/c_20623/reseau-ferre/There is often a long walk along tunnels when making correspondences. I recommend taxis for those with any serious disability or weakness. People with aches and pains, like myself, can manage but it takes a toll. Buses would be easier but slower. It was hard inside the museums as well; even when there were facilities, some were reserved only for people with a real disability. Sometimes the cost (energy & strain) of having to find a lift did not seem worth it. I found an older gentleman walking around with a small foldable stool; it seemed like a good idea to me! I have also made comments on the individual museums and monuments I visited re accessibility. I personally suffer from a bad back and sciatica and some knee & ankle issues, all of which were put to test and failed miserably during this visit to Paris. It was pain-killers and anti-inflammatories to the rescue!

Musée d’Orsay

Queuing: Outdoors, with no shade. Special entry for museum pass holders and advanced tickets with hardly any wait time. Extremely long queue for others.

Time inside 1.5 days, for a total of 10 hours for a thorough visit including the special exhibition on Degas.

Audio Guide: Paid audioguide available. It was excellent for the special exhibition, only limited coverage for the collection but still worth getting. Note: you need to deposit a photo id (passport) to get the audio guide.

Mobility issues: There is some information for people with disabilities at the museum site. For other, there are steps to access the entrance and plenty of steps inside as well. There are escalators to the upper gallery but the escalators down go only part of the way. There were steps for the toilet and café access as well, I think the lifts are reserved for people with disabilities only. There are very few places to sit inside the galleries, it was very tiring.

Musée du Louvre

Queuing: Outdoors, with no shade. Special entry for museum pass holders and advanced tickets with short queues. Extremely long queue for others.

Time inside: 2 days, for a total of 14 hrs. I was thorough with Paintings and with French Sculpture, superficially walked past Near-Easter Antiquities, paying attention only to a couple of very famous exhibits, did a superficial walk through of other antiquities (mainly to see the Palace). I did not enter the Decorative Arts, Arts of other continents or the History of Louvre sections. Nor did I see the temporary exhibition.

Audio Guide: Very good. It was particularly useful because it knew which room I was in and automatically showed the available information! Highly recommended. Note: You need to deposit a photo id (passport) to get the audio guide.

Mobility Issues: The museum site has detailed information for people with disabilities. The museum is huge and is a physical challenge even for those in perfect health. I used lifts whenever I found them, but sometimes I had to walk for miles (ok, not miles :) before I found them. At times the effort seemed too much and I just limped my way up and down stairs. There is thankfully plenty of seating in the galleries but because of the crowds, it was difficult to find free seating especially in the first floor paintings section.

Musée de l’Orangerie

Queuing: A short queue, no more than 10 mins.

Time Insde: 1 hr. The lower level had an unexpectedly excellent collection of 19th-20th century paintings.

Audio Guide: Paid audioguide was available, I did not take it.

Mobility Issues: The museum has support for disable visitors. For others, there are a number of steps to the lower level, I am not sure if a lift was available. There was plenty of seating in front of the waterlilies but none in the lower level.

Petit Palais

Queuing : None

Time inside: 1 to 1.5 hrs. It is a small collection and not crowded.

Audio Guide : It was available but I did not use.

Mobiliy issues : It is adapted for people with reduced mobility, more information on their site. I did not find the lifts and used the stairs but it was not difficult.

Musée National do Moyen Âge (Cluny)

Queuing: None

Time inside: 1 hr, this is not an area of primary interest for me.

Audio Guide: I took it but did not listen to all the entries. Reasonable information.

Mobility Issues: It is not adapted for the disabled. There are narrow stairs to be taken to go the upper level. It is a small museum and not tiring. I don’t remember any seating inside the galleries.

Musée Rodin

Queuing: Short queues but I imagine it would be longer in high season. No cover.

Time inside: 1-1.5 hrs. I did not linger.

Audio Guide: It was available but I did not use.

Mobility Issues: The gardens and the lower levels of the museum are accessible to all. There is no lift to the first floor. It is a small museum with plenty of seating.

