Petit Palais

The city's fine-art museum, free, with a garden courtyard

Area Champs-Élysées
Type Museum
Time needed 1h 15m

The Petit Palais is the City of Paris fine-art museum, built alongside the Grand Palais for the 1900 Exposition Universelle and permanently free to enter for its own collection. It holds paintings, sculpture, furniture and decorative arts from antiquity to the early twentieth century, with a strong nineteenth-century French section. At its centre is a semicircular garden courtyard with a colonnade, palms and a pool, which is as much a reason to come as the art.

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Getting there

Metro line 1 or 13 to Champs-Élysées Clemenceau is about two minutes away. From Châtelet it is roughly ten minutes on line 1 westbound. Line 8 or 13 or RER C to Invalides is an eight minute walk over the Pont Alexandre III. Concorde on lines 1, 8 and 12 is ten minutes through the gardens.

What you see

The entrance hall under the dome sets the tone, with its mosaic floor and painted ceiling, and the sweeping ironwork stairs down to the lower galleries. The upper floor runs through the nineteenth century: Courbet, Delacroix, Géricault, academic salon canvases hung in the manner of their day, and a room of Impressionist and post-Impressionist work including Monet, Cézanne and Sisley. There is a notable group of works by Carpeaux and a large holding of Art Nouveau objects and furniture, including glass and jewellery. The lower level covers antiquities, medieval and Renaissance material, and the Dutch and Flemish painting collection. The garden courtyard with its painted arcades, mosaics and planting sits in the middle of the plan, so you pass it as you move between wings.

What to pair it with

The Grand Palais is directly across the Avenue Winston-Churchill. The Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe lie to the west, and the Pont Alexandre III and Invalides to the south.

When to go

Weekday mornings are quiet; this is one of the least crowded substantial museums in central Paris. Temporary exhibitions here are ticketed and do draw queues at weekends, but the permanent galleries rarely feel busy. The courtyard is at its best in late spring and summer, when the cafe tables are out under the colonnade. Late opening is normally offered on one evening a week; check the day before relying on it.

What is hard about it

The permanent collection is uneven: a handful of strong rooms among a lot of second-rank salon painting, and the big names are present in ones and twos rather than in depth. Labelling in English is thinner than in the national museums. Temporary exhibitions carry a separate charge and can be crowded in a building not really sized for it. The lower galleries are reached by stairs, although lifts exist; ask at the desk rather than assuming the route.

Common questions

How long do you need at the Petit Palais?

An hour and a quarter is enough for the permanent collection and the courtyard. Add an hour if a temporary exhibition interests you.

Is the Petit Palais really free?

The permanent collection is free to enter, as it is at the City of Paris museums generally. Temporary exhibitions are ticketed separately.

Is it worth it next to the Musée d'Orsay?

Orsay is the stronger collection by a wide margin. The Petit Palais is worth an hour as a quiet, free counterpart, not as a substitute.