La Nuit des Musées 2026 in Paris:10 Museums You Can Visit for Free

Last updated on April 15th, 2026 at 05:03 pm

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One night a year, Paris hands you the keys to its museums. These museums usually charge entry, but for one night a year, they’re free for the evening and stay open until midnight. You can stand in front of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, wander through a 15th-century Gothic chapel, or watch a DJ play in a sculpture garden, all without reaching for your wallet.

La Nuit des Musées, the European Night of Museums, falls on Saturday, May 23, 2026, and this year is its 22nd edition. And it’s not just in Paris. Over 3,000 museums across 30 European countries take part, and in France alone, nearly 2 million people took part last year.

So which museums take part? The city has over 80 museums taking part, which is both exciting and a little overwhelming. Here’s a list of ten that are worth the effort, all normally paid, and all open for free on May 23.

Grand sculpture gallery with a vaulted glass ceiling and rows of statues stretching toward a large clock at the far end. This wide interior view conveys the scale and grandeur visitors might experience during La Nuit des Musées.

What is La Nuit des Musées?

From dusk until midnight, participating museums open their doors free of charge and put on special programming for the evening. That means guided tours, concerts, workshops, theatrical performances, film screenings, and more.

Some museums add evening activities throughout the day before the main nocturne begins. Each venue organizes its own program, so no two museums offer the same experience on the night.

How Did It All Start?

The idea came from Berlin. In 1997, the German capital created the Lange Nacht der Museen, the Long Night of Museums, to draw younger audiences into cultural institutions and get them interested in culture, and the concept worked.

France picked it up in 1999 under the name Printemps des Musées, a spring festival of museums. Then, in 2001, when 39 member countries of the Council of Europe signed the European Cultural Convention, the event began to expand across the continent. By 2005, the French Ministry of Culture made it official as the European Night of Museums, tying it permanently to International Museum Day on May 18.

The Saturday nearest that date each year becomes the night. In 2026, that’s May 23.

When Does It Run and What Does It Cost?

Saturday, May 23, 2026. Most museums open from around 6 pm and run until midnight, though exact hours vary by venue. Entry is free at the vast majority of participating Paris museums, though some charge for specific temporary exhibitions. The permanent collections are almost always free.

You don’t need a ticket in advance for most venues, but for the very popular ones like the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, it’s worth arriving early. The queues on this night can be long. If you’d rather skip the crowds entirely, this is actually a brilliant evening to discover museums you wouldn’t normally visit. The smaller and lesser-known ones are often the best experiences of the night.

Check here for the full official program, which is updated regularly in the weeks leading up to the event.

10 Museums to Visit on La Nuit des Musées 2026

The Louvre (1st arr.) Normal admission: €22

A modern-day view of the Louvre, showcasing its evolution into the world’s most famous museum, combining contemporary architecture with historic grandeur.

The Louvre is a different place at night. The daytime crowds thin out, and suddenly you can actually stand in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace or the Venus de Milo without being jostled by tour groups.

Covering over 72,000 square meters across three wings, it holds more than 35,000 works, from ancient Egyptian antiquities to the French crown jewels. This is a regular participant in La Nuit des Musées, and you’ll have access to the entire permanent collection.

Musée d’Orsay (7th arr.) Normal admission: €16

Wide-angle view of the Musée d’Orsay's central hall, showcasing sculptures, paintings, and the grand arched glass ceiling—highlighting the museum’s blend of art and architecture as one of the top reasons to visit Musée d’Orsay.

Housed in a former railway station built for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, the Musée d’Orsay holds the world’s largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh. All here, all free on May 23.

The building itself is as worth seeing as anything inside it, and the giant clock faces overlooking the Seine is picture perfect, and you’ll see it on many Instagram feeds.

Musée Rodin (7th arr.) Normal admission: €13

The Thinker elevated on a stone pedestal between tall sculpted hedges in a museum garden courtyard. The bronze figure sits in a contemplative pose against a backdrop of arched windows and pale stone architecture, emphasizing the timeless presence of The Thinker.

The Rodin Museum is housed in the 18th-century Hôtel Biron, where sculptor Auguste Rodin lived and worked from 1908 until his death in 1917. The collections include The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell, all displayed across the house and across a sprawling garden that gets illuminated after dark.

For 2026, the museum has confirmed an evening DJ set inspired by Mexican rhythms, turning the sculpture garden into something completely different.

Musée de Cluny (5th arr.) Normal admission: €12

musee de cluny sculpture hall showcasing carved stone statues of robed figures arranged on raised platforms. Natural light from tall windows illuminates the detailed craftsmanship of the medieval artworks.

Built on the ruins of 2nd-century Roman baths, the Musée de Cluny houses the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestry series, a set of six tapestries woven in Flanders around 1500 that remains one of the greatest works of medieval art.

