Musee d’Orsay

History

The Musée d'Orsay occupies a former railway station, the Gare d'Orsay, designed by architects Victor Laloux, Lucien Magne, and Émile Bénard in the Beaux-Arts style for the 1900 World's Fair. It was ahead of its time technically, fully electrified when most stations still ran on steam, and served as the terminus for the Paris–Orléans line.

The station fell out of use as its platforms proved too short for the longer trains that came into service in the following decades. During the Second World War it served as a mail sorting center, part of the building operated as a hotel in the 1950s, and by the 1970s there were serious plans to demolish it entirely.

The French government chose to convert the building into a museum instead. Architect Gae Aulenti led the interior renovation, adapting a working railway station into exhibition space while preserving the original iron-and-glass structure, including the station's giant clock and vaulted roof. The Musée d'Orsay opened in December 1986, filling a deliberate gap between the Louvre's collection, which ends around 1848, and the Centre Pompidou's, which begins in the 20th century. Its own collection covers art from 1848 to 1914 and includes major holdings of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Renoir, and Cézanne, alongside sculpture, photography, and decorative arts from the same period.

Since March 2026, the museum's entrance hall has been under renovation, expected to run through summer 2028. The museum and all galleries remain fully open throughout; only the entrance route and forecourt are affected, with routing changes signposted on site.

Opening Hours & Wait Times

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, closed every Monday, plus 1 May and 25 December.

The Musée d'Orsay is one of the most visited museums in Paris, partly because it sits directly across the river from the Louvre and picks up much of that overflow, especially on Tuesdays when the Louvre is closed. Without a reserved time slot, waits at the entrance can run two hours or more in high season. A ticket booked online in advance comes with its own entrance line, which moves faster than the general queue, though it isn't entirely wait-free either.

Thursday evenings after 6:00 PM are consistently the calmest time to visit, combining shorter lines, a lower ticket price, and natural light through the glass roof as it gets dark outside.

Tickets & Prices

Booking a time slot online in advance is strongly recommended and required for free admission. Same-day tickets are sometimes available at the on-site counter, but in high season they frequently sell out.

Admission is free for: everyone under 18; residents and citizens aged 18 to 25 of the European Union or European Economic Area; 18- to 25-year-olds who are long-term residents of France or another EU country without holding that nationality; disabled visitors and one companion; jobseekers with proof less than 6 months old; and holders of a valid Pass Éducation. The museum is also free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month, though booking a time slot online is mandatory for that day specifically, since demand is highest.

A combined ticket covering both the Musée d'Orsay and the neighboring Musée de l'Orangerie is available, worth considering if you're planning to see both on the same trip; check the current combined price when booking, since it's adjusted from time to time.

Guided Tours

Third-party guided tours typically run around two hours, covering the collection's essential Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works with skip-the-line entry included, and cost from roughly 70 € per person. A guide is particularly useful here, since a lot of what makes this period of art history interesting is the context around why these paintings were considered radical at the time, something the wall text alone doesn't always convey.

Getting There

The museum sits directly on the Seine, across the river from the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, in the heart of the Left Bank.

Address: Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 75007 Paris, France

Highlights of the Musée d'Orsay

Good to Know

The museum uses separate entrances depending on your ticket type: Entrance A for visitors without a ticket, Entrance B for adult groups, Entrance C for visitors who already hold a ticket, and Entrance D for reserved school groups. Arriving at the correct entrance for your ticket type saves real time, since Entrance A's queue is the one that gets long.

Special Exhibitions

Alongside its permanent collection, the museum runs a rotating program of temporary exhibitions, included in standard admission unless stated otherwise.

Some rooms may be temporarily closed for rotation or conservation work; a current floor plan showing closed galleries is available for download on the museum's own website if a specific piece is the main reason for your visit.

Photo Gallery

Frequently Asked Questions