Paris Free Museum Sunday
 

What museums (free) would you recommend on the first Sunday of the month? I’ll visit the Louvre and D’Orsay earlier in the week. I was thinking the Centre Pompidou and Musée Carnavalet might be good choices. I'll only vist two so what two would you go to? Thanks.

It really depends on one's taste and if there is a special exhibit going on you'll pay to see it and have limited access to the museum. If you buy the Pariscope at a news stand it will tell you what is showing where.

I can highly recommend the Musee Carnevalet. It's in an interesting building and has two exhibits that I found fascinating-the 1890's room and Proust's bedroom. (He isolated himself from the most enervating aspect of modern life-the noise.)Plus the place is a decent size and not nearly as exhausting as the larger Museums, especially the Louvre.

I believe the Musee Carnavalet is free any day, isn't it? (We toured it last June-- you'd think I'd remember!) I'm pretty sure you can make a donation, but are not required to pay anything. It's pretty interesting, a big mansion-type museum that gives you a good idea for how people lived, and has some nice art. After seeing the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay, though, it isn't much.
We saw the Louvre and the d'Orsay on free Sunday, spending about 3- 4 hours in each. It made a good day for us. The crowds at the first of June were not bad at all.

The Pompidou is a good choice if you like modern art. The Carnavalet is free all the time, so no point in wasting your "free day" on that. I can think of various museums I would enjoy seeing, but they depend on my personal interests, so I think you should just go to ones that are things you especially enjoy. The Army Museum in Invalides, for example, if you like history (it is one of the more expensive ones, also). The Cluny would be a good choice if you like Medieval art. If you haven't been to the Rodin, that would be a good choice, also, if you like Rodin, of course. The l'Orangerie would also be a good choice for Impressionist art, if it is open when you go (not sure when you will be there).

It isn't just museums, but some monuments are free, also, so you could go up the Arc de Triomphe or visit the Conciergerie or Sainte Chapelle.

There aren't that many museums that are free on that Sunday (and aren't free otherwise). I think I've named about all of them that would be likely top choices, except the Picasso is free, also.

The permanent exhibits at the Carnavalet are indeed free any time. It's a city museum. there are 14 others with free entry any time.

We went to the Rodin museum on our free Sunday - it was fantastic. We also went to the Musee Carnavalet and then became disappointed to find it was free at any time - doh! St. Chapelle is not free at any time we discovered.

Invalides is not free on 'free Sundays' also.

Be careful to check, because not all 'museums' are free on the first Sunday. For example, I don't think the Arc de Triomphe is ever free admission.
So it takes some research to discover which are free and which aren't. Also, museums can be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Note that Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame always have free admission to the basilica.
For what it's worth, I'm pasting below my notes on this subject from last year. Some info. may be dated, but it's a start.

Museum Pass: 36 EU for 3-days, per person; 18 and under free.
List of city museums you can tour with the pass, don't forget that some are closed on Monday and some others on Tuesday:
Arc de Triomphe - 8th arrondissement -
Musee de l'Armee - 7th arrondissement -
Maison de Victor Hugo - 4th arrondissement Musee national de la Legion d'honneur et des ordres de la chevalerie - 7th arrondissement -
Musee du Louvre - 1st arrondissement -
Tours et crypte archeologique de Notre Dame - 4th arrondissement -
Musee de l'Orangerie des Tuileries - 1st arrondissement -
Musee d'Orsay - 7th arrondissement -
Pantheon - 5th arrondissement -
Musee Picasso - 3rd arrondissement -
Musee Rodin - 7th arrondissement -
Sainte Chapelle - 1st arrondissement -

City-owned ‘museums’, free at all times:
Balzac's House: 47 rue Raynouart
House of Victor Hugo : place des Vosges
Vie Romantique : 16 rue Chaptal
Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris, close to the Pompidou

Information on the top museums follows:
Louvre Museum
CLOSED on Tuesdays
Entrance fees-- Standard: 8.5 euros. From 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Special rates: 4.50 euros. (After 3:00 PM)
Under 18 : Free, and first Sunday of every month also free.

Musée d'Orsay
Individual visitors without ticket- on the side of the river Seine, entrance A
Visitors with tickets or passes - on the side of the rue de Lille, entrance C
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 6pm
Thursdays from 10am to 9.45pm; Sundays from 9am to 6pm
Galleries start closing at 5.30pm, 9.15pm on Thursdays
The museum is shut on Mondays.
2005 Ticket Prices-- Full price : 7.5 Euros, Reduced rate : 5.5 Euros
On Sundays and from 4.15 pm (8 pm on Thursdays): 5.5 Euros
Free access for all on the first Sunday of each month

Arc de Triomphe
Open: Summer 9.30 a.m.-6.30 p.m.
Late night opening: Friday in the summer 10 p.m.
Tél. : +33 (1) 55.37.73.77
Entrance fees-- Standard : 6.10 euros, Special rates : 3.80 euros

Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Open: Basilica: 6.45 a.m.-11 p.m., Dome and crypt: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. - late night opening: Basilica: 11 p.m.
Prices: Basilica: free access - Dome, crypt: 15 FF. - Red. Dome and crypt: 8 FF.

Tour Eiffel
Tél. : +33 (1)44.11.23.23
Opening hours 9 a.m. to midnight daily
Entrance fees First floor: 3.60 euros. Special rates: 2.10 euros
Second floor: 6.80 euros. Special rates: 3.80 euros
Third floor: 9.90 euros. Special rates: 5.34 euros
For the stairs, 1st and 2nd floor: 3.05 euros.
Note: there is no baggage check service available at the Tower so don't bring your backpack.

Hôtel Des Invalides/Napoleon's Tomb
June-Aug daily 10am-7pm
Phone 01-44-42-37-72
Prices Admission to Musée de l'Armée, Napoléon's Tomb, and Musée des Plans-Reliefs 7€ ($8.05) adults, 5€ ($5.75) students, free for children 18 and under

Sainte-Chapelle
4, boulevard du Palais , 75001 Paris
Open: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Opera Garnier-- beautiful inside

Musée Rodin
Phone : 01 47 05 01 34
Open 9:30am-5:40pm. Closed Mon
Admissions: 4.88 euros, reduced: 3.35 euros

Cathedral De Nôtre Dame
Tél. : 01.44.32.16.72
Opening hours Daily from 8 am to 6 pm.
Entrance fees to the Tower-- Standard : 5.30 euros; Special rates : 3.51 euros
(Admission to the cathedral is free)

Musee du Luxembourg
Matisse exhibition until mid-June

Thanks for the corrections. Both those used to be free because I have a copy of the information from the Museum Pass and both those are marked as being free on the first Sunday (which is where I got my info from, but it is a couple years old).

In fact, the Paris Tourist Office website says right now that Sainte Chapelle is free on first Sundays, but only from Oct to March. The Invalides website doesn't mention it any more, though, which is too bad as that was a good deal, but there are still lots of good choices.

marking for future reference

The permanent collection at Paris municipal museums is free at all times.

The Petit Palais just reopened after years of renovation - free also. It's the fine arts museum of the city of Paris.

Wow, thank you all for the information.

Paris is my first trip overseas, solo, 3/27 - 4/4. Frankly, I'm not sure yet where my tastes run. Looking at the Pompidou website I don't think I'm going to be a big fan of modern but the building looks interesting. If I go running out of there screaming after an hour I won't be out anything :)

Thanks again for the great info.

Jay

Christina, my info. is at least a year old and may not be from an infallible source, either. Don't take it without a grain of salt, as they say.