Musée du Quai Branly & the Paris Museum Pass 2026

Last updated: February 2026 · Prices and details verified

Is the Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac included in the Paris Museum Pass?

Yes — the Paris Museum Pass covers full entry to the Musée du Quai Branly, saving you €14 per person. Booking a timed slot online is recommended for peak periods — walk-in is accepted subject to availability.

Is Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac Included in the Paris Museum Pass?

The pass covers the permanent collection across the 200-metre main gallery and all four rotating temporary exhibition spaces. The surrounding garden is free to enter without any ticket.

No reservation required. Booking a timed slot online is recommended for peak periods — pass holders can book at quaibranly.fr. Walk-in is accepted subject to availability. During peak summer season, booking 1–2 days ahead avoids any wait. Thursday evenings (open until 10pm) are consistently less crowded and well worth the later visit.

Note: The museum celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026 with a special programme of exhibitions and events. The building’s famous living plant wall (by botanist Patrick Blanc) covers the north facade — best viewed from the garden. The rooftop restaurant Les Ombres has views directly to the Eiffel Tower.

What to See — Collection Highlights

The Quai Branly was initiated by President Jacques Chirac and designed by Jean Nouvel, opening in 2006. It brought together the ethnographic collections of the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie to create France’s largest museum of non-Western art.

Highlight 1
The main gallery — a 200-metre curved ramp displaying 3,500 objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas in one continuous journey through the world’s cultures

Highlight 2
The building itself — Jean Nouvel’s extraordinary architecture: a forest of stilts, coloured glass boxes, and Patrick Blanc’s living green wall of 15,000 plants covering the north facade

Highlight 3
The Torres Strait collection — exceptional Aboriginal Australian and Pacific objects including ceremonial masks, ancestor figures, and decorated shields among the finest indigenous Pacific collections in Europe

Suggested Itinerary — 2 Hours

The main gallery follows a continuous curved ramp — you can walk one direction or double back. The Africa section is typically entered first, flowing into Asia, then Oceania and the Americas.

10:30am

Africa galleries — masks, bronzes, textiles

Enter the main gallery and turn left for Africa. Bronze figures from Benin, ceremonial masks from central Africa, Kuba textiles from the Congo — the depth and quality of the African collection is the core of the museum. Allow 40 minutes.

11:10am

Asia and Oceania galleries

The Asia galleries cover South and Southeast Asian religious sculpture, Japanese lacquerwork, and Central Asian textiles. Oceania holds extraordinary Pacific collections: New Guinea ancestor figures, Māori panels, Torres Strait ceremonial objects. Allow 40 minutes.

11:50am

Americas gallery and temporary exhibitions

Pre-Columbian and indigenous North American collections, then check the four temporary exhibition spaces on the ground floor — Quai Branly’s temporary programming is consistently strong. Allow 30 minutes.

Practical Tips

Tip 1

Thursday evenings (open until 10pm) are the best time to visit — dramatically quieter than daytime, the museum’s dramatic lighting system comes into its own, and the Eiffel Tower light show is visible through the garden.

Tip 2

The garden surrounding the museum is free to enter without a ticket (Tuesday–Sunday, 9:15am–7:30pm; Thursday until 10:15pm) and is one of the most unexpectedly pleasant open spaces in central Paris — worth 15 minutes on arrival.

Tip 3

The Musée Guimet (Asian art) is 8 minutes walk across the river — a natural pairing for a day exploring non-Western art. Together they cover Asia from two entirely different perspectives.

Getting There

Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac — Fast Facts

Address	37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris
Nearest Metro	Alma–Marceau (Metro 9) — 8 min walk (Metro 9)
RER	RER C — Pont de l’Alma — 5 min walk
Bus lines	42, 63, 69, 72, 80, 82, 87, 92
Opening hours	Tuesday–Sunday 10:30am–7pm · Thursday until 10pm · Closed Monday, 1 May, 25 December
Closed	Mondays, 1 May, 25 December
Individual ticket	€14 (2026)
With Museum Pass	Free — included
Timed slot required	Recommended — book online
Book at	quaibranly.fr/en/useful-information/come/schedules-rates-and-access
Walking note	8 min walk to Musée Guimet; 5 min walk to Eiffel Tower; 15 min walk to Musée d’Orsay

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Frequently Asked Questions

Booking a timed slot online is recommended but not mandatory. Pass holders can book at quaibranly.fr to guarantee entry within 30 minutes of their chosen time. Walk-in is accepted subject to capacity. During peak season (June–August) and weekends, online booking a day or two ahead avoids any wait.

Thursday evenings are the standout recommendation — open until 10pm, dramatically quieter than daytime, the museum’s theatrical lighting of the objects comes into its own, and on clear evenings you can see the Eiffel Tower light show from the garden. For daytime visits, weekday mornings (Tuesday–Friday) are least crowded.

The museum was designed by Jean Nouvel and opened in 2006. The most striking feature is the north facade — a living wall of 15,000 plants by botanist Patrick Blanc, covering 800 square metres. The museum sits on stilts over a garden, with coloured glass ‘boxes’ protruding from the main building housing specific collection areas. The interior uses dramatic low-level lighting to foreground the objects. It is one of the most architecturally distinctive museum buildings in Paris.

Both are pass-covered and within 10 minutes of each other. The Guimet focuses specifically on Asian art — primarily archaeological and classical objects from India, China, Cambodia, Japan, and Central Asia. The Quai Branly covers a wider range of non-Western cultures: Africa, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia — with a greater emphasis on ethnographic context and indigenous living cultures rather than purely historical art history.

Two hours covers the main gallery and temporary exhibitions at a comfortable pace. The 200-metre main gallery can be done in 1 hour if you move quickly, but the objects reward slow attention. The museum is large enough to feel like a full half-day attraction.

Yes — the garden surrounding the museum is free to enter without a museum ticket, Tuesday to Sunday (9:15am–7:30pm; Thursday until 10:15pm). It’s an unusually pleasant urban garden with wild-planted areas, a small stream, and views of the Eiffel Tower through the trees. Worth 15 minutes on its own.