Impressionist Paris in 3 Days

Impressionism was born in Paris, and most of its great paintings were made within a few kilometers of the museums that now hold them. Monet painted the Gare Saint-Lazare from the platforms, Renoir painted the dancers at the Moulin de la Galette from a table in the garden, and Van Gogh painted the view from his brother's apartment on the rue Lepic. This route pairs the paintings with the places: a museum each morning, the scenes each afternoon.

Day 1 starts with the painting that gave the movement its name, Monet's Impression, Sunrise, at the Musée Marmottan Monet, and follows the painters to the Parc Monceau and the Gare Saint-Lazare. Day 2 is the core collection, the Musée d'Orsay and Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie, on a single combined ticket, with the Pont Neuf that Renoir and Pissarro painted. Day 3 climbs to Montmartre, where Renoir had his studio and Van Gogh lived for two years.

The arrival day is for a walk along the Seine, which every Impressionist painted at some point; the three days start the next morning. The Marmottan and the Orsay close on Mondays and the Orangerie on Tuesdays, so keep Day 1 off a Monday and Day 2 off both.

We earn a commission when you book through partner links on this page. It never changes the price you pay. See our affiliate disclosure.

This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Three bookings cover every museum on the route, with the Orsay and the Orangerie together on one ticket; the prices shown are where each option starts, per person.

Arrival evening: the river the painters loved

Walk along the Seine at dusk. Every Impressionist painted the river, its bridges and its light, and the stretch between the Pont Neuf and the Pont des Arts looks much as it did in their paintings. Watch how the color of the water changes as the light goes; it is the subject of half the paintings you will see in the next three days.

If the evening is clear, stand on the Pont des Arts and look west: the sunset over the Seine is the same view Monet painted from the Louvre in the 1860s.

• Monet painted the Louvre quay and the garden of the Infanta from a balcony of the Louvre.
• The square du Vert-Galant at the tip of the Île de la Cité appears in several Pissarro paintings.
• Turn in early: the Marmottan opens at 10:00 tomorrow.

Day 1: Impression, Sunrise, the Parc Monceau and the Gare Saint-Lazare

The Musée Marmottan Monet, a mansion on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, holds the largest collection of Monet's work in the world, left to it by his son Michel. The star is Impression, Sunrise, the view of the port of Le Havre that a critic mocked in 1874 and that gave Impressionism its name. Downstairs, a curved gallery shows the late Water Lilies and the Japanese bridge from Giverny. There are also major works by Berthe Morisot, the movement's great woman painter. The museum closes on Mondays.

After lunch in Passy, ride line 2 to the Parc Monceau, the graceful English-style park that Monet painted five times in the 1870s and 1880s and Caillebotte painted from his apartment nearby. Its colonnade, pond and winding paths are exactly as they appear in the paintings, and it is a quiet place to sit.

Finish at the Gare Saint-Lazare, ten minutes away, the station Monet painted again and again in 1877, filled with steam under its iron and glass roof. The trains are electric now, but the roof is the same; stand on the platform and look up at the light.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Musée Marmottan Monet: Impression, Sunrise and the late Water Lilies
   2 Rue Louis Boilly, 75016, Paris
2. 12:30 · Bois de Boulogne: lunch in Passy or a walk in the Ranelagh gardens
   92200, Paris
3. 14:30 · Parc Monceau: the park Monet and Caillebotte painted
   Paris
4. 16:30 · Gare Saint-Lazare: the station of Monet's 1877 series
   13 Rue d'Amsterdam, 75008, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Read the label of Impression, Sunrise

The painting is smaller than most people expect, and its date and place are written in the corner. Look for Monet's signature and the date in the lower left; it is the birth certificate of a whole movement.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum is indoors and the station is covered; swap the Parc Monceau for the Musée Jacquemart-André nearby.

Day 2: Orsay, the Water Lilies and Renoir's Pont Neuf

The Musée d'Orsay has the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting in the world. Take the lift straight to the fifth floor: Monet's Poppies and The Magpie, Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette, Degas's dancers, Pissarro, Sisley and Caillebotte's Floor Scrapers. Elsewhere in the museum, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Cézanne show where the movement went next. Allow three hours.

Cross the footbridge to the Tuileries for lunch and walk to the Orangerie at the far end of the garden. Monet's eight Water Lilies panels fill two oval rooms that he designed himself as a "refuge of peaceful meditation"; sit on the central benches and let them surround you. Downstairs are Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Modigliani.

