Everyone’s looking to save a few euros whenever they can in Paris. One way to save money is to take advantage of the Paris museums that are free on the first Sunday of the month. Plan ahead and wait for the free days to hit the Paris museums.
While you could join the masses in cramming into the Louvre or the Orsay and straining to look over other people’s heads, I’d suggest using free Sundays to see some smaller, less crowded museums. (The Louvre is better saved for off-season, mid-week, or one of the Wednesday or Friday nights when it’s open late). Whichever museum you choose, get there early. Parisians and tourists alike flock to museums when they’re free.
Museums that are free the first Sunday of the month include:
Centre Pompidou
Musee de Louvre
Musee de l’Orangerie
Musee d’Orsay
Cité de l’Architecture
Musee Quai Branly (Asian, African, and Oceanic Art)
Musee Rodin
If your trip doesn’t coincide with a first Sunday, you can always buy the Paris Museum Pass and be free to skip the lines at Paris museums on any days you choose.
I used a recent free Sunday to see two places I’d been wanting to visit — The Orangerie and the Musee Rodin. There was a quick-moving line at The Orangerie. It took me about an hour to see everything. I enjoyed Monet’s water lilies in peace, and then spent about 40 minutes looking at the works by Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Modigliani, and more in the Walter-Guillaume Collection downstairs. I was warned that the Orangerie was small, but I found it to be just the right size and quite satisfying. There are great works by a lot of big names, all in one place.
There was a huge line at the Orsay, but no line at all at the Rodin Museum. Yay for me.
The Musee Rodin took me about 2 ½ hours — an hour to an hour and a half for the museum, and another half-hour for the gardens (which house important pieces like The Burghers of Calais, The Gates of Hell, Balzac, The Thinker, and Ugolino (in the middle of the fountain). There’s also a really nice indoor/outdoor garden café. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to see explore all of the gardens or linger at the café when you’re visiting the museum. You can come back whenever you want and pay a 1 euro admission for access to the gardens.
Don’t forget: Enjoy the free museums of Paris every first Sunday.
