Free Museums Paris

Did you know that if you're in Paris on the first Sunday of the month you can enjoy 28 of Paris's top museums free of charge?

Paris's National Museums (with the exception of the Grand Palais) allow free admission to their permanent exhibitions on the first Sunday of each month, these include: Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Pompidou Center and two of my favorites the Rodin museum and the Orangerie museum in the Tuilleries Gardens.

Free museum Sundays are very popular in Paris so select the museums you would most like to visit and try to get there close to opening time to avoid long lines.

Below is a list of the museums sorted by Arrondissement. The website www.patroc.com also has an excellent interactive museum map with addresses, ticket prices and links to the museum websites.

Museums Free on 1st Sunday

Louvre Museum
Address: 36 Rue du Louvre
Metro: Line 1 to Louvre Palais Royal
Hours: Open everyday except Tuesday from 9am to 6pm / Wednesday, Friday: from 9am to 10pm

Orangerie Museum - Musee de l'Orangerie
Address: Jardin des Tuileries
Metro: Line 1 to Concorde
Hours: Open everyday except Tuesday from 9 am to 6 pm

3rd Arrondissement

Picasso Museum
Address: Hotel Sale, 5 rue de Thorigny
Metro: Line 1 to Saint-Paul / Line 8 to Saint-Sébastien Froissart or Chemin Vert
Hours: Closed for Renovation until 23 August 2010

Museum of Hunting and Nature
Address: Hotel de Guenegaud, 62 rue des Archives
Metro: Line 1 to Hotel de Ville or 11 to Rambuteau
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 11am to 6pm

4th Arrondissement

National Museum of Modern Art - Pompidou Center
Address: Le Centre Pompidou
Metro: Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville, Châtelet
Hours: 11am to 9pm

5th Arrondissement

Musee national du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny
Address: 6 Place Paul Painlevé
Metro: Cluny-La Sorbonne / Saint-Michel / Odéon
Hours: Every day except Tuesday, from 9:15 to 5:45

Musee de l'Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
Address: Hotel de Miramion
Metro: Line 10 to Maubert-Mutualito
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm

6th Arrondissement

Musee National Eugène Delacroix
Address: 6 Rue de Furstemberg
Metro: Line 4 to Saint-Germain-des-Prés / Line 10 to Mabillon
Hours: Every day except Tuesday, from 9:30am to 5pm

National Museum Ernest Hebert (closed for renovation)
Address: Hôtel de Montmorency-Bours, 85 rue du Cherche-Midi
Metro: Vaneau
Hours: Closed for renovations

7th Arrondissement

Musee d'Orsay
Address: 1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur
Metro: Line 12 to Solferino or Assemblee Nationale
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 9:30am - 6pm / Thursdays until 9.45pm

Musee du Quai Branly
Address:37 Quai Branly 75007 Paris
Metro: Line 9 to Alma Marceau or Iena
Hours: Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays from 11am to 7pm

Rodin Museum
Address: 77 Rue de Varenne
Metro: Line 13 Varenne
Hours: 6pm

9th Arrondissement

Gustave Moreau Museum
Address: 14 Rue de La Rochefoucauld
Metro: Line 12 Trinité - d'Estienne d'Orves
Hours: Open daily except Tuesday from 10am to 6pm

12th Arrondissement

Paris National Immigration History Museum
Address: 293 avenue Daumesnil
Metro: Line 8 to Porte Doree
Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10am to 17:30pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am to 7:00pm

16th Arrondissement

Musée Guimet - National Museum of Asian Arts
Address: 6, place d'Iéna
Metro: Line 9 to Iéna
Hours: The museum is open every day except Tuesday from 10:00 to 18:00

Museum of Architecture
Address: 1 Place du Trocadéro et 11 novembre
Metro: Lines 6 or 9 to Trocadero
Hours: Open Mon,Wed,Fri-Sun 11am-7pm; Thu 11am-9pm

17th Arrondissement

Musee National Jean-Jacques Henner
Address: 43 Avenue de Villiers
Metro: Line 3 to Malesherbes
Hours: 10h-12h/14h-17h - Closed on Mondays

Ile-de-France

Permanent Free Collections

Carnavalet Museum
Museum of French History located in two old mansions in the heart of the old Marais area in Paris.

