After reading so much on the boards about the Paris Museum Pass, we definitely want to buy one for our trip. We went to the website and they charge 15E to mail it to us in the US. Does anyone know if it's really easy to get at CDG upon arrival, or even at the Pantheon, since our hotel is across the street from there? We're just concerned about long lines to purchase it in late July.

you do not need to buy it ahead of time. Just go to any of the covered museums/monuments and buy it there. There won't be lines at most of them.

Get yours at the Panthéon. The lines at secondary sights are never a problem.

A museum pass is far from cheap and you have to work quite hard to make it pay for itself :

http://www.paris-pass.com/?ref=goo&g...FSF_XgoddnJ-Ig

The Paris Pass in the above link is a rip-off. The Paris <b>Museum</b> Pass is not.

On a per-day basis, the ParisMuseumPass.com costs 10-15&euro; (depending on how many days you buy) - about as much as lunch. There are many sights that charge at least that much, so once you've visited one of them each day, you're reached break-even.

Additional benefits include: the ability to bypass the ticketing and entrance lines (important at Orsay), dropping into the same museum more than once in a day (<i>e.g.</i>, Louvre), using the toilet facilities at any included museum, and being able to sample some of the lesser-known museums that you might not otherwise want to pay to see.

There is also a Paris City Passport that may appeal to some: en.parisinfo.com/paris-city-passport-1

We got ours at the Cluny Museum (just a few blocks across the river from Notre Dame) two weeks ago with only one person in front of us in line.

SS

I'm going to get the four day Paris Museum Pass when I go to Paris in a month. I like the idea that I can come and go as I please (I can break the Louvre into smaller more manageable pieces), I don't have plan my days around the &quot;best times to beat the line-ups&quot; (Louvre and Orsay) and I can pop in to things that aren't on my &quot;must do&quot; list just to take a boo without worrying about money spent. I'm not sure that the Paris Passport offers the same flexibility with schedules (i.e. the ablity to spend two hours a day at the Louvre) since it seems more to be like a coupon book.

ValCanada has the right idea...after 5+ times to Paris, those are exactly the reasons I buy the pass each and every time. I think it's the best deal in Paris (or any other city it's offered, like Amsterdam). Enjoy!

Free Sundays &amp; Pass:

I made a mistake and bought the 2-day museum pass for the first weekend in June when Sun will be free for many museums... the ability to get quick entry and bypass lines was a key advantage since we'll have small kids with us. Does anyone know if we the ability to bypass lines with pass is still available on free sundays?

topping

&quot;Does anyone know if we the ability to bypass lines with pass is still available on free sundays?&quot;

Not sure where I read it but did read that it's no longer that easy to bypass the lines with the pass.

Monica

no, free is free. People with passes aren't any different than those without if the place has free admission, anyway.

I don't think hiho was looking at the official website, because the official one doesn't sell them online (www.parismuseumpass.fr), only private vendors do. They do give you a link to buy them online from FNAC, a private store, but they don't do it themself. I have an account with FNAC, so tried it out, until giving the okay, and they do charge a lot (which isn't at all necessary, espec. since you can pick it up at FNAC if you bought it from them), but it's not 15 euro to mail to the US. They charge 12.50 euro to send it to the US, and they charge the same flat amount for mailing if you buy only one at 30 euro versus two at 60 euro each. Maybe hiho lives somewhere else.

Actually, just in the past few days, the official site has seemed to have added a link to fnac - I haven't been successful because every time I've tried it's given me a message that they're closed - at least that's what I think it says - how can on-line shopping ever be closed??? I think I'm going to just wait and get it once I'm there.

I love the museum pass not only for the savings but also for the line skipping aspect.

Based on a couple of previous posts I think some people are googleing &quot;Paris museum pass&quot; and are then linked to vendors who sell them at outrageous prices rather than the official site.

This summer I'll do free first Sunday of the month at Musee Picasso, Cluny and Pompidou (open late so good possibility for going just before or after dinner). I might also hit St. Chapelle and Notre Dame first thing in the morning if we get going early.

I'll use the museum pass on Wednesday when the Louvre is open until 9:45pm and also see the Musee de la Mode et du Textile- also part of the Louvre, L'Orangerie, and finish the day with the Arc de Triomphe after dinner since it's open until 11pm.

On Thursday I'll use the museum pass at D'Orsay (open late Thursday so I can go first thing or later in the day), Musee de l'Armee, Musee Rodin and Musee de quai Branly.

Doing the math on the above visit:
2 Day Museum Pass will cost me 30 euros but if I pay entrance fees at each of the individual museums my totals will be 23 euros on Wednesday and 30 euros on Thursday...

AND even if it wasn't such a deal I'd buy it just to skip the lines which saves massive time in the summer toursit season.

When we were there in April, we debated the pass, but decided to get one for the line privileges (we were traveling with a 5 and 6 yo).

We loved it! Since it was a 'fixed cost' and paid for, we didn't debate whether or not to go into a museum -- even if we went in for 15 minutes, saw one thing and left. Made it fun to do feel like (oh, I have to get my xx euros out of this visit). We definitely would not have visited as many museums as we did without the pass.

In a week, we visited:
- Louvre (8,50), L'Orangerie (6,50), Musee d'Orsay (7,50), Arc de Triomphe (8), Musee Picasso (6,50), Pompidou Centre (to ride the escalators to the top) (10), Sainte Chappelle (ENORMOUS lines here) (7,50) Notre Dame Towers (7,50), Invalides (8), Rodin Museum (9)

Our pass was 60 euros (6 days), so it definitely paid off. Some places - like the Rodin Museum have a cute cafe even if you don't want to see the rest of it and are in the area.

ymmv.

Thanks, all!

I just happened to ask the concierge at the hotel I'm staying at and he mentioned that I could buy the pass right at my hotel without being charged any convenience fee or anything.