Jardin des Tuileries and the Orsay Museum

The most pleasant and shortest way to reach the Orsay Museum from the Relais Madeleine is to pass through the Jardin des Tuileries, which offers numerous amenities that we talked about in a previous article.

The Orsay Museum exhibits and preserves the largest collection in the world of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, with more than 1,000 paintings. In total, the Museum maintains nearly 6,000 works in deposit, 4,000 of which are permanently presented on 3 floors in a current scene and an exceptional setting.

To avoid long queues, here are some tips we recommend:

• Buy your ticket online or ask the hotel’s concierge to do it for you. For online purchases, you will find the information in the chapter “Rates and schedules” of this article.
• Try to go during off-peak hours:
  • The middle of the week is often the quietest time, especially on Wednesday and Thursday morning
  • During lunch time
  • Sunday at tea time
  • Thursday evenings

Avoid rainy days, especially on Sundays

The Orsay Palace, then the Orsay Station, and finally the Orsay Museum: this building has had 3 lives. Built in 1810 on the initiative of Napoleon 1st, in 1840 it welcomed the Board of State on the ground floor and the Audit Court on the first floor.

It was set on fire in 1871 during the Paris Commune and was left in ruins until the construction of the Orsay Station (or Orleans Station), in preparation for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

In 1979, the President of the Republic, Valérie Giscard d’Estaing, launched an architectural competition to transform the building into a 19th century art museum. The Orsay Museum opened 7 years later after 3 years of work.

The museum has two cafes where you can enjoy drinks and snacks. One located at the exit of the Impressionist gallery, Café “Campana”, and the other at the bottom of the nave, at the foot of the Seine Tower, Café de l’Ours. TripAdvisors reviews are “fairly mixed” on the value for money.

The museum also has a very nice restaurant on the first floor. Opened in 1900, its baroque decor is acclaimed by the vast majority of customers, although the opinions on the value for money are not unanimous.

The price of the starters varies from 10 € to 19 €, for a semi cooked foie gras, pistachio apricot condiment, and toasted brioche. The dishes are offered between 16 € (risotto verde with seasonal vegetables) and 27 €. A menu of the day, starter/dish or dish/dessert is offered at 22 €.

Rates

• Free for children under 18 and for everyone on the first Sunday of each month.
• Full price: 12 €
• Reduced price: 9 € (for everyone starting from 4:30 p.m., except on Thursday, starting from 18 € for people aged 18 – 25 who are not European citizens)

Online Ticket office: https://musee-orsay.fnacspectacles.com/?_lang=en​

Attention, the Orsay Museum subcontracts its online sales and recommends some sites that add 1,70 € to the price of entry tickets. Other sites are only available in French, and we have not found any online purchases at a reduced price (9 €). The sites we recommend for online tickets:

• https://booking.parisinfo.com/il4-selection_i259-orsay-museum.aspx
• https://www.tiqets.com/en/paris-c66746/muse-dorsay-dedicated-entrance-p973980

Opening hours

From 9:30 to 18:00, Friday to Wednesday
Late opening Thursdays until 21:45