Address: Hotel Carnavalet, 23, rue de Sevigne 75004 Paris
Metro: Line 1 to Saint-Paul
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm

Petit Palais
Built at the same time as the Grand Palais right across the street this beautiful building now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts collection. This really is an amazing building with a beautiful interior courtyard and garden that is well worth a visit.

Address: Musee de Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill , 75008 Paris
Metro: Line 1 to Champs Elysees-Clemenceau
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm

Musee d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
Located in the palais de Tokyo this museum contains the city's municipal collections of contemporary art from 1905 to the present day.

Address: 11 Avenue du President Wilson, 75116 Paris
Metro Line 9 line 9 to Alma-Marceau or Iena
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm

Musee Cognacq-Jay
Museum located in the 16th-century Hotel Denon, contains some of the 18th century's most valuable decorative works including ceramics, porcelain, cabinets and paintings

Address: 8 Rue Elzevir, 75003 Paris
Metro: Line 1 to Saint-Paul
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm

Musee de la vie romantique
Standing at the foot of Montmartre Hill in an 1830's mansion with a winter-garden and a charming courtyard, this museum displays numerous mementos from French female novalist George Sandis and is one of Paris's three literary museums, along with the Maison de Balzac and the Maison de Victor Hugo.

Address: 16 rue Chaptal, 75009 Paris
Metro: Lines lines 2 & 12 to Pigalle
Hours: Every day from 10am - 6pm except Mondays and public holidays

Musee Bourdelle
In the gardens and workshops where French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), lived and worked, the Bourdelle museum houses an outstanding collection of his plaster, bronze and marble sculptures.

Address: 18 Rue Antoine Bourdelle, 75015 Paris
Metro: Line 12 to Falguiere
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm

Musee Zadkine
Near the Luxembourg Gardens, the museum Zadkine, the home, workshop and gardens of Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967) Russian-born sculptor, who lived and worked here from 1928 until his death in 1967

Address: 100 Bis Rue d'Assas, 75006 Paris
Metro: Line12 to Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Line 4 to Vavin
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am to 6:00pm

La maison de Balzac
Balzac, famous French writer, once lived in this house in Passy which now presents a very personal collection of paintings, prints and objects relating to his family and his contemporaries, and a large number of original editions, manuscripts and illustrations.

Address: 47, rue Raynouard, 75016 Paris
Metro: Line 6 to Passy / Line 9 to La Muette
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am to 6:00pm

Memorial for Marechal Leclerc and the liberation of Paris - Musee Jean Moulin
Located in the heart of Montparnasse, the memorial to Marshal Leclerc Hauteclocque and Liberation of Paris and the Musee Jean Moulin trace the actions of two important figures of the Second World War and Frances Liberation. A video wall consisting of audiovisual archives immerses the visitor in the occupied Paris, the Paris insurrection and finally the liberation.

Address: 23 Avenue of the 2nd Armored, Jardin Atlantique (covering the Montparnasse train station) - 75015 Paris
Metro: Montparnasse-Bienvenue, Gaite, Pastor
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am to 6:00pm

La maison de Victor Hugo
In the beautiful old Parisian square "Place des Vosges" is Victor Hugo's house where he lived from 1832 to 1848. The authors life story is told through collections of drawings, paintings, and documents.

Address: 6, place des Vosges, 75004 Paris
Metro: Bastille, Saint-Paul, Chemin-Vert
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am to 6:00pm

Le musee Cernuschi - museum of Asian art
In a charming and original building designed by its founder Henri Cernuschi (1821-1896) at the edge of the Parc Monceau, the museum offers visitors a look at Chinese art from its origins in the fourteenth century . The museum is one of the oldest in Paris and it's collection includes several world masterpieces.

Address: 7 avenue Velasquez, 75008 Paris
Metro: Villiers or Monceau (lines 2 and 3)
Hours: Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 6:00pm