7 Incredible, Free Museums in Paris You Need to Visit

Looking for some of the best free museums to visit in Paris? I’ve got a great list for you – read on for details!

Paris is home to over 130 museums, which are full of beautiful artwork and historical objects. I’ve visited Paris 7 times (including living here for three months), and while I haven’t even come close to visiting all of Paris’ museums, I’ve been to quite a few, and they’ve never failed to impress me.

While most of Paris’s world-class museums require paid admission, the city is home to several museums that offer free admission, allowing you to experience incredible art, history, and culture without spending a cent.

In this guide, I’m highlighting some of the best free museums in Paris that I have personally visited, perfect for those wanting to experience some of Paris’ famed culture on a budget.

7 Incredible, Free Museums in Paris

1. Le Petit Palais

A tall arched gold doorway with ornate sculpting and decorations with two stone statues at the top of the arched doorway

The Petit Palais is located in a beautiful building that was designed for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. It’s right across the street from the Grand Palais (which has the big green roof you see from the Eiffel Tower) and is an incredible building with a massive, ornate door, and impressive artwork inside.

An arched room with paintings across the ceiling with lots of sculpting and many stone statues in the room with lots of people looking at them.

Sculptures are a big part of the artwork in the Petit Palais, and many of them are actual plaster casts of sculptures created in the 1800’s that were used around the city of Paris.

The main sculpture gallery is stunning; not just the sculptures but the beautiful arched passageway itself.

A gallery room with lots of different paintings on a white wall with three white sculptures on a small wooden podium

Many other beautiful paintings (including large-scale paintings) and tapestries fill the museum. You can find paintings and sculptures by big names such as Monet, Rembrandt, Rubens, Cezanne, and Rodin throughout the museum.

A garden outside of a large stone museum with gold statues at the top of the building looking down at the pink flowers on the trees and the assorted plants around the garden

Don’t miss the courtyard and the garden cafe – it’s small but so picturesque and charming. In addition to being a fantastic free Parisian museum, it also makes my list for the best hidden gems in Paris.

2. Musée Carnavalet

The Carnavalet Museum is dedicated to the history of Paris. It’s quite a large museum, with exhibits filling 3-4 floors of the large, historical building.

A old sign on the wall on display in French with red trim and a croissant painting

The entrance to the museum has different signs and decorations that were found around Paris in the past 200 years, which I thought were very charming.

Then you enter into a section about the geography and expansion of Paris, which I found fascinating. There were a lot of pictures, diagrams, and models of what Paris looked like when it was first founded, and then the different sizes, configurations, city limits, etc through different periods of history.

An old map of Paris with old detailing of the different sections of the old city and the river Seine going throughout the middle of the city. — Map of Paris in the Middle Ages

You then can start going through different halls dedicated to distinct periods of Parisian history, starting from the Middle Ages and going all the way to the present time.

The French Revolution section in particular was one of our favorite spots – there was a decent amount of information about the French Revolution, as well as several models of the Bastille (the prison that was stormed that kickstarted the revolution).

A 3D model of the old prison Bastille in a glass cage with lots of miniature brown and gray bricks

We also really liked the paintings of different notable events (e.g. storming the Bastille, or Marie Antoinette being taken from the Conciergerie to be guillotined).

A painting of the French Revolution where Marie Antoinette is being led up brown stairs to a guillotine by soldiers holding guns and wearing red uniforms

One of the strengths of the Carnavalet Museum is the huge variety of artifacts that bring the history to life. For example, exhibits included not just paintings and sculptures, but also artifacts, models, signs, and furniture. Additionally, there were interactive elements such as short videos or manipulatable exhibits.

The courtyard outside of a large stone museum with small grass hedges makes swirls.

Finally, don’t miss the lovely courtyard garden you can walk through that is located in the center of the building.

3. Musée de la Vie Romantique

An old tan house with green window shades with stairs leading into the house.

The Museum of the Romantic Life is a small house-turned-museum that belonged to the Dutch painter, Ary Scheffer, where he lived for more than 20 years in the 1800’s.

Though not currently as famous as other 1800’s painters, Scheffer was a prominent artist and figure in Parisian society, and entertained other famous figures like Charles Dickens, Frederick Chopin, and Franz Lizst.

An old Victorian style house with tan curtains and a yellow wall with small paintings covering the walls.

A large painting of a woman in a blue dress and a black dog with gold trim around the edge of the painting.

The museum takes you through rooms in the house, where historic furnishings and decor are displayed, as well as artwork by Scheffer and his contemporaries. The main floor of the house displays items belonging to George Sand, an enormously popular female writer in the 1800’s.

Green glass doors leading out into a small gravel courtyard with green tables and chairs.

The courtyard, garden, and exterior façade of the house are lovely, and very much feel like a detached home in the middle of the big city. A glass-enclosed sunroom was built as an art workshop adjacent to the house and today is used as a café.

While the paintings on display are beautiful, you can also come just to visit the charming garden café.

4. Victor Hugo House

A gallery with large paintings covering the gold walls and small displays of plates and cutlery in front of the largest painting.

Located in the beautiful and upscale Place des Vosges in the Marais district of Paris, the Maison Victor Hugo (the House of Victor Hugo) is a small but fascinating look at the life of one of the most famous French writers to ever live.

Hugo lived in this apartment from 1832-1848, but was forced to flee the country in exile after he denounced the coup d’etat that led to the rise in power of Napoleon III in the 1850’s. He spent most of his exile on the British island of Guernsey.

A red room with red felt walls and red curtains draping over the windows with old paintings on the wall with people looking at them.

