We have pre-reserved entry tickets and a reservation that allows us to skip the entry lines. Group bookings have an allocated time slot and separate entry lines so we should enter at our booking time.
You can take photos inside the museum. Please note selfie sticks are not allowed.
You can stay in the museum after your tour. Once you exit the museum however you will not be able to re-enter.
You can cancel your tour for any reason up to 24 hours before your tour departure time and receive a full refund. Within 24 hours we’ve already started preparing for your tour and won’t easily be able to fill your spot, so we won’t be able to offer a refund after that point.
You guide will be waiting outside the museum by the statue of a rhinoceros, and will be wearing their guide badge around their neck on an orange lanyard. If you can’t find them please don’t hesitate to call us on the number on your voucher and we can help guide you. Please don't get in line or enter the museum!
We want our tours to be as inclusive as possible. The Musée d'Orsay is accessible but it is very complicated to follow a group tour as you need to take a different route from the other guests and the guide cannot be in both places. For this reason we are unable to accommodate wheelchairs on our shared tour. Private tours are available and on these tours we can adapt the route to ensure it's accessible. If you do choose to take a private tour, please ensure you come accompanied by someone who can assist you.
In what may have been his last self-portrait, Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, both ecstatic and disturbed, convey his state of mind as he leaves his refuge in the sunny south of France to the place where he will end his life.
Manet’s scandalous courtesan looks coldly on, in judgment perhaps, until such time as she hears the magic ka-ching of coins from her customer—the only thing that can turn her heart.
The passage of time is the museum's theme, and the Impressionists, as timeless as they’ve become, were acutely aware of the fleeting moment. It is thus fitting that an iconic giant clock watches over the exhibits. Peering through the building’s original clock out into the city is a must-do in the museum.
45,000 photographs cover this artistic expression from its earliest efforts in the 1840s to the masterful achievements of the first years of the twentieth century.
To understand Millet’s painting, your expert guide will clue you in that it appeared two years after an earth-shattering uprising in Paris and right in time for the publication of Marx. What is this mysterious figure deep in shadow sowing? Could it be the seeds of revolution?
In a heartbreaking tribute to the woman he loved, Monet paints his wife’s last moments and beyond, with a quick and desperate brush as though to try to capture her for eternity, and succeeding.
Let yourself be taken into a whirl of color and discovery! The Orsay is magic, from the grandeur of its halls to the masterpieces they hold. But so much gets lost along the wayside if you don’t know what you’re looking for, much less what you’re looking at, as you waste time finding it and fighting off the crowds to do so, after the long line to even get in.
Booking with Memories means making the most of your vacation, not only in its preciously counted hours, by skipping the lines and navigating the crowd, but also through our expert understanding of the artistic ferment of the museum’s collections. Our unique approach brings the paintings and their history come to vivid life again through our masterful storytelling.
As our guest, you’ll soon you find yourself caught up into the tales of Renoir’s studio, of Monet’s outdoor painting adventures, the mishaps and fortunes of the whole crew as they try to convince the wider world of their vision. You’ll also understand the whole brick wall they were up against in the establishment art of the French Académie. With us, you’ll cheer as the Impressionists win the day against strict rules and restraint to burst on the scene in color and light, changing the face of artistic creation forever.
We truly delight in sharing our knowledge through story, meeting each guest where they’re at in terms of age and previous exposure. To open your eyes onto this momentous period in all its beauty, from the bottom floor’s establishment art, up to the brightly-hued experiments of Van Gogh and friends, from sunflowers to the mysteries of green Tahitian horses, come be our guest. With Memories, the world of nineteenth century art will hold no secrets for you.
À bientôt!
Jérôme, Siobhan, and the Memories France family
