Château de Malmaison & the Paris Museum Pass 2026

Last updated: July 2026 · Prices and details verified

Is the Château de Malmaison included in the Paris Museum Pass?

Yes — the Paris Museum Pass covers full entry to the Château de Malmaison, saving you €8 per person. No reservation required. The château is 30 minutes from central Paris — take RER A to La Défense, then Bus 258 to Malmaison.

Château de Malmaison — Fast Facts

Address	Avenue du Château de la Malmaison, 92500 Rueil-Malmaison
Nearest Metro	La Défense (RER A) → Bus 258 to Malmaison — 30 min total from central Paris (RER A)
Bus	Bus 258 from La Défense RER
Opening hours	Monday, Wednesday–Sunday · Weekdays (Oct–Mar): 10am–12:30pm and 1:30pm–5:15pm · Weekdays (Apr–Sep): 10am–12:30pm and 1:30pm–5:45pm · Weekends (Apr–Sep): 10am–12:30pm and 1:30pm–6:15pm · Closed Tuesday, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Closed	Tuesdays · 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Individual ticket	€8 (2026)
With Museum Pass	Free — included
Audio guide	Included in ticket price (€2 for free-admission visitors) · Available in French, English, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian

What to Know Before You Visit

The Château de Malmaison was Napoleon and Joséphine’s favourite home — purchased by Joséphine in 1799 and decorated in the Directoire and Consulate styles that Napoleon championed. It is the most personal of all Napoleonic museums: here you can stand in the library where Napoleon worked 18-hour days during the Consulate, see the council chamber disguised as a tent, and walk through Joséphine’s bedroom. After their divorce in 1809, Joséphine remained at Malmaison until her death in 1814. Napoleon stopped here during his flight from Waterloo in 1815 — the last time he would see the house.

No reservation required. The château closes between 12:30pm and 1:30pm daily for lunch. Closed Tuesdays. Note the seasonal hours vary — check musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr before visiting. The château is 30 minutes from central Paris by RER A to La Défense then Bus 258.

Note: Joséphine’s rose garden was the most celebrated in France during her lifetime — she employed the botanist Aimé Bonpland (companion of Alexander von Humboldt) to maintain over 250 rose varieties, many of them new to French horticulture. The rose varieties she collected and hybridised transformed European rose cultivation. The garden is replanted with period roses and is at its best in June. The nearby Château de Bois-Préau (also in Rueil-Malmaison, 10 min walk) holds additional Napoleonic collections, though its interior now opens only for temporary exhibitions — its 17-hectare English park, however, is free to wander any day except Tuesday.

Collection Highlights

The most intimate glimpse of Napoleonic private life in any French museum — personal rooms, original furniture, and Joséphine’s legendary roses.

Highlight 1
Napoleon’s library and council chamber
the library where Napoleon worked constantly during the Consulate period, with original furnishings, and the council chamber designed as a military tent with striped fabric walls, one of the most extraordinary Empire interiors in existence

Highlight 2
Joséphine’s apartments
her private bedroom, music room, and boudoir with original furniture and personal effects, evoking the private life of the most powerful woman in Napoleonic France

Highlight 3
The rose garden
Joséphine’s legendary collection, replanted with period varieties, at its peak in June: over 250 rose varieties she collected, many of which were unknown in France before her systematic cultivation and the collaboration with botanist Aimé Bonpland

Visitor tip: Visit in June when the rose garden is in full bloom — it is one of the most beautiful garden experiences near Paris and included in your Museum Pass entry. Allow 90 minutes for the interior and another 30 minutes for the garden. The nearby Château de Bois-Préau (10 min walk) holds additional Napoleonic objects, but its interior opens only for temporary exhibitions, so check the museum site before counting on it.

Getting There

Take RER A westbound to La Défense (15 minutes from Châtelet), then Bus 258 (direction Rueil-Malmaison) to the ‘Le Château’ stop — approximately 25 minutes from La Défense. Total journey: around 30–35 minutes from central Paris. Alternative: RER A to Rueil-Malmaison station, then Bus 27 to the ‘Le Château’ stop — 8 minutes from the station. By car: A14 motorway or N13 westbound through Nanterre — approximately 20–25 minutes.

Is Malmaison Worth It on a Museum Pass?

At €8 per person, Malmaison is a modest saving on the pass — but the visit itself punches well above its price. It is consistently one of the least crowded pass venues near Paris, and the intimacy of the rooms makes it genuinely more rewarding than many larger sites.

The timing of your visit changes what you experience. June is the standout month — Joséphine’s rose garden is in full bloom and at its peak, making the combination of interior rooms and garden one of the most distinctive half-days near Paris. At any other time of year the garden is pleasant but less special.

The best way to use the pass here is to treat Malmaison as one stop on a wider Napoleonic trail rather than a saving on its own. At €8 the individual ticket is inexpensive, but paired with Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides and the Château de Fontainebleau — both on the same pass — the numbers add up quickly (see the breakdown below). Malmaison sits west of Paris on the RER A (via La Défense and Bus 258), so it works best as a calm half-day in the morning before you head back into the city.

Napoleon & Joséphine on one pass — what the tickets cost separately

Malmaison is the intimate end of a wider Napoleonic trail. Here is what the three headline Napoleon sites cost as individual tickets versus a single Paris Museum Pass — a combined figure you will not find on any official site:

Site	Napoleonic connection	Individual ticket
Château de Malmaison	Napoleon & Joséphine’s private home	€8
Napoleon’s Tomb & Musée de l’Armée	His tomb and the national army museum (Les Invalides)	€17
Château de Fontainebleau	Where he signed his abdication in 1814	€17
Three sites, bought separately		€42
Covered by one Paris Museum Pass	from €90 (2-day) — plus 50+ other venues	included

Add the Louvre (€32) and you are at €74 in tickets for four sites — the 2-day pass pays for itself as soon as you add a couple of central museums. Malmaison’s own €8 saving is small, but as one stop on a Napoleonic itinerary it helps the pass add up fast.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Take RER A westbound to La Défense station, then Bus 258 (direction Rueil-Malmaison) to the Malmaison stop — the château is a short walk from the bus stop. Total journey time from central Paris is approximately 30 minutes. By car from Paris, take the A14 motorway or the N13 westbound through Nanterre.

Unlike Fontainebleau or Compiègne, which are vast palace complexes associated with formal court life, Malmaison was Napoleon and Joséphine’s private home — the place they retreated to when not on campaign or at official duties. The rooms retain their original furniture and personal objects, and the scale is human rather than imperial. Napoleon worked here during the Consulate period (1799–1804) on the legislation and administrative reforms that transformed France. After the divorce, Joséphine lived here alone until her death in 1814, continuing to develop the rose garden and botanical collections. The atmosphere is more intimate than any other Napoleonic site.

After his defeat at Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon fled south through France. He stopped at Malmaison on 25 June 1815 — the last time he would see his former home. He spent several days there in a state of extreme agitation, uncertain whether to flee to America or surrender to the British. Joséphine had died at Malmaison the previous year, and Napoleon wandered through her former rooms. On 29 June he left for Rochefort and eventual exile on Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

Nearby Museums Also Covered by the Pass

Baroque Château

Château de Maisons

Mansart’s baroque masterpiece — 20 min north by car. Pass-covered.

Royal & Presidential Château

Château de Rambouillet

France’s former presidential residence — 45 min south by car. Pass-covered.

Royal Palace

Château de Versailles

The Sun King’s palace — 25 min south by RER A. Pass-covered.

See all 50+ pass venues in our complete museum list →