We love our museums here in Paris year round, but in summer the ones with garden cafés and outdoor terraces have a particular pull. Several of the city's best museums have outside spaces worth knowing about in their own right, not just as a pitstop between galleries. Some are peaceful garden courtyards, others are rooftop terraces with views over the city. Here are our favourites.
Musée Rodin - L'Augustine
The Rodin Museum's garden is already one of the most beautiful spaces in Paris — The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and the Burghers of Calais are arranged among the flowerbeds, with the Hôtel Biron's elegant façade behind you. The café, L'Augustine, has recently reopened under chef Amandine Chaignot, with an outdoor terrace directly set in the sculpture garden. A full museum ticket (€13) is required to access both the garden and the café - the garden-only ticket that used to exist has been discontinued. The Rodin museum and gardens are beautiful and we highly recommend a visit. The museum is free on the first Sunday of each month from October to March.
📍77 rue de Varenne, 75007
Metro: Varenne (line 13) — right outside the door.
Musée de Montmartre - Café Renoir
Behind a discreet door on the narrow rue Cortot, the Musée de Montmartre conceals the Jardins Renoir and their café terrace - the garden where Auguste Renoir rented a studio in 1876, painting La Balançoire here while working nearby on his celebrated Bal du moulin de la Galette. The café opens onto a lush garden terrace with views over the Clos Montmartre vineyard and the hillside beyond, it's one of those spots that genuinely feels like a village within the city. The café offers a seasonal sweet and savoury menu, it's more of a tea room in spirit. The gardens can be visited independently of the museum for €6, which also gives you access to the café. Again, we highly recommend a visit to the museum, it will give you a fascinating glimpse into life in Montmartre in years gone by.
Note: Café Renoir is open Wednesday to Sunday only - and every Wednesday in July and August the museum stays open until 10pm and the café until 9:30pm, making it a lovely option for a summer evening.
📍12 rue Cortot, 75018
Métro: Lamarck-Caulaincourt (line 12) - about eight minutes' walk
Musée du Quai Branly - Café Jacques
Café Jacques sits in a contemporary, transparent setting in the heart of the garden designed by Gilles Clément, with an uninterrupted view of the Eiffel Tower. It proposes fresh seasonal produce and good pastries, and is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am. The good news for those who just want the garden and the café: the garden is accessible without a museum ticket, opening from 9:15am - earlier than the museum itself.
The museum, dedicated to the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, is seriously undervisited relative to its quality and well worth combining with a coffee stop. This summer, from 4 July to 30 August, the garden also hosts the free Jardin d'Été festival - open-air workshops, storytelling and traditional arts performances. No ticket required
📍37 quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, 75007
Metro: Bir-Hakeim (line 6) or Alma-Marceau (line 9) - both around eight minutes' walk.
Petit Palais - the interior garden café
The garden at the Petit Palais is a revelation to many visitors - a lush interior courtyard with swaying palm trees, banana trees, ornamental grasses, and three decorative pools bordered with blue and gold mosaics, all from the 1900 World's Fair. The Café 1902 serves breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea with pastries from Lenôtre. And the Petit Palais itself is free to enter, making this one of the best-value spots in Paris on a warm afternoon. Sit under the peristyle when it gets too sunny.
📍 Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008
Metro: Champs-Élysées Clemenceau (lines 1 & 13) - two minutes' walk.
Musée de la Vie Romantique - Rose Bakery
This charming museum sits in a tucked-away house to the south of Montmartre, and was once the salon of the painter Ary Scheffer and a gathering place for Chopin, George Sand, and Delacroix. The Rose Bakery tea room is the perfect place to find some mid-afternoon tranquility in the glasshouse attached to the garden here - we love the homemade quiches, soups, brownies and good coffee among the roses. The museum itself is one of those places that feels genuinely off the tourist circuit, even when it isn't. While you're there, check out the nearby rue de Martyrs for a wonderful array of fabulous French food shops.
📍16 rue Chaptal, 75009
Metro: Pigalle (lines 2 & 12) or Blanche (line 2) - about five minutes on foot either way.
Musée d'Orsay - rooftop terrace
This is a rooftop rather than a garden, and it's worth a visit for the view alone. The Orsay terrace has reopened this summer with a panoramic view over Paris, an arty-chic atmosphere, and a bar inspired by Art Nouveau. Come after your visit for a drink while the light falls over the Seine, and enjoy one of the more quietly spectacular spots in the city. Note: the terrace is accessible with a museum ticket only, and a timed slot must be booked in advance through the museum website — this is mandatory during the current renovation works running through summer 2028.
And of course, as you know if you have read other blog posts of ours, Orsay is one of our absolute favourite museums in Paris, something you should not miss on a visit here. Don't just wander past the artworks, no matter how many you may recognise. It's the backstory to these incredible works that completely changes the way you'll view them - join us and see the Impressionists in a new light! Come for the museum, stay for the view.
📍 1 rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007
Metro: Solférino (line 12) - two minutes. RER C Musée d'Orsay is directly outside.
Musée Picasso - Le Café sur le Toit
Le Café sur le Toit is a café perched on the first floor of the Hôtel Salé, with a terrace looking directly onto the mansion's extraordinary 17th-century façade - one of the finest pieces of architecture in the Marais. The view over the rooftops and courtyard is something special on a sunny day. The food is standard café fare - coffee, pastries, sandwiches - so come for the setting rather than the menu, but it's a great place to stop after visiting the museum. And of course, again, the Picasso Museum is one we highly recommend you visit during your stay in Paris.
📍5 rue de Thorigny, 75003
Métro: Saint-Sébastien Froissart (line 8) or Saint-Paul (line 1) - about eight minutes' walk from either
Maison de Victor Hugo - garden café
Hugo lived on the second floor of this elegant Marais mansion from 1832 to 1848, and the museum that now occupies his apartment is one of Paris's most intimate and undervisited. The garden - a former school courtyard transformed into a planted terrace - is as peaceful as it sounds, tucked behind the arcades of the Place des Vosges.
A note on timing: the Café Mulot that occupied the space is making way for a new café called Papapa, opening 1 September 2026. The name comes from what Hugo's grandchildren called him. The menu, when it opens, will be seasonal and locally sourced, inspired by Hugo's travels and his own recipes. Until then, the garden is still accessible during the summer.
The café is open to all, museum visit or not. And note that until 22 November 2026, entry to the museum itself is paid - there's currently a temporary exhibition on Hugo and architecture, which makes the permanent collection temporarily ticketed.
📍6 place des Vosges, 75004
Metro: Bastille (lines 1, 5 & 8) or Saint-Paul (line 1) - both around five to seven minutes' walk.
A note from us
Paris is better at a slower pace — and a good museum garden has a way of making you remember that. Start your day with an expert-led visit to the Louvre or the Orsay, then spend the afternoon discovering one of the smaller museums above at your own pace - Rodin, la Vie Romantique, Picasso... Each one deserves more than a rushed hour, and each has somewhere worth stopping for a coffee and a pastry. That's a pretty good Paris day.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our blog! We are a small Paris-based tour company that prioritises a boutique personal experience where we can share our passion for our heritage and community with every individual that joins us. If you'd like to take a tour then head over to our website for an unforgettable trip to the city of lights. Also, check out our social media @memories.france for everything you could need to know for coming to Paris: from how to use the metro to coffee shops closest to each major monument, there is something for everyone!
Siobhan & the Memories France Family
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