What the Paris Museum Pass Does NOT Include

No — the Eiffel Tower is not included in the Paris Museum Pass and never has been. The tower is operated by a separate company (SETE) and uses its own timed-entry ticketing system. A summit ticket costs €29 per adult and must be booked directly at the Eiffel Tower website (toureiffel.paris). During peak season (April–October), book 3–4 weeks ahead — it is consistently the most in-demand ticket in Paris. If you want a comparable high-altitude city view included in your pass, the Arc de Triomphe rooftop (€16, fully pass-covered) gives you a panoramic view across the Champs-Élysées and the full Paris skyline.

No. The Paris Catacombs are managed by Paris Musées — the city of Paris’s own network of municipal museums — rather than by the French national museum system. The Museum Pass covers national museums only, so the Catacombs have always been excluded. A timed-entry ticket costs approximately €31 including the online booking fee and must be purchased directly. One important clarification: the Crypte Archéologique (the underground archaeological museum beneath the Parvis Notre-Dame) is included in the Museum Pass and is sometimes confused with the Catacombs. They are entirely different sites — the Crypte covers Roman-era Paris archaeology, while the Catacombs house the ossuary of approximately 6 million Parisian remains in old quarry tunnels.

No — but that’s because entry to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica is free to everyone. You never need any ticket, pass, or reservation to enter the main building. Sacré-Cœur is an active Roman Catholic basilica managed by the Diocese of Paris, not a museum, and has always been freely accessible to all visitors. If you want to climb the dome for panoramic views over northern Paris, that costs €8 and requires a separate ticket — the Museum Pass does not cover that either. The basilica is open daily from 6am to 10:30pm.

No. The Palais Garnier (Opéra national de Paris) is a publicly-funded performing arts venue, not a national museum, and is not part of the Museum Pass network. Daytime self-guided visits to its public areas — the grand staircase, Grand Foyer, Library-Museum, and (when available) the auditorium — cost €15 and require a separate timed-entry ticket booked at operadeparis.fr. Note that the auditorium is frequently closed for rehearsals with no advance notice, and access to it is never guaranteed even with a paid ticket.

No. The Marmottan is owned by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a private institution, which means it’s outside the national museum network that the pass covers. Entry costs €14. Despite housing the world’s largest Monet collection — including the painting that gave Impressionism its name (“Impression, Sunrise”) — the museum has never been included in the pass. It’s located in the 16th arrondissement near the Bois de Boulogne (Metro 9, La Muette), a slightly inconvenient journey from the central museum cluster. Worth visiting independently if Monet is a priority.

No — the pass covers permanent collections only at every venue it includes. Temporary or special exhibitions at the Louvre, Orsay, or any other pass venue are always separately ticketed, typically at €12–€18 per exhibition on top of your pass entry. This is true even if you’re using your pass to enter the building on that visit. Check each venue’s current exhibition calendar before your trip so you can budget for any temporary exhibitions you want to attend. The standard pass entry to the permanent collection is always included; anything additionally ticketed is always extra.

Neither is included in the pass — but both are free to enter without any ticket at all, so you don’t need the pass to visit them. The Petit Palais (on Avenue Winston Churchill, 8th arrondissement) holds an impressive fine arts permanent collection including works by Gustave Courbet, Eugène Delacroix, and Art Nouveau decorative arts — and its permanent galleries are always free. Musée Carnavalet in the Marais tells the history of Paris across two remarkable 17th-century mansions and is also permanently free. Add either as a no-cost stop on days when you’re already in their neighbourhoods.