Paris: Bypassing the lines with the Museum Pass?
 

We plan to buy a 3 day Museum Pass upon our arrival in Paris. I've read how you can by pass the long lines ... but how? I'm a very polite person. Do the major museums have a separate line for Museum Pass holders, do you just walk in front of people, or will it just be obvious to do once I'm there?

Usually, there is a line to buy tickets, then a line to show ticket (or pass) to an official. You go past the line for buying and straight to the official to show your pass.

At the Louvre, I am not sure if you can go past the line that goes down via the pyramid; but you can definitely enter by going down the stairs to the side of the Arc du Carousel or I think there is an entrance from rue Rivoli.

At the Orsay, I've read they have restructured the entrances and individuals enter from the quai side (tours enter from the Bellechasse side). You should be able to walk in, past the cashier and to the guard at the internal entrance.

We bought our Louvre tickets in advance & the Louvre has a separate line. Here is from their site.

Those holding tickets can enter the Louvre Museum without waiting, via the entrance in the passage Richelieu (between the Place du Palais Royal and the Cour Napoléon, the Place of the pyramid, 9am-6pm), or via the shopping area Carrousel du Louvre (access through 99, rue de Rivoli or the Carrousel garden); then proceed directly to the checkpoint at the entrance of the collections.

The first time we used the pass at the d'Orsay I thought "this can't be right, there's no way we can jump this line, people will surely thrown stones at us". The line was down the street and would be at least an hour wait, we walked to the front of the line near the door (quai side) and showed the guard our pass, and they let us right in. It was too good to be true - IMO the pass paid for itself that day alone.

At Ste. Chapelle, if you have a pass, you go through an open gate which is adjacent to the tix purchase line and then proceed to the tix collection booth. The gate is often blocked by people waiting to purchase tix so you'll have to just keep saying pardon/smile and head through. I helped a few people do this when we were there in February.

We always buy our passes at smaller museums that way we have shorter lines to wait in (usually) and we get to enjoy another Paris treasure that we might have otherwise missed (Cluny, Delacroix, etc.).

My experience in Dec, 2003:

The towers of Notre Dame no longer have priority entrance so you have to stand in line for access-go early.

Orsay-we walked past the really long line of people, walked up to the front of the line and showed our pass and they let us right in.

Louvre-as described in posts above, separate entrance for pass holders

Arc de Triomphe-we did not have to stand in the ticket line, there was a separate line to get in and a separate line for tickets.

Smaller places such as Nissim de Camando, Cluny, Sewers, etc. there was not a separate line but we never waited for more than a few minutes.