Château de Versailles

Queuing: First there is a queue to buy tickets, not very long and there was overhead cover. Museum-pass holders can skip this. Then there is the queue to enter the palace which is common to everyone. This is extremely long, with no cover and no seating. It took me 1.5 hrs to get in and my back was in poor shape after that.

Time Inside: 1.5 hrs for the palace. The museum pass did not include a visit to the gardens for which there is a separate queue, again with no cover and no seating. I was too tired and too irritable with the crowds and noise to want to see it. I will not come back to the Versailles, I did not enjoy my visit at all.

Audio Guide: A free guide is included with the entry fee and is reasonable.

Mobility Issues: There is information for people with disabilities here. For others, there are steps to the upper floor and steps down. The Palace is extremely, excessively crowded and there is no seating so it was tiring.

Sainte Chapelle

Queuing: Long and slow moving queue to get past the security, no cover. I stood for 1hr 15 mins. Very short queue for the tickets.

Time Inside: 30mins. There were explanatory sheets in English which were useful. The first time I visited it 8 years ago, I was held breathless. This time, I did not feel the impact, perhaps because it was patially covered for renovation.

Audio Guide: Paid guide available, but I did not take it.

Mobility Issues: No support for people with reduced mobility. Narrow staircase up to see the chapel. The chapel itself is very small and there is no seating.

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris

Queuing: Long but fast moving queue to enter. I stood for about 20 mins.

Time Inside: I stayed for 30 mins but I think with the audio guide it would take longer.

Audioguide: Paid guide available, but I did not take it.

Mobility Issues: Most of the Cathedral is accessible to anyone. There are a couple of steps neat the choir. Plenty of seating inside.

Basilique Cathédrale de St Denis

Queuing : There were just a couple of people.

Time Inside: 1 to 1.5 hrs. I could have spent longer, but I was tired. This was the surprise of my trip; I did not know that this is in fact the necropolis and the remains of many royals rest here. A list is available on their site.

Audioguide: Paid audioguide was available but I did not take it.

Mobility Issues: There is information for disabled visitors on their site. For others, there are steps to be taken but not very many. Staircase to the crypt is narrow. There is plenty of seating in the main church; a limited number of seats in the necropolis area and none in the crypt.

Invalides & Napoleon’s Tomb

Queuing: None

Time Inside: 1 to 1.5 hrs. I did not visit the Musée de l’Armée.

Audioguide: Paid audioguide was available for Napoleon’s tomb but i did not take it. I had an mp3 audioguide I had bought online which covered the Invalides & the tomb which I found informative.

Mobility Issues: The website says that Musée de l’Armée is accessible to disabled visitors. The Invalides itself is partially accessible as there were steps to the Cathedrale St Louis. There were steps to the Eglise du Dôme and Napoleon’s tomb but I am unsure if there was also a ramp or not. There are steps leading down to the Tomb with no lifts. There was seating in the Eglise but not elsewhere.

Pantheon

Queuing: Very short.

Time Inside: 30 mins.I did not spend much time in the crypt.

Audioguide: Paid audioguide was available but I did not take it.

Mobility Issues: There are many steps inside and outside without ramps. The crypt is accessible by a narrow stairwell. There is seating available in the main level but I did not see any in the crypt. The toilets are down some steps.

Thanks for taking the time to post all of this information. I'm sure that lots of people will find it extremely useful.

If only you could convince more people <b>not</b> to go to Versailles, it could become enjoyable to go there again.

We are returning next summer for some of the museums we missed. Thanks for the great information

I will add that last year at Versailles we went straight to the gardens and rented a golf cart and toured them that way. I can't remember the price but it was well worth for my sweet mother to be able to see all of the grounds.

hi suja, thanks!

even if one were only to break even, IMO the museum pass is worth it for by-passing all the lines.

we must have been lucky at Versailles when we went in March - having purchased out tickets on line, we just walked straight in as there was no queue at security at all. in fact, we did this twice as we somehow managed to find ourselves outside the palace at one point [don't ask!] so we had to go in through security again.

kerouac - go to Versailles in March!

