3 Days in Paris for Art Lovers

Paris has more great art per square kilometer than any other city, and the real risk for an art lover is not missing something but seeing too much. After three hours in a big museum, even the Mona Lisa stops registering. This route avoids that by pairing one large collection with one small one every day, with a long lunch and a walk in between, and by ordering the museums so that the story of Western art unfolds in the right sequence.

Day 1 is the Louvre, from antiquity to the Old Masters, with a guide to get you to the essentials before the crowds, followed by Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie. Day 2 is the nineteenth century: the Musée d'Orsay's Impressionists in the morning and Rodin's sculpture garden in the afternoon. Day 3 is the twentieth century and today: Picasso in a Marais mansion, the history of Paris at the Carnavalet and contemporary art in the round hall of the Bourse de Commerce.

The arrival day is not a museum day. Spend it walking, and keep your eyes fresh for the morning. The three days can go in any order, with one condition the closing-day table below makes clear: the Louvre and the Orangerie close on Tuesdays, Orsay, Rodin and Picasso on Mondays, and the Bourse de Commerce on Tuesdays.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Six tickets over three days. Each price is the cheapest option per person on the booking page; book the Louvre first, because its slot fixes the shape of Day 1.

Arrival evening: walk, do not visit

Resist the temptation to squeeze in a museum on the day you arrive. A late slot on a tired day is the worst way to see any collection. Walk instead: the courtyards of the Louvre and the glass pyramid lit at night, the Palais-Royal arcades and the bridges over the Seine are the best introduction to the art of Paris there is.

Over dinner, choose your three priorities for the Louvre tomorrow. The museum is too big for a plan of "everything", and a list of three makes the day.

• The Louvre's Cour Napoléon and the pyramid are open late into the evening and free to walk through.
• The Pont des Arts gives you the Institut de France and the Louvre facade in one view.
• Get to bed early: the first Louvre slot of the day is the one to have.

Day 1: The Louvre with a guide and the Water Lilies

Begin at 9:30 with a reserved entry and a guide. In two hours a good guide covers the essentials, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Italian Renaissance in the Grande Galerie, the Mona Lisa and the great French history paintings of the Salle Denon, and explains why each one matters. After the tour, you stay inside on your own for as long as you like.

Use the afternoon for what interests you most: the Egyptian antiquities in the Sully wing, the Dutch and Flemish painters in the Richelieu wing, or the sculpture courtyards under their glass roofs, which are calm when the rest of the museum is not. Any exit is final, so eat at one of the cafés inside before leaving.

Late in the afternoon, walk the length of the Tuileries to the Orangerie. Monet designed the two oval rooms for his eight Water Lilies panels himself, and the light from the ceiling changes them as you sit. Downstairs, the Walter-Guillaume collection holds Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani and Soutine. It is the perfect small museum after the biggest one in the world.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Louvre Museum: reserved entry with a guide, then on your own
   Pont du Carrousel, 75001, Paris
2. 14:00 · Palais-Royal Garden: a break in the garden
   Passage du Perron, 75001, Paris
3. 15:00 · Tuileries Garden: sculptures by Maillol in the garden
   113, 75001, Paris
4. 15:30 · Musée de l'Orangerie: the Water Lilies and the collection downstairs
   Quai des Tuileries, 75001, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Sit on the bench in the second oval room

Most visitors walk through the first Water Lilies room and leave. The second room, with the willows, is quieter, and ten minutes sitting on its central bench is the best moment of the day.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Both museums are indoors. The Tuileries walk is ten minutes; use the arcades of the rue de Rivoli to stay dry.

Day 2: Orsay's Impressionists and the Rodin garden

The Musée d'Orsay tells the story of French art from 1848 to 1914 in a former railway station. Start on the fifth floor with the Impressionists, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cézanne and Van Gogh's self-portrait, before the floor fills up, then work down through the Post-Impressionists and Art Nouveau to the sculpture hall under the great vault. Allow three hours. The museum closes on Mondays.

Walk west along the rue de l'Université and the rue de Grenelle, through the grand streets of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, to the Musée Rodin. The Hôtel Biron, where Rodin lived and worked, holds The Kiss, Camille Claudel's sculptures and the plaster studies that show how he worked. In the garden, The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and The Burghers of Calais stand among roses and clipped trees.

In the early evening, walk past the golden dome of Les Invalides and along the river. If your energy allows, the Orsay stays open until 21:45 on Thursdays; on that day, swap the order and save the Impressionists for the evening.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Musée d'Orsay: start on the fifth floor
   1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007, Paris
2. 14:30 · Musée Rodin: mansion and sculpture garden
   77 Rue de Varenne, 75007, Paris
3. 17:00 · Les Invalides: the dome from the esplanade
   129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007, Paris
4. 17:30 · Pont Alexandre III: the gilded bridge at golden hour
   Promenade des Berges de la Seine - Port des Invalides, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

See Camille Claudel at Rodin before The Kiss

Claudel's Waltz and The Age of Maturity are in a room of their own. Seeing them first changes how you look at Rodin's work in the rooms that follow; the story of the two sculptors is the story of the museum.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum house holds most of Rodin's sculpture. In heavy rain, skip the garden and the bridge and stay longer in Orsay.

Day 3: Picasso, the Carnavalet and the Bourse de Commerce

The Musée Picasso fills the Hôtel Salé, a seventeenth-century mansion in the Marais, with the largest public collection of the artist's work: paintings, sculpture, ceramics and the private collection he kept for himself, including works by Cézanne, Matisse and Degas. It closes on Mondays.

Walk ten minutes to the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris, which is free. Its period rooms, shop signs and paintings of the city across the centuries are the backdrop to everything else you have seen; the reconstructed Art Nouveau jewelry shop by Alphonse Mucha is one of the most beautiful rooms in Paris.

In the afternoon, cross the Marais to the Bourse de Commerce, the circular former exchange where Tadao Ando built a concrete cylinder under the nineteenth-century painted dome to house François Pinault's collection of contemporary art. The exhibitions change, and the building alone is worth the visit. Next door, the church of Saint-Eustache, free to enter, ends the day with the largest organ in France.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Musée Picasso: timed ticket, closed Mondays
   5 Rue de Thorigny, 75003, Paris
2. 12:00 · Musée Carnavalet: free, the Mucha jewelry shop
   Rue Payenne, 75003, Paris
3. 13:30 · Place des Vosges: lunch under the arcades
   Place des Vosges, 75004, Paris
4. 15:00 · Bourse de Commerce: contemporary art, closed Tuesdays
   2 Rue de Viarmes, 75001, Paris
5. 17:00 · Saint-Eustache: free
   Rue du Jour, 75001, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Look up in the Bourse de Commerce

The painted panorama around the base of the dome shows the trade between continents in the nineteenth century. Climb to the upper gallery for the closest view; most visitors only see it from the floor.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: All three museums and the church are indoors; the walks between them are under ten minutes.

Departure morning: one last small museum

If your flight is late in the day, use the morning for one of the small museums that do not need a long visit: the Musée de la Vie romantique in the 9th, the Musée Gustave Moreau nearby, or the Musée Delacroix in Saint-Germain, the painter's last apartment and studio.

Otherwise, take a last walk past the bouquinistes on the quays, the green boxes of old books and prints along the river, and buy an engraving to take home.

• Small museums open around 10:00; check the hours the day before.
• Prints and old postcards from the bouquinistes pack flat.
• For an international flight, plan on leaving the museum district by late morning.

Which day goes where

The three days can run in any order. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

Which Paris museums to see in 3 days

Paris has more than a hundred museums. This route includes the six that matter most for a first art trip, plus one free one. The table shows what each covers, so you can swap one for another without losing the thread.

💡 Pro Tip

Leave the Centre Pompidou off your list

The Pompidou is closed for a long renovation that runs to the end of the decade. For modern art in the meantime, the Musée Picasso and the Bourse de Commerce on Day 3 cover the twentieth century and today.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Avoiding museum fatigue

• One big museum a day, never two. Pair it with a small one in the afternoon.
• Sit down every hour. Every room with a bench is an invitation; use it.
• Eat inside the big museums: leaving for lunch means queuing to get back in.
• Choose three works before you go in, and see those first.
• Stop when you stop looking. The best museum visit ends before you are tired.

More 3-day routes

• Impressionist Paris: Monet at the Marmottan, Montmartre and Giverny.
• Modern and street art: the Palais de Tokyo, Belleville and the 13th.
• Medieval and Gothic Paris: Notre-Dame, Cluny and Saint-Denis.
• Rainy days in Paris: three dry days, museums included.
• Is 3 days enough in Paris?: what an art trip can and can't cover.
• 5 days in Paris: time for the smaller museums too.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme