Paris: Museum Guide

🖼️ General Notes

A lot of basic information to orient you to Paris' elaborate museum scene.

- Time budget: My personal tip is to allot 2 hours max to any museum visit. Paris is a big walking city so you're already on your feet a lot. I love museums, but after 2 hours I'm ready to sit and have a coffee, and I stop processing the beauty in front of me. Your threshold may be different! But it's worthwhile to keep in mind the size of Paris museums and know that many of them COULD take hours upon hours.

✨ Pro Tip: Don't necessarily expect to "finish" each one you go to.

- Free days/nights (regular and special): Many museums offer regular free days, like "the 1st Sunday of the month". There are also some "special" free museum days, such as "La Nuit Blanche" (this year on June 1st, 2024) and "les Journées de Patrimoine" (Heritage Days). I'll talk more about these later!

✨Pro Tip: The free days, regular or special, are usually CRAZY busy and for me, that's not very enjoyable. I'd rather pay to have less crowds.

- Special exhibits (at free museums): Many free museums will host special exhibits, which must be paid to access, throughout the year. As these are always changing, they're hard to list here. But many of the museums I've visited on this list have been for the special exhibits, and I likely spent more time on the special exhibits than the part that is free year-round.

- Closures: Many museums are closed on one or two days of the week, but closures vary by museum.