Paris museum line

Free Cultural Activities in Paris

Are you new in Paris and wanting to visit its cultural heritages and emblematic places but are tight on a budget?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Firstly, we recommend that you visit regularly the website of the Parisian Tourism Office which offers regular updates of the free cultural event agenda for Paris.

1. Free Museums and Monuments

Paris has many freely accessible museums and monuments. Many museums are also free every first Sunday of the month, which is quite amazing.

There is also a list of museums and collections that are accessible for free all year round. Below you can find a list of permanent free collections displayed in museums with their addresses and closest subway stations.

11 avenue du Président Wilson, Paris 16e — Métro Iéna

  • Maison de Balzac (gratuité des collections hors période d’exposition temporaire)

47 rue Raynouard, Paris 16e — Métro Passy

  • Musée Bourdelle (gratuité des collections seulement en partie en temps d’exposition)

16 rue Antoine Bourdelle, Paris 15e — Métro Montparnasse – Bienvenüe

23 rue de Sévigné, Paris 3e — Métro Saint-Paul Chemin Vert

7 avenue Velasquez, Paris 8e — Métro Villiers

  • Musée Cognacq-Jay (