My husband and I will be in Paris for a week at the end of June. We are planning to buy a 6-day museum pass. Normally I would purchase timed-entry tickets for museums that offer that. Does purchasing the museum pass mean that we will be able to enter upon our arrival at the museum without having reserved a particular time?
Thanks in advance.

From the museum pass website:

quote:

"The “queue-cutter” aspect of the pass cannot always be guaranteed in certain sites operating an access system that requires the production of a free ticket or when the number of visitors is limited for security reasons."

So, while they caution you that you may need to wait from time to time in security lines, we never experienced it when using the pass during the low season. I cannot advise about the likelihood during the summer season. It, of course, also doesn't apply to timed entry for special exhibits since only permanent exhibits are covered.

You can download the 2008 museum pass booklet from the website as well. It contains site by site information about what is closed, limited hours, or under restoration.

With the museum pass you won't have to stand in line to buy tickets, however, where required, you will still have to stand in the security check lines.

The only places I recall having to wait in rather large lines was the Louvre and St Chappell. This will also depend on the time of day you go. If you head to the Louvre on Wed when it's open late, the line up will be minimal.

I'm not sure that you can actually book specific times (such as some in Italy....) unless you are with a tour group of some sort.

The museum pass is pretty good if you plan on visiting quite a number of museums (it also includes Versailles) but if you plan on going to some of them on the late opening nights, the admission is also little cheaper after a certain time, so you might want to take that into account when calculating savings/convenience of purchasing the pass.

Linda

Thank you for clarifying.