I like to buy our Museum Passes at the Arc de Triomphe. Never a line and easy to purchase there. I like the pass because we can go into lots of museums and if we don't spend the entire day, don't feel like we have wasted our money. So if you aren't museum people, you don't have to spend that much time in each museum.

We had always gone to Napoleons tomb but never the military museum attached to it. What a mistake! It is filled with very interesting exhibits on dress, Napoleon's stuffed horse and dog, as well a Napoleon's "bivowac" (sp?)(tent) and a coupld of scenes with him in them as well as paintings.

All the museums are more crowded in summer and lines are longer. We always buy the pass and discover places we wouldn't have gone if we didn't have the pass. When you purchase the ticket they give you a booklet listing all the places it gets you in.

I am 25 years old and still possess my college ID. Is it worth buying the Museum Viste Pass for the 4 days I'll be in Paris? I was going to buy the 3-day pass, but it seems that most have a student or young adult discount.

The Intermusee website has been nonfunctioning for a while.
The prices for the Carte Musee are listed on www.ratp.fr as:

1 day EUR 18.00
3 days EUR 36.00
5 days EUR 54.00

carisdc, I'd say it depends how much you like visiting museums and when you intend to go to Paris. I wouldn't buy one if it's not a busy period. They are getting rather pricey unless you really want to go to a lot of museums in one day.

As for reduced prices for students, I don't know about that as I've never been in that situation. I know a lot of them give free entry to those under 18, but I don't know about discounts for students. Maybe so. Anyway, I was just in Paris a few weeks ago which would be a heavy tourist period, and even I didn't buy one for the Orsay because it was too expensive and that was the only museum I wanted to go to that day. I only had about a 10 minute wait in line to get in, I went around 10 am (the lines get a whole lot longer in the afternoon). I didn't have any wait at all at any other museum, although I didn't go to the Louvre this time.

Doesn't the museum card cover Versailles and all of its gardens, etc., too? If you're planning to go there and a few other places in Paris, it seems that it would easily pay for itself...

The museum card does cover Versailles but not all of it. I recommend the museum pass. We found it to be well worth it and we bypassed a long line at Saint Chapelle. We bought it on a friday morning at the tourist shop next to the underground carousel entrance of the Louvre at about 10 AM (that's when the shop opens). There was also No line to get into the Louvre then or the other time we went on a Sunday afternoon through the pyramid except for a short security line that everyone needed to pass through. We never made it to Versailles during the 5 day museum pass but went into the FNAC store near our hotel and bought an all-inclusive ticket to Versailles which included the chateau, gardens, the 3 trions, an English tour of some parts and an audio guide for another (we found out that the tram was not included during one of our 3 tram rides). The cost was 21 euros per ticket and it saved alot of time, etc. I recommend it if you don't have a museum pass. We bought carnets and they worked the best for us since we also straddled a week. The credit card machines only take certain cards and you need to by the carnets from the agent directly.

At most museums in Paris we found that there is no student discount, just free entrance for those under 18.

You will find an excellent breakdown of Paris public transport at http://www.atkielski.com/PDF/data/ParMetro.pdf

Basically, the Carte Orange is the cheapest if you're going to be there for several days starting at the beginning of the week;

Mobilis gives you the most flexibility for day-at-a-time if you do a lot of moving about;

Carnet is often cost-effective if you only need a few rides a day;

Paris Visite is rarely a better deal than one of the above.

The best sightseeing deal in town is a Bus Pass and a good map:
http://www.citefutee.com/picts/plans.../bus_paris.gif