Paris Free Tour
The SANDEMANs Free Tour of Paris starts at Place Saint-Michel and walks along the Seine covering Notre-Dame, the Louvre exterior, and Sainte-Chapelle. It is the most established free walking tour option in Paris.
Museum in Paris
Louvre Museum
Also known as Musee du Louvre
Partly free, partly paidSome of it costs nothing, some of it charges.
The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, housed in a former royal palace with a glass pyramid at its center. The Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory are all here. General admission is paid, but the Louvre keeps several free doors open: entry is free for everyone under 18, and free for visitors under 26 who are citizens or residents of the European Economic Area, both year-round. On top of that, the museum is free for all visitors on the first Friday evening of the month after 6 p.m. outside the summer months, which is the smartest way to see the headline works without paying.
The collection is too big to finish in a day, so budget travelers pick one wing instead of trying to see everything, and they show up early or on a weekday afternoon when the lines are shortest. The museum sits at the edge of the Tuileries Garden, so the walk out through the gardens is free and connects straight into the rest of central Paris. For the Impressionists, cross the Seine to the Musee d’Orsay, which honors the same under-18 and under-26 free-entry rules.
Practical
Before you go
- Address
- Port du Louvre, 75001 Paris
- Good to know
- Official site
- louvre.fr
On foot
Walks that pass through
Free and low-cost routes that stop at Louvre Museum.
Nearby
More in Paris
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe is Napoleon's triumphal arch at the western end of the Champs-Elysees, the largest triumphal arch in the world at nearly 50 meters tall. Napoleon commissioned it in 1806 to honor the Grande Armee, and it was finished in 1836, long after his fall.
Canal Saint-Martin
Canal Saint-Martin is a tree-lined waterway in the 10th arrondissement, threaded with arched iron footbridges and a chain of locks that still raise and lower passing boats. Napoleon ordered it dug to bring clean water into the city, and it opened in 1825.
Champs-Elysees
The Avenue des Champs-Elysees runs from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, the most famous boulevard in the world. It forms the central stretch of the historic axis that lines up with the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre Museum to the east. Free to walk.
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is the most recognized structure in the world, built for the 1889 World's Fair by Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and never taken down. It was meant to be temporary, a 20-year exhibit, but its usefulness as a radio and telegraph mast saved it and it has stood in the 7th arrondissement ever since.
Grand Canal Versailles
The Grand Canal is a cruciform artificial lake at the western end of the Palace of Versailles Gardens, roughly 1.6 kilometers along its long arm. Andre Le Notre designed it as the vanishing point of the garden's central axis and as a mirror for the sky, so the whole layout pulls the eye toward the water.
Ile de la Cite
Ile de la Cite is the island in the Seine where Paris began, the spot where the Gallic Parisii and then Roman Lutetia first took root before the city spread to both banks. It is the historic heart of Paris, and almost everything on it can be seen for free.
Working out what Paris costs?
The whole of Paris