I am going to be in Paris in August for my honeymoon. Alone with seeing the normal sites such as the Arc and the Eifel Tower I want to spend a little time seeing some of the major "must see" exibits at the Louvre and Musee dOrsay. I am tring to get some feedback on a site www.conciergerie.com that sells passes and other services in Paris that you can book or buy in advance. Are these passes worth the money? Do you really get to skip ahead of the long lines w/passes from this site? Also if anyone has ever booked one of the tours or dinner cruises from this site, I would be interested in feedback on that also. Any info is helpful. Thanks you.

<BR>Hi<BR>Every year we buy our museum pass from a travel agent who specializes in France Travel located in Texas. We just call him and order them and he mails them to us. I would not go without them! You do get to the head of the line. It is a Museum and Monuments Card, so aside from Louvre, D'ORsay, you will be able to walk right into Versailles, Napoleans Tomb at the Invalides, Rodins gardens and museum are wonderful!<BR>We never used any passes for cruises so I can't advise there. But the Museum cards are great!<BR>Have a lovely time. Kate

The passes are very easy to purchase at the first site that accepts them when you are in Paris. <BR>I don't see the need to pay anyone any extra fee for them. And they do help when there are lines at the ticket counters. <BR>

HI<BR>I am one of those people who often is willing to pay a little extra to purchase something in advance, and then relax knowing it is done.<BR>HOWEVER, there is truly no need to buy the carte musee/museum pass before you go to Paris.<BR>It is sold in most metro stations, at every participating museum (buy it at a small museum, even if you're not staying for a visit) and even at some hotel front desks.<BR><BR>The main, and important, advantage, is that yes, you do save line time at the Louvre and Orsay, that is a more important feature than the few euros you might save.<BR><BR>You do have to think ahead a little; the passes are good for 1,3, or 5 consecutive days, even if the museum you want is closed on one of those days.<BR><BR><BR>Boat cruises and dinner cruises can likewise be booked directly in Paris; ask your hotel to arrange it (no surcharge).<BR><BR>I have a file on Paris, if you'd like to see it email me at<BR>[email protected]

Just to put a number on it--you will pay up to 30% more to buy the pass before you get to Paris. You can buy it at any larger Metro station or at a small museum that isn't crowded or the tourist office on Champs Elysees.

I also like the carte musee because it offers access to several smaller museums off the beaten path.<BR><BR>I don't think there's much of an advantage to buying it in advance, when you can get it so easily once in Paris. I just think of it as one more opportunity to practice my French!

To Kate2:<BR><BR>I also live in Texas and am going to Paris in May. Could you share the name of the travel agent you use who is knowledgable about museum passes that you said you purchase in advance. I'd appreciate the help!

dthntny.....I agree most of the others that you can easily pick up your museum pass when your arrive in Paris and not spend the extra money. However,if you have a week or so to spend, and if you want to maximize the benifits of using it, you might want to sit down with a calendar and a paris city map and plan it out ahead of time. Some of your museums will close on Monday or Tuesday. Some will be within easy walking distance of the next on your list and others will require you to use your metro pass, which can be purchased in almost every metro station in the city. There are a large number of museums listed on that pass, so think out which ones you most want to see and give yourself a list that you you really want to see. Also, jet lag will kill your first day in town, so that is also a good reason to wait until you feel up to starting to hoof it around Paris. Plan on only being able to see about half of those on your list since time will fly and your feet will require many stops at the local cafes/park benches along your route. Good luck and have a great time. Personally, I am boycotting all things French, from wine to fries, until they start to change their attitude towards the United States and our efforts to get that madman out of Bagdad...cheers

to lkj Why do you want a travel agent's name who will just charge you more for what you can do yourself for less. Actually any travel agent can do this for you. Go to AAA if that is what you want.

I believe the Texas &quot;travel agent&quot; is Paris Plus. I've had a bad experience (a trip different than described in the sales literature and no real satisfaction after the trip)with them, but, they do sell passes for many French activities, as a contracting agent. The Carte Musee is worth having, especially at the very popular musuems and sites. It is very easy to buy in France, but, if you prefer the security of buying ahead, don't be shamed out of doing so.

Hello, I bought my museum passes in advance and made the grave error of telling people on this board what I had done - I got flammed for weeks! I do not regret doing it, and I would do it again, it made things very convenient for us. I booked museum passes, bat-o-bus tickets, tickets for a concert at St. Chappelle (glad I did that, the concert was sold out when we got there) a hop on hop off 2 day tour and a night tour, for 5 of us all in advance, paid $5 to have ALL of it delivered to our hotel and everything was there as promised when we arrived. Before booking ANYTHING I checked prices and compared buying there vs. buying at home; honestly, the difference was very little. The pass, bought home or in Paris, is certainly &quot;worth it&quot; for a variety of reasons it as other posters have pointed out, I was glad we had the passes when we walked to the head of a VERY long line at the Musee d'Orsay, showed our pass and walked right in. Socal offered good advice about mapping/planning - be sure to check websites to see when the museums you want to visit are/are not open. Have a great trip!