For this year’s Nuit des Musées, students from the Sorbonne’s Master’s program in Early Music perform plainchant and medieval sacred and secular music in the Gothic chapel, timed to run throughout the evening.

Musée National Picasso (3rd arr.) Normal admission: €14

Ornate interior corridor with carved stone walls. arched openings. and a black and white checkered floor leading toward bright doorways. The richly decorated details emphasize the historic atmosphere of the museum building.

The Picasso Museum occupies the Hôtel Salé, a 17th-century mansion in the Marais built by a salt tax collector, which tells you something about the profits in that industry.

It holds the world’s largest public collection of Picasso’s work, with over 5,000 pieces spanning his entire career, donated to the French state by his family after his death in 1973 to cover inheritance taxes.

The full program for May 23 is still being finalized, but the museum is participating in this year’s edition.

Petit Palais (8th arr.) Normal admission: €0 for permanent collections, €15 for temporary exhibitions

Sunlit sculpture gallery lined with statues on pedestals beneath tall windows and a painted ceiling. The long room draws the eye down the center aisle and showcases the variety of works on display.

The Petit Palais was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition and has housed the City of Paris’s fine arts collection ever since. It permanently holds works by Rembrandt, Courbet, Monet, and Pissarro, among thousands of others, and the building itself, with its domed central garden and mosaic ceilings, is stunning.

It’s also free year-round for the permanent collection, but the special evening programming is something new just for this one night.

Musée Guimet (16th arr.) Normal admission: €13

Red and stone museum facade under a blue sky with tall banners and sculpted figures set into the upper windows. The street view captures the bold exterior character of a museum that stands out during La Nuit des Musées.

The Musée Guimet is France’s national museum of Asian arts, housing one of the most significant collections of Buddhist sculpture outside Asia, alongside Khmer works from Cambodia, Japanese screens, and Chinese ceramics.

For this year’s Nuit des Musées, the Compagnie Baru performs a Korean Buddhist ceremony in the museum’s Khmer courtyard, with traditional paper lanterns by Korean artist Jeong Yeon-rak and chanting led by monk Subeom.

Grand Palais (8th arr.) Normal admission: varies by exhibition (typically €15 to €20)

Vast exhibition hall beneath a soaring iron and glass roof with sunlight casting patterned shadows across the empty floor. The open space and dramatic architecture suggest a monumental museum setting prepared to welcome evening visitors.

The Grand Palais reopened after years of renovation work ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, and it’s back for La Nuit des Musées with one of its most anticipated exhibitions.

The Matisse 1941-1954 show focuses on the final years of Henri Matisse’s career, when he developed his famous cut-paper gouaches, including the work he created for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence.

Paintings, drawings, illustrated books, textiles, and stained glass designs are all on display.

Musée de l’Armée (7th arr.) Normal admission: €15

Historic domed building with a gilded roof rising above formal gardens trimmed into neat geometric shapes. The calm exterior scene highlights the elegance of a Paris museum site associated with La Nuit des Musées.

Located inside Les Invalides, the complex built by Louis XIV to house wounded soldiers, the Musée de l’Armée holds one of the most extensive collections of military history in the world.

It covers French military history from the Middle Ages through to the 20th century, and the building itself contains Napoleon’s tomb under a gold dome.

For this year’s evening, the museum has organized a musical walk-through of its collections, alongside interactive games and live concerts.

Musée du Luxembourg (6th arr.) Normal admission: €15

Quiet gallery room with large framed paintings hung across pale walls and a round bench in the center. The layout shows how visitors can move through the collection and take in multiple works at once.

The Musée du Luxembourg has the distinction of being France’s first museum open to the public, established in 1750 when the royal art collection was displayed here before the Louver took over that role.

It now hosts temporary exhibitions, and for May 23, the current show dedicated to surrealist painter Leonora Carrington is open free of charge for the evening. Carrington, born in England in 1917 and closely tied to the European surrealist movement, created densely layered paintings full of mythological references, feminist themes, and imaginary creatures.

To coincide with the nocturne, Franco-Mexican dancers Paulina Ruiz Carballido and Stéphanie Janaina perform live throughout the museum, taking their inspiration from her work.

Practical Tips for the Night

Plan your route by neighborhood before you go. The 5th, 6th, and 7th arrondissements alone could fill your entire evening, with Cluny, the Luxembourg, the Rodin, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée de l’Armée all within walking distance of each other.

The 7th and 8th give you the Louvre, Grand Palais, and Petit Palais in one sweep.

The Paris Metro runs late on Friday and Saturday nights, and on La Nuit des Musées, it tends to be busy until the early hours.

The Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay attract the longest queues on this night. If you want them, arrive as close to opening time as possible. If you’d rather avoid the queues, the smaller museums, especially Cluny, the Luxembourg, and the Rodin, offer a much better atmosphere for the special evening programming.