The last time I went to these places, my knees were much happier and more frolicsome than they are now.

Thanks for this detailed, practical information in an easy to follow format :-)

great info, thanks for posting! We are headed to the d'Orsay right now and hope the thunderstorm will have diminished the line; it is their late night tonight.

@kerouc : Oh, you saw through my evil intentions of making Versailles an unpopular destination!!! Shhhhhhh

@willowjane: Thanks for the tip on the golf cart, if I can persuade myself to return in low-season, it will come in useful!

@annhig: I did want to see the gardens in Versailles..so maybe I will go back in low-season some time as you suggest :)

@FoFoBT : LOL on the 'frolicsome knees':) My sympathies as a fellow sufferer of knees which frolic no more!

@ncounty: I was at the d'Orsay last Thursday :) Enjoy!

Suja, thanks for the detail report.

"Sainte Chapelle

Queuing: Long and slow moving queue to get past the security, no cover. I stood for 1hr 15 mins. Very short queue for the tickets."

So does the museum pass work here but you need to stand in line for security? Also the renovation isn't done yet? I thought it had been completed already.

@AGM : Yes, that's what I meant. There is first a security check for bags and the queue for that is very long. I have no idea where everybody disappeared once inside, for there was no queue for the tickets for those who dont have a museum pass. And yes, the museum pass works. And yes, the renovation is in progress. About a third of the windows were boarded up from inside. On the outside there was interesting information about how the renovation was being done - each piece of glass is removed, cleaned and re-leaded to make the window again. I can imagine it would take a long time.

The people "disappear" because most of them are actually going to the law courts, not the Sainte Chapelle (except on the weekend, of course). The security is for the law courts, not for the Sainte Chapelle, but since it is in the complex, you have to go through security anyway.

@kerouac: The people who worked there had a separate line. Though they contributed to the slowness of the queue, their line never had more than 2 or 3 people waiting. I think it was just that the rate of flow in bottleneck-2 was much greater than the rate of flow in bottleneck-1. Not that I know much about queueing and traffic flow theory..

A nasty surprise.... we arrived and found out they were closing at 6 pm tonight which was supposed to be their late night. I had doubled checked my guidebooks to make sure it would be open; I should have checked their website but it may not have been mentioned there either. It had to do with the fete de music? Anyway, we managed to see as much as we could in an hour and a half. As a pleasant surprise though, it seems the fete de music is throughout Paris and the town is ROCKING tonight. There are bands playing on every other corner in the major areas of Paris we went through.... le Marais and the Bastille area.

ncounty - nice!

did you manage to get in and see something before 6pm?

nice info! Regarding subways, I find that even within the subways, getting to the correct platform can mean 5+ min walking, sometimes even more. Also, I had luggage with me when I arrived and found myself having to lug the bags up and down the stairs several time at some subway stops. Not easy!

I will add that last year at Versailles we went straight to the gardens and rented a golf cart and toured them that way. I can't remember the price but it was well worth for my sweet mother to be able to see all of the grounds.

Yes, suja, the people who work there have a separate line -- lawyers and judges and bailiffs. The majority of the visitors are facing those people in the courts, not sitting with them.

I did get to see quite a bit, annhig. I had been there several times before but it was my SO's first time and he loves impressionist art. We did the entire 5th floor and split up so he could cover more territory aggressively and my son and I did a more leisurely tour playing name the artist from across the room. We got a good feel for Fantin-Latour this time (in addition to Monet, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Rousseau, Van Gogh, Manet etc).... still working in Signac and Sisley and Pisarro; and the women, Morrisot and Cassatt.

Suja, thanks for such detailed information on so many museums. Merci!

Suja--You get an A+. I like your title, your subtitles, your warnings, your report organization, and your excellent notes.

I shall bookmark this thread and just send any forum museum pass questions right here.

We don't get museum passes anymore, but during the years we bought them, we always came out ahead in money and in time. I have tried to be clear to forum visitors, though, that the pass is ONLY worth it if one knows that museums are a top sight-seeing priority. If that IS one's priority, then it makes pounding the pavements and halls much less draining.

