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The Petit Palais, Paris

No. 50 Top 100 Most Visited Art Museums 2025 · 1,455,790 visitors in 2025

Petit Palais

Paris, France · City guide: Paris

Paris's fine arts museum in a 1900 palace, with a free permanent collection and a garden café.

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Photo: KoS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview

The Petit Palais is No. 50 in The Art Newspaper's survey of the world's most visited art museums, with 1,455,790 visitors in 2025, unchanged on 2024. Built by Charles Girault for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, it is the City of Paris's Museum of Fine Arts.

The collection ranges from antiquity to 1900, with strong holdings of 19th-century French painting. Entry to the permanent collection is free, and the building's semicircular garden courtyard has a café.

The garden courtyard of the Petit Palais
The garden courtyard of the Petit Palais. Photo: Moonik, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Best time to visit

Weekday mornings are the quietest. The museum is closed on Mondays; check the official website for hours.

Highlights & collections

  • 1

    The building

    A grand entrance, mosaic floors, painted ceilings and a monumental staircase.

  • 2

    Gustave Courbet

    Works including Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine and his self-portrait with a black dog.

  • 3

    Impressionists

    Paintings by Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and Cézanne.

  • 4

    Old masters

    Dutch and Flemish painting, including a self-portrait by Rembrandt.

  • 5

    Garden courtyard

    A peaceful garden with a café under the colonnade.

Getting there

The Petit Palais is on Avenue Winston Churchill, opposite the Grand Palais. The nearest metro station is Champs-Élysées–Clemenceau (Lines 1 and 13).

Visiting tips

Tickets & hours
The permanent collection is free; temporary exhibitions charge. Check the official website for hours.
Time needed
One to two hours.
Currency
Euro (EUR). Cards, including contactless, are accepted almost everywhere.
Visa & entry
France is in the Schengen Area. Many visitors, including citizens of the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) now records non-EU travellers' entries and exits at the border, and the ETIAS travel authorisation is due to follow. Check the official EU site travel-europe.europa.eu and your own government's travel advice before you go.

Official information: Petit Palais (official website). Check opening hours, prices and entry rules there before you go.

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