As others have noted, you pay a huge premium for the alleged convenience of purchasing the museum pass through conciergerie.com - not only can you purchase same at nearly any metro station (if not, the next one where you transfer, or exit), they are often available right at the front desk of your hotel.<BR><BR>Moreover, while the pass is definitely &quot;worth the money&quot; if you're planning to visit lots and lots of included places over number of days for the pass you purchase, the only place you really need it these days is Musee d'Orsay to jump the long, long line. There are recently added entrances to the Louvre, and those not known to those who haven't visited the website, making the pass unnecessary, for line skipping purposes, if you've done your homework.<BR><BR>So, I personally, would recommend just a one-day pass, purchasing it at, say, Eglise du Dome (Napoleon's Tomb), then going to Musee Rodin, then Musee d'Orsay, whereopon the one-day pass is a bargain, and the three are conveniently located within a reasonable distance of one another.<BR><BR>Same goes for conciergerie.com with regard to dinner cruises and tours. Both can be easily booked at the front desk of your hotel or with a phone call (those on the other end speak English) once you've arrived in Paris. Actually, it's better to book once you've arrived and checked the weather forecast for your intended days.

I don't understand why people buy them in advance, either. Obviously, you lose any possible savings from them by doing that (you spend money), although I agree they are nice to have just for immediate entry. I could see getting them for convenience if it really didn't cost you anything, but it does -- and it should because you are requiring a service. The base price is a govt. price so any agency is going to mark them way up to cover their labor and postage (if they really give it to you). I think Margie should mention what she paid and where she got them for only that delivery fee as most have very high delivery fees on top of the pass markup.<BR><BR>I don't think &quot;any&quot; travel agent can do this; I'll bet a lot cannot. It would have to be a place that had considerable French travel business to make it worth their while to buy them in advance and stock them. AAA is about the worst place, probably, as they don't consistently have them or all products, and they charge more than anybody I've heard of. <BR><BR>If you really must do this, www.gotoparis.net charges a lot less then conciergerie.com, however, which is really outrageous (and they have an $8 delivery fee to hotel, I think I noted, as well as a $10 charge if you buy stuff worth less than $70).<BR><BR>As an example of travel agent fees, I think this are fairly current: conciergerie charges $39 for the 3-day museum pass with $8 delivery fee to hotel(and maybe min. charge fee), gotoparis.net charges $32 with $12 delivery fee (but to US, not to your hotel, and if you bought other stuff that deliv. fee might be spread out), AAA charges something ridiculous like $50, as I recall. This sells for 30 euro in Paris. Conciergerie is a British firm, and they always markup French things a lot, as well as their own high costs; at least gotoparis is n the US so they don't have the exhorbitant British markups.

With regard to &quot;any travel agent&quot; being able to get them--I suspect they can since you can buy them over the internet.

To buy our pass we made the Rodin museum one of our first stops. There was maybe one person ahead of me, and it was very easy. <BR><BR>I would suggest having it before you go to the Louvre or D'Orsay, so you can skip the lines (ie don't buy it at one of those places because you'll have to wait in a line most likely, possibly a long line). Don't worry about the language, even if you have the most minimal French, the person at the ticket counter will understand (they sell the passes all the time).<BR><BR>We're museum buffs, so the pass was well worth it for us. I have to say after seeing the lines at the D'Orsay I was more than happy to have it.<BR><BR>Also, you could easily buy the pass at a smaller museum and not enter that particular museum if you choose not to.

Christina, I paid $46 USD for my 5 day museum pass. This debate can be argued both sides, I was simply stating what worked for us. We tend to be &quot;up and out&quot; early in the morning and stopping at the hotel desk to have the staff make phone calls for us usually isn't convenient. I am very glad I booked our concert tickets in advance, otherwise we would have missed it as it was sold out whne we arrived. Our delivery charge ($5) didn't push our trip budget over the top, and I think that if you are having several types of documents delivered, it is even worth the huge fee of $8. I think the important thing here is to do some reserach on prices and see what works best for YOU. Have a great time and please post a trip report upon your return.

If you are more comfortable purchasing in advance, by all means do so.<BR><BR>For me, however, it would be just &quot;one more thing&quot; for me not to lose.<BR><BR>As others have said, you can buy the museum pass at the 1st place you visit.<BR><BR>Enjoy your trip! Jean &quot;The Pumpkin Lady&quot;

If you can't be talked out of pre-purchase, at least make sure you will be getting an actual card, and not a voucher.<BR><BR>Somebody posted a year or so ago about getting a voucher that had to be taken to a specific location in Paris. MORE trouble rather than less!

As above posts, it is easy to get a museum pass at any metro station and it does not activate until the first time you use it. But be forewarned from the experience my daughter and I had last year. We bought a 3 day pass when we arrived, only to find out there was a rotating strike of museums and other sites on the pass. The French officials would not accomodate us in any way. It turned out well. Each day we would see what was open and go there. We got to see some excellent museums we wouldn't have-e.g Carnavet and the Marmottan (it's not on the pass)

They extra bit of money you pay for the museum passes or any other pre-purchase item is WELL worth it. I got when I was in Paris for 7 days and I just purchased one for the Cote d'Azure for 14 days. I do as much in-advance stuff as possible. I have Foreign currency sent to the house and I even got French stamps mailed to my house in advance. Yes, www.conciergerie was great. I also set up pre-arranged tours but not through them. One day I saw Versaille, Fontainbleu and Vieux la Vicomte. It is nice to have the guided tours becasue on those days someone else can do all the work. Got for it!!!!!!!! and enjoy your trip!!!