Free Museums on the 1st Sunday of the Month
Time it right and you can visit several of Paris' world-famous museums without spending a single centime...
Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration Olivia Rutherford / Time Out
Each first sunday of the month behemoths like the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay open their doors for absolutely 'rien de rien'.
The Centre Pompidou
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
The primary colours, exposed pipes and air ducts make the Centre Pompidou one of the best-known sights in Paris. The then-unknown Italo-British architectural duo of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers won the competition with their 'inside-out' boilerhouse approach, which put air-conditioning, pipes, lifts and the escalators on the outside, leaving an adaptable space within. The multi-disciplinary
- Rue Saint-Martin, 4e
Musée du Quai Branly
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Surrounded by trees on the banks of the Seine, this museum, housed in an extraordinary building by Jean Nouvel, is a vast showcase for non-European cultures. Dedicated to the ethnic art of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas, it joins together the collections of the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and the Laboratoire d'Ethnologie du Musée de l'Homme, as well as contemporary indigenous
- 37 quai Branly, 7e
Musée National Gustave Moreau
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
This wonderful museum combines the small private apartment of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau (1826-98) with the vast gallery he built to display his work - set out as a museum by the painter himself, and opened in 1903. Downstairs shows his obsessive collector's nature with family portraits, Grand Tour souvenirs and a boudoir devoted to the object of his unrequited love, Alexandrine
- 14 rue de La Rochefoucauld, 9e
Musée National Rodin
- Price band: 2/4
The Rodin museum occupies the hôtel particulier where the sculptor lived in the final years of his life. The Kiss, the Cathedral, the Walking Man, portrait busts and early terracottas are exhibited indoors, as are many of the individual figures or small groups that also appear on the Gates of Hell.Rodin's works are accompanied by several pieces by his mistress and pupil, Camille Claudel. The
- Hôtel Biron, 79 rue de Varenne, 7e
Musée National des Arts Asiatiques - Guimet
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Founded by industrialist Emile Guimet in 1889 to house his collection of Chinese and Japanese religious art, and later incorporating oriental collections from the Louvre, the museum has 45,000 objects from neolithic times onwards. Lower galleries focus on India and South-east Asia, centred on stunning Hindu and Buddhist Khmer sculpture from Cambodia. Don't miss the Giant's Way, part of the
- 6 place d'Iéna, 16e
The Louvre
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
The world's largest museum is also its most visited, with an incredible 8.5 million visitors in 2009. It is a city within the city, a vast, multi-level maze of galleries, passageways, staircases and escalators. It's famous for the artistic glories it contains within, but the very fabric of the museum is a masterpiece in itself - or rather, a collection of masterpieces modified and added to from
- Rue de Rivoli
Musée de l'Orangerie
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
The reopening of this Monet showcase a few years ago means the Orangerie is now firmly back on the tourist radar: expect long queues. The look is utilitarian and fuss-free, with the museum's eight, tapestry-sized Nymphéas (water lilies) paintings housed in two plain oval rooms. They provide a simple backdrop for the astonishing, ethereal romanticism of Monet's works, painted late in his life.
- Jardin des Tuileries, 1er
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
A two-year overhaul turned the three-floor hunting museum from a musty old-timer into something really rather special. When it reopened in 2007, it had kept the basic layout and proportions of the two adjoining 17th-century mansions it occupies, but many of its new exhibits and settings seem more suited to an art gallery than a museum. The history of hunting and man's larger relationship with the
- Hôtel Guénégaud, 62 rue des Archives, 3e
Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration - Palais de la Porte Dorée
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Set in the stunning, colonial-themed Palais de la Porte Dorée (built in 1931 for the World Colonial Fair), the permanent collections here trace over 200 years of immigration history. There are thought-provoking images (film and photography), everyday objects (suitcases, accordions, sewing machines and so on) and artworks that symbolise the struggles immigrants had to face when integrating into
- 293 avenue Daumesnil, 12e
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Opened in 2007, this architecture and heritage museum impresses principally by its scale. The expansive ground floor is filled with life-size mock-ups of cathedral façades and heritage buildings, and interactive screens place the models in context. Upstairs, darkened rooms house full-scale copies of medieval and Renaissance murals and stained-glass windows. The highlight of the modern
- Palais de Chaillot, 1 place du Trocadéro, 16e
Musée National du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
- Free
The national museum of medieval art is best known for the beautiful, allegorical Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle, but it also has important collections of medieval sculpture and enamels. There is also a worthy programme of medieval concerts in which troubadours reflect the museum's collection and occasional 45- minute heures musicales in a similar style. The building itself, commonly known as
- 6 place Paul Painlevé, 5e
Musée d'Orsay
- Critics choice
The Musée d'Orsay, originally a train station designed by Victor Laloux in 1900, houses a huge collection spanning the period between 1848 and 1914, and is home to a profusion of works by Delacroix, Corot, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Gauguin, Monet, Caillebotte, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and others.Alongside the Louvre and the Pompidou Centre, it's is a must-see in Paris, especially its
- 62 rue de Lille, 7e