You’ll walk through the approximately eight rooms that comprise his apartments, which are richly decorated with a compilation of Hugo’s actual furniture from his Paris home, as well as many pieces from his Guersney home.

The rooms are not exactly as they were when Hugo lived here, but are recreated pieces from his various residences.

A painting of a woman feeding a man held down by ropes with brown decorative trim around the painting

Additionally, artwork that he owned, as well as artwork done later depicting his works (e.g. a lovely painting of the Hunchback of Notre Dame) are on display. There are also several paintings of Victor Hugo himself, alone or with his family.

I quite enjoyed learning more about Victor Hugo (I’m very much a Les Miserables fan – and Hugo wrote part of that book in this house), plus I always appreciate a beautifully decorated, historical house.

5. Musée d’Art Moderne

An U-shaped room with the entire wall covered in colorful paintings with a few small people sitting on small seats

The Museum of Modern Art is located in the Palais de Tokyo, located right along the Seine and with a fantastic Eiffel Tower view, and near Passerelle Debilly, one of the best bridges in Paris.

This museum features a wide variety of modern art. One of the most stunning displays is The Electricity Fairy (pictured above), a massive installation that fills an entire U-shaped room.

The mural depicts the evolution of science and technology, looked over by the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses. There are interactive iPads available to visitors that help explain different sections of the mural and what they represent.

A series of three paints all next to each other on a white wall in the middle of a gallery

Beyond The Electricity Fairy, there are many beautiful pieces of art, including “The Dance“, by Henri Matisse. Matisse painted several versions of “The Dance,” and the series is one of his most famous works.

The rest of the museum is filled with sculptures and paintings in a variety of modern art styles. Modern art sometimes gets a bad rap, but there are a lot of beautiful and interesting pieces that fill this museum!

A small girl in a red puffer jacket sitting on a bench looking up at a colorful abstract piece of art.

People walk throughout the gallery with different items, sculptures, and paintings on display

Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm, open until 9:30pm on Thursday

6. Arènes de Lutèce

Old run down stands looking at a old Roman ruin in front of a lavish building.

The Arenes de Lutece is a less traditional museum in Paris, but the Paris tourism website counts it as a museum, so we will too! This site is actually the open-air ruins of an ancient Roman arena from when the city was called Lutecia, located right in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

The arena was constructed at the end of the 1st century AD and was used for two centuries.

The discovery of this arena is rather recent, and the ruins were only uncovered in the 1870’s when developers were excavating to construct a new building.

Today, there’s a small garden/walking path around the exterior of the arena, and you can walk inside as well as in the small stands that remain.

7. BNF Richelieu

The BNF Richelieu (or Bibliotèque Nationale de France – Richelieu, or the France National Library) is perhaps a bit of a stretch to include as a museum, but to me, it certainly had many museum-like qualities.

First, there are actually exhibits here, but they are not free. However, the Oval Reading Room is free and open to the public. This room is absolutely gorgeous!

A lavish ornate arched library with three levels of bookshelves and people sitting at desks studying.

The walls are covered in oak paneling, columns, and decorative elements over multiple stories of books, but the massive glass ceiling is definitely the star of the room.

The middle is filled with tables of people reading and working, but visitors can go in and walk around the perimeter of the room, where you can actually browse the books or enjoy the interactive exhibits on touch screens.

A girl with a white backpack points at a blue screen in front of the wooden bookcase

These screen exhibits are essentially educational games – there’s one where you needed to find a set of different animals, one where you could learn and “participate” in a book restoration process, and another where you could “try on” a period outfit and it would follow your movements on the screen.

Free Entrance to Museums – Who Gets It and When

Of course, the museums in this post always have free admission to the permanent exhibits, but there are some instances when you can get free admission to the “regular”, paid museums in Paris. Here’s what you need to know about getting free entrance to paid museums:

Free Admission for Children

In France, children under 18 get free entrance to almost every museum and some monuments (such as the Arc de Triomphe). Additionally, members of the EU who are under 26 generally get free admission to most museums and many monuments.

If you are a young child, you don’t need to show a photo ID to get free admission (when I visited with my 10-year-old, I was often asked for her age, but never asked for any kind of photo ID).

However, if you’re traveling with an older teenager or a young adult, you should carry an ID to prove that you qualify for free admission.

Free Museum Day

Additionally, many museums in Paris participate in Free Museum Day, which is generally the first Sunday of the month. All visitors get free admission on these Sundays.

Not every museum participates in Free Museum Sunday, but many do – I’d double-check the museums you may be visiting to confirm their policies. Additionally, some of these museums require reservations for Free Museum Day. These are a few of the notable museums that participate all year round:

Centre Pompidou
Musée d’Orsay
Musée Gustave Moreau
l’Orangerie
Musée Picasso

Other museums not on this list may participate in Free Museum Day during the fall/winter/spring – again, I’d recommend you check the museum’s website to verify for any location you’re interested in.

The Louvre, notably, has a slightly different policy. They offer free admission on the first Friday of every month after 6pm, except in July and August.

HOWEVER! I honestly would avoid Free Museum Day like the plague. Lines to get into the museums can be extremely long, and the museums are very crowded.

It’s not a great experience or use of time – I’d personally much rather just pay the reasonable entrance fee on a regular day and save myself precious time standing in line.

Museums Without an Entrance Fee in Paris – The Wrap Up

Paris boasts a plethora of museums showcasing its incredible history and traditions. While you should definitely hit some of the well-known, and ticketed museums, many of the smaller museums offer cool experiences, too.

I hope this list has shown you some of the engaging free museums that can add some variety to your next Parisian vacation without adding to your budget.