Free Museum Sunday

Today is a happy day for a lot of people. On the first Sunday of the month, the city offers free entry to many museums around Paris. I think being able to go to a museum for free is probably one of the coolest things the city offers. Can you imagine being able to enter the world's most visited museum Louvre for free and other great museums, such as Musée d'Orsay or Picasso Museum. Although, the museums are not so expensive, I would rather visit them when I don't have to pay anything. Now, museums in Paris already attract thousands of people a day on any given day, so expect even longer lines lines to enter on the days museums are free.

There are a few tricks  I've learned in order to survive free museum Sunday in Paris. First, I arrived at the museum hours after it opened. Most of the people decide to get in line minutes before the museum opens, which to be honest, I don't agree with. Clearly, everyone else has the same thought, so although, you're expecting to be the first ones there, you really encounter a bunch of people waiting in line already. I suggest you arrive hours later. I personally get to any museum around noon, The lines have been relatively small at that time. Furthermore, because of the amount of people visiting the museums on this day, I recommend you visit the exhibitions you are most interested in before you walk around the entire museum. For example, at Louvre, it took me around 30 to 40 minutes to be able to walk through the different rooms to see the Mona Lisa. There were so many people waiting in line, but since it was one of most important paintings I really didn't mind waiting that long. Afterwards, I visited other rooms, such as the Napoleon Apartments ( relatively empty rooms), the sarcophagus and Egyptian exhibitions, and French paintings from 18th century. Once I had visited the exhibitions I was interested in, I continued to visit the rest of the museum. I was not in a rush because I had already covered the important parts, in my opinion. Though, a little exhausting after dealing with some many people in one day, I say it was a successful day. In the end, I can say I survived Free Museum Sunday.  

Click here for a list of all the free museums available on the first Sunday of every month.

Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

            

 

Great Sphinx of Tanis