Paris museums: which free first Sundays are actually worth it

Paris does free first Sundays at most national museums, which is one of the great budget cultural deals in Europe and also one of the most badly used. Tourists pile into d'Orsay and queue for two hours; the Musée Guimet, which is arguably better and definitely emptier, sits at half-capacity round the corner. Locals do this differently and the locals are right.

This is the proper free-Sunday list — which museums actually pay off, which are a queue trap, and the ones nobody bothers with that you should.

The rules first

The free-first-Sunday programme covers most national French museums. Two distinctions matter:

• Year-round free first Sunday: Picasso, Cluny, Delacroix, Guimet, Arts Décoratifs, Pompidou (when open). These are the year-round wins.
• Free Oct-Mar first Sundays only: d'Orsay, Rodin, Branly. These are blocked off in summer because of tourist volumes.

The Louvre is no longer in the programme, which is its own scandal. Versailles is occasionally free in winter, irregularly. Always check before going.

The big-three queues

D'Orsay on a free first Sunday in February is a 90-minute queue at the door if you haven't booked. Booked online, the timed slot lets you walk in past everyone, and the museum itself is no more crowded than a normal weekend. Do not turn up without a booking.

Pompidou is the same logic. Currently in restoration through 2030 (the main building closes intermittently), but the temporary spaces are running free first Sunday entry where applicable.

Rodin is bookable but the garden — which is the actual draw — is mostly accessible for €4 normally and free first Sunday is just slightly more crowded with kids. Skippable in October, lovely in March.

The actually-free wins

Picasso in the Marais is the best of the big-name museums on a free Sunday. Smaller, properly curated, and the queue is a 20-minute thing not a 90-minute thing. Booking online makes it five minutes.

Musée Guimet is the underrated one. Best Asian art collection outside Tokyo and London, almost no queue ever, free first Sunday year-round. I have walked into Guimet on a free Sunday at 11am with no booking and been one of maybe forty people in the building. Wild.

Cluny — the medieval museum, recently renovated — is the same story. Free first Sunday, low traffic, the Unicorn tapestries are extraordinary. Two hours, in and out, then lunch in the 5e. Perfect Sunday.

Arts Décoratifs is inside the Louvre wing but a separate museum — free first Sunday, almost nobody goes because they don't realise it's a different ticket. Furniture, design, the most beautifully displayed historical interiors anywhere.

Delacroix, finally, is the bonus pick. His flat in the 6e, ten rooms, takes 45 minutes. Free first Sunday, mostly empty, perfect after a market wander.

The skip list

The Louvre on its non-free Sundays. €22, mobbed, the Mona Lisa room is unbearable. Go on a Wednesday or Friday late opening if you must.

D'Orsay on a summer Sunday — not free anyway, and 4-hour queues for the timed entries.

The Pantheon free first Sunday — the building is fine but it's not a free-Sunday must.

A perfect free Sunday

Honestly, the move is: book Musée Picasso for the morning, lunch in the Marais, walk to Cluny in the afternoon (no booking, walk in), bookshop on Rue Mouffetard, dinner. Two excellent museums, very little queueing, plenty of time outside.

If you're in town for several first Sundays, alternate between the big-three (with bookings) and the smaller four (walk-ins). You'll cover the majority of the Paris museum scene over the course of a year for the cost of zero euros plus the Métro.

Tracking exhibitions

Free entry covers the permanent collections always and the temporary exhibitions sometimes. Worth checking the museum's site the week before because the special-exhibition rules vary. Rifio's Paris listings tend to flag the openings of new shows as events, which is useful for knowing what's on rather than just which museum is free. Found two new exhibitions this way last month I wouldn't have spotted on the Mairie's own listings.

The general principle, as the rule with most things in Paris: do what the locals do, not what the tourists do, and you'll have a better Sunday for less money.