Your post informs that sensibility quite well.

Thank you for evaluating your transport usage so well, too.

It frustrates me to explain so many times that just because I think a museum pass might be worthwhile, that does not automatically mean I am recommending a transport pass as well.

I used to work out the math for all combinations (Mobilus, Visite, Orange/Navigo, Carnet, etc)so get the best bang for our buck. Now, I no longer bother to see our arrival day will make the Navigo our best bet--carnets are just so hassle free, especially since we can share them with the entire traveling party.

I'd like to comment on one of your points:

You said you went to some museums only because you got the pass. That is so true. Our first time at the Picasso museum was a "well, we have this pass" moment--and the Picasso then became one of our favorites.

At the same time, having the pass means you can say to yourself, "I HATE this place. Let's leave" or "I can't do this right now--let's come back tomorrow" because you don't have a one-museum monetary investment.

Very interesting and useful.

You have highlighted one of my major complaints about museums, especially those that have been built or renovated recently: lack of seating in the galleries. What are they thinking?

A friend with whom I went to college was the director of a museum in the US, and he gave me a tour a couple years ago. I pointed out the lack of seating and he pointed me to benches in the corridors. He was surprised by my desire to sit on a bench and look at the art at the same time. Older museums seem to be better about this.

In the Orangerie, there is an elevator. And there is some seating on the lower level as well.

With the aches and pains you describe, buses are your friends. Yes, they can be slow, but most of the time you are sitting, resting, and enjoying the scenery. And after a tiring museum visit, I find it a wonderful luxury to get in a taxi and be whisked home in a fraction of the time it would take on public transportation.

@ncounty - too bad about the early closure! But then you got to enjoy the fête de la musique which is a lot of fun

@mmyk72 - knowing I couldnt lift my bags up and down those stairs, so I took a metro to the nearest station with an escalator and took a taxi from there. On the way back I took a taxi all the way. In future I am thinking of finding hotels within short distance from metros with escalators.

@kerouac - Oh I am such a fool! I never thought of the people going to law courts!! Of course you are right :)

@latedaytraveler - You are welcome :)

@AlessandraZoe - Thank you for the A+ hehehe :) True about the museum pass allowing you to explore outside your primary area of interest. I think the 6 day pass was a good deal, if it had been only 2 days I would have been madly rushing about with my FOMO problem (Fear Of Missing Out) but with 6 days, I didnt mind spending 2 whole days in the Louvre and a day and a half at the Orsay. There was still enough time to explore other places.

@Nikki - I intend to send a nice email to Musée d'Orsay asking them WHAT they were thinking having only 2 or 3 places to sit in each gallery.. I wonder where I can find a nice, very light, foldable stool with a canvas/nylon seat which I can lug around with me in museums. Would the trouble of lugging it be worth it?

Canes with seats:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...th%2Caps%2C175

@Nikki : Oh Thanks! Looks perfect - I didn't know of their existence before. Will check it out.

Thank you so much for the detailed info. It was very timely, as we will be in Paris for 2 weeks and I am just now trying to figure out the museum pass and Navigo versus carnet situation. I have not been there since 1978 and I do not remember huge lines for anything back then, so this will be very different.

@susncrg : Glad that my effort in writing it all up comes of some use :) I think July is always more crowded than June, so be prepared for the hordes. If you are lucky enough to be an early riser and can make it to the museums at opening time, the lines may be shorter - not that I ever managed! Enjoy :)

Oh I forgot to say - If anyone is visiting the Sainte Chapelle, make sure you dont have any sharp objects in your bag. The fellow in front of me had his nice & shiny Swiss Army knife confiscated (not to be returned).

Brilliant!

Entering Ste Chapelle is one of those things where I believe our French friends are being penny wise and pound foolish (or sous wise and franc foolish?).

At a euro or two a pop, how long would it take to fund and staff separate security equipment for the Chapelle? As it is, many no doubt see the lines and say the hell with it, and they lose entry fees they might collect. Surely graduates of the grandes ecoles could figure this out pretty easily.