Buy skip-the-line time-slot reservation tickets to visit the Musée d’Orsay in Paris or book cheap tours to enter the museum without queuing.
The Musée d’Orsay, home to impressionist art, is one of the most popular museums to visit in Paris. The best times to visit the Musée d’Orsay are early morning, late afternoon, or Thursday evenings. Avoid visiting all day Tuesday and weekends. Although time-slot reservation tickets are currently not compulsory, buying skip-the-line tickets is highly advisable to ensure admission without delays. Guided tours get visitors into the museum quickly even during busy times.
See Impressionist Art in the Musée d’Orsay
The art in the Musée d’Orsay covers roughly the period from 1848 to 1914 — the Second Republic to the First World War, or more practically the period between the art displayed in the Louvre and the modern art in the Centre Pompidou. The collection includes the largest and most complete collection of impressionist art in the world as well as the equally popular post-impressionist art. In addition to the large painting galleries, the museum also displays many sculptures, decorative art, photography, drawings, and architectural details.
Van Gogh, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Seurat, Pompon, Degas, and Rodin are well represented here in addition to the works by far less famous artists. Many visitors enjoy this museum more than the enormous Louvre, which covers a much wider spectrum of cultural treasures.
Monet’s famous large water lilies paintings are in the nearby Musée de l’Orangerie while the Marmottan Museum in Paris has the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings. Both museums are well worth visiting.
Visit the Musée d’Orsay — Buy Time-Slot Tickets
As with visiting the Louvre, a bit of planning and especially buying time-slot tickets or booking tours in advance are highly advisable when visiting the Musée d’Orsay. Although beautifully located inside a former railway station, the museum is smaller than the Louvre with visitor queues often moving slowly at busy times.
The Orsay Museum is easy to navigate. A good strategy, especially early morning, is to cross the ground floor to the back of the museum. Use the escalator to the fifth level to see the world-famous impressionist and post-impressionist paintings first.
Levels four and three are mostly open spaces while sculptures are displayed on the terraces of level two. In rooms off these terraces, art nouveau, symbolism, naturalism, and thematic displays may be enjoyed in relative calm.
Level 0 (ground floor) is used for frequently changing temporary exhibitions but also smaller rooms with very popular exhibitions including rooms dedicated to amongst others Manet, Degas, Courbet, and Cézanne.
Amazon has quite an extensive selection of books on the Musée d’Orsay and the artworks on display in this popular Parisian art museum. Use home delivery for hardcover books — these are beautiful souvenirs but too heavy to carry in person.
Buy Tickets and Book Tours for the Musée d’Orsay
Tickets for the Musée d’Orsay are €15 at the museum or €17 online with a time-slot reservation — that is generally €2 well spent. Combination tickets with the Musée de l’Orangerie are sometimes sold (with buying at the Orangerie a way to avoid queues). Resellers often give discounts if buying tickets for the Musée d’Orsay and other sights such as the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, the Musée du Quai Branly, and the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault.
With time-slot reservations, visitors skip the queues of those buying tickets at the museum itself or having tickets without a time. Enter within half an hour of the time stated on the ticket, or join the regular queue and wait. The correct entrance to use is stated on the ticket — usually door A2.
The current door and queue numbering system used by the Musée d’Orsay (in order of priority admission):
- A1: Priority Access without Reservations — including pregnant women, disabled persons with ID, some other annual pass holders, and visitors with a ticket for an activity in the museum.
- A2: Time-Slot Ticket Holders — any visitors with a time-slot reservation for the permanent collection or temporary exhibitions.
- C1: Visitors with Tickets but no Reserved Time Slot — including Paris Museum Pass, combination tickets with other sights, any ticket without a time slot.
- C2: Visitors without Tickets — any visitors with free or discounted admissions who need to buy a ticket at the museum.
- B: Usually for large groups.
Visitors with tickets but without time slots (or having missed the reserved time) as well as museum pass holders, and similar, theoretically have skip-the-line privileges too but that is only over those queueing up to buy tickets at the museum. The busier the museum and the longer the queues, the less such “skip-the-line” tickets without time-slot reservations give faster admission.
Free and Discounted Tickets for the Musée d’Orsay
Visitors under 18 (and EU residents under 26 years) may enter for free but have to queue in the non-reservation line. However, if you accompany someone with a time-slot ticket, you may usually join them in the faster line.
Adult EU residents and nationals visiting the Musée d’Orsay with a child under 18 years qualify for an Enfant & Cie rate of €13. (Maximum two adults per child.)
Admission to the Musée d’Orsay is free for all on the first Sunday of the month. However, time-slot reservations online are essential, except for holders of a Paris Museum Pass or Carte Blanche.
Tickets are only around €13 (online with time-slot reservation) or €10 at the museum for entry on Thursday evenings after 18:00.
Book Guided Tours and Tickets for the Musée d’Orsay
At peak periods, guided tours are often the fastest way to enter the Musée d’Orsay and to minimize the waiting time at the security checkpoint.
A variety of guided tours are available for the Musée d’Orsay. The basic highlights tours are 90 minutes to two hours. Private tours are often good value for small groups and especially families who may also book family-friendly tours.
Combination tours with other sights are also available with the nearby Louvre particularly popular (and giving skip-the-line access to two of the most popular sights in Paris). More extensive tours include a gourmet lunch or a walk through the Montmartre neighborhood that played such a major role in the lives of many artists.
Opening Hours for the Musée d’Orsay
The opening hours of the Musée d’Orsay are Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 to 18:00, closing at 21:45 on Thursdays.
The Musée d’Orsay is closed on Mondays, 1 May, and 25 December. Final admission is around an hour before closing. Galleries start to close from half an hour before the final closure time.
Best Times to Visit the Musée d’Orsay
The best times to visit the Musée d’Orsay are early morning right at opening time, late afternoon, or Thursday evening when the museum closes late (and cheaper for admission after 18:00).
(The Marmottan Monet Museum is also open on Thursday evenings. The world’s largest collection of Monet paintings is easily reached from the D’Orsay on RER trains C.)
The worst times to visit the Musée d’Orsay are Tuesdays (when the Louvre is closed and the D’Orsay busy even early morning), weekends (although right at opening usually not that bad but it will get busy very quickly), and school holidays, especially over Easter, summer, and Christmas. Time-slot reservation tickets get visitors in easily enough but the museum gets unpleasantly full.
The absolute worst time to visit the Musée d’Orsay is the first Sunday of the month when admission is free. For tourists, this is normally saving at the wrong end, except when the weather is unseasonably pleasant and more people will spend the day outside, or so miserable that few locals would venture out. Except for Paris Museum Pass holders, it is essential to book a free ticket online for visiting on the first Sunday of the month. Booking free Sunday tickets is only possible around four weeks in advance.
→ See also Claude Monet Paintings in Museums in Paris for the world’s best collections of top artworks by Monet and other Impressionist artists.
Buy Online Tickets for Top Museums in Paris
It is possible to buy tickets online for most museums and top sights in Paris. Time-slot reservations are highly advisable and generally a sound investment. Also, look for discounts if buying more than one ticket from the same reseller:
- Louvre Museum
- Musée d’Orsay
- Centre Pompidou
- World of Banksy
- Musée Rodin
- Musée de l’Orangerie
- Musée Picasso
- Espace Dali Paris
- Musée Marmottan Monet
- Eiffel Tower
- Arc de Triomphe
- Sainte Chapelle
- Opera Garnier
- Palace of Versailles
- Disneyland Paris
The World of Bansky – The Immersive Experience is a special exhibition in Paris that has been extended due to its huge popularity.
