Wondering about On line purchase of tickets to temporary Paris exhibitions
 

Hi Fodorites,

I haven't been to Fodors for quite a while. I'm planning a last minute trip to Paris (decided about it yesterday, going in 6 days, took hours to find a good hotel but I managed in the end), haven't been there for 18 months and am so excited.

I intend to visit some temporary exhibitions (Rivalités à Venise - Louvre, Bruegel, Memling, Van Eyck - Jacquemart-André and the one opening on October 7th at the Pinacothèque de Paris - De Rembrandt à Vermeer), for which you could buy tickets online but the thing is I want to get to Paris and then decide on my schedule. Has anyone been to the first two and can tell me about the queues, if they exist and if you need to wait for a long time before being able to buy your tickets?

Thanks.

You could buy then at a FNAC when you get there...

http://www.fnacspectacles.com/place-...a1254149356303

Yup, just go to FNAC when you arrive.

You can never tell about popularity of an exhibition or queues the specific dates you will be in Paris. For exhibitions at Grand Palais, for example, tickets can often be sold out for the entire day early in the morning and there's a very long queue for tickets for subsequent days.

I just returned from Paris and purchased tickets online ahead of time for Utrillo/Valadon at Pinacotheque (closing my day of arrival), Renoir at Grand Palais (opening my day of departure), and Tiffany at the Musee de Luxembourg. As it happened, there were no queues at any of these places the days I attended. While most tickets restrict entry to +/- 30 minutes of your reserved time, we arrived early for all three and no one checked the time, so we were able to enter at our leisure rather than wait or schedule other activities around a specific time.

Ropes were set up at Grand Palais as though an enormous crowd was anticipated, which may be the case once the exhibition gets underway and word gets around (as it was absolutely spectacular! - 15 rooms!).

One of the highlights of this trip was Olivier Giraud's "How to Become Parisian in One Hour". He could not be more charming or hilarious! The show was non-stop laughs. 2-for-1 tickets are available on the theater's website. The line was so long to trade vouchers for tickets (and the show was sold out) that the show started 20 minutes late.

This show was originally scheduled for only two weeks, but continues to get extended - now through the end of the year. So, if you'll be in Paris for any of the performances, it's truly not to be missed.

Olivier mentioned that he's booked in NYC this winter, but I neglected to note the name of the theater and haven't yet been able to find details online.

But, DVD's were available (be sure to ask for USA format) at the end of the show for the ridiculously low price of €5 (excellent quality).

See

http://globespotters.blogs.nytimes.c...hrough-comedy/

If there's internet access at your hotel or you have a device with web access, you can book online after you've arrived in Paris, rather than pay the service charges at FNAC. Sometimes, there are long queues at FNAC!

And, if your hotel has a concierge, they will purchase tickets online directly at the websites for you and print them.

Most tickets can be sent to your cell phone - no need to even print them!

Thanks everyone. You're right, I can go to Fnac when I arrive or just try the venues themselves and then go to Fnac if the lines are too long, luckily I'm there for 9 days and my time is flexible.

djkbooks, thanks for recommending "How to Become Parisian...".
I might ask the hotel people to buy the tickets for me, I might also end up going to a concert at the Salle Pleyel but again I don't want to reserve before I'm there; Paris (and France, I'll try to get to Chartres this time) makes me feel so fulfilled, at the end of the day all I want to do is go back to my room for a good night's sleep.

The only tickets I reserved online for our upcoming trip were for the Grand Palais. A lot of the days were already sold out, so I'll make room in our schedule for the day I booked. We've waited in long queues there even with tickets

Thanks. I don't know about that one, I think the 3 I mentioned will be more than enough, then I also want to visit Fondation Cartier-Bresson for the Sander exhibition.
http://www.henricartierbresson.org/

All this plus endless walking, Carnavalet, book shops and maybe Chartres, is a lot.

At the Grand Palais, there was a separate queue for advance ticket holders (to the far right). The audio for the Renoir exhibition was an additional €5, but it was very informative and well done.