In the late afternoon, walk east along the river to the Pont Neuf. Renoir painted it from a café window in 1872, with the crowds crossing in the sun; Pissarro painted it from his room on the Place Dauphine thirty years later. Stand at the Place Dauphine end and compare it with your memory of the paintings.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Musée d'Orsay: start on the fifth floor
   1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007, Paris
2. 12:30 · Tuileries Garden: lunch in the garden
   113, 75001, Paris
3. 14:00 · Musée de l'Orangerie: the Water Lilies, same booking
   Quai des Tuileries, 75001, Paris
4. 16:30 · Pont Neuf: the bridge Renoir and Pissarro painted
   Place du Pont-Neuf - Christo et Jeanne-Claude, 75001, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Find the Bal du moulin de la Galette before Day 3

Renoir's dance in the garden at Orsay is the painting you will stand in front of again, as a place, tomorrow afternoon. Spend five minutes with it and the Montmartre visit will mean twice as much.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Both museums are indoors and only ten minutes apart; skip the Pont Neuf walk in heavy rain.

Day 3: Renoir's and Van Gogh's Montmartre

Start at the Musée de Montmartre, on the rue Cortot. Renoir rented a studio here in 1876 and painted The Swing and the Bal du moulin de la Galette in its garden; later, Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo lived and worked upstairs, and their studio has been kept as it was. The Renoir gardens look down over the Clos Montmartre vineyard.

Walk down the rue Lepic past the Moulin de la Galette, the windmill whose dance hall Renoir painted, now a restaurant. A little lower, at number 54, a plaque marks the apartment where Vincent van Gogh lived with his brother Theo from 1886 to 1888; from its windows he painted the rooftops of Paris and discovered the bright color of the Impressionists.

End at the Sacré-Cœur for the view that every painter on the hill knew, and the Place du Tertre, where artists still paint portraits for visitors. It is a touristy square, but it is the last place in Paris where you can watch painting happen in the open air, as it did a hundred and fifty years ago.

Stops in order

1. 10:30 · Musée de Montmartre: Renoir's studio and gardens
   12 Rue Cortot, 75018, Paris
2. 12:30 · Moulin de la Galette: the windmill of Renoir's dance
   83 Rue Lepic, 75018, Paris
3. 13:00 · Van Gogh's apartment, 54 rue Lepic: plaque on Van Gogh's apartment
   54 Rue Lepic, 75018, Paris
4. 15:00 · Sacré-Cœur: basilica free, the view
   Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018, Paris
5. 16:00 · Place du Tertre: painters at work
   Place du Tertre, 75018, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Have lunch at the Moulin de la Galette

The restaurant in the old dance hall is a good place for a long lunch, and eating where Renoir painted his most joyful canvas is the high point of the Impressionist trail.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum is indoors; the rest of the hill is best on a dry day. Swap Day 3 with Day 1 if the forecast is wet.

Departure morning: one more Monet or a day at Giverny

If you have a free morning, return to the Orangerie for a second look at the Water Lilies; they change with the light. If you have a whole extra day between April and the start of November, go to Giverny, where Monet lived for forty years and created the garden and the water-lily pond he painted.

Giverny is about an hour from Paris and works best as a half-day guided trip with transport included.

• Guided half-day trips to Giverny leave from central Paris in the morning.
• The Musée Marmottan sells posters and prints of Impression, Sunrise that roll for travel.
• Rolled posters fit in a cardboard tube in the hold.

Which day goes where

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

The Impressionist paintings to see on this route

These are the paintings worth planning a day around, with the museum that holds each one and the place it shows, if you can still visit it.

💡 Pro Tip

Keep a postcard of each painting in your pocket

Buy postcards of the paintings at the museum shop on Day 2 and take them to the places on Day 1 and Day 3. Holding the painting where it was made is the closest you will get to the painter's view.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Adding Giverny to Impressionist Paris

Monet lived at Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926 and created the flower garden and the water garden with its Japanese bridge that became the subject of his late work. It is the natural fourth day of this route.

• When: the house and gardens open from April to the start of November.
• How: a half-day guided trip from Paris with transport and entry is the simplest option.
• Best time: May and June for the flower garden, July and August for the water lilies in bloom.
• Route: see the 3-day route with Giverny for a version that fits it into three days.

More 3-day routes

• Paris for art lovers: from the Louvre to contemporary art.
• Paris with Giverny: Monet's garden as a half-day trip.
• Montmartre and beyond: three days based on the artists' hill.
• Paris at an easy pace: the same museums with fewer stairs.
• Paris in spring: gardens in bloom and the best light.
• 4 days in Paris: time for Giverny as a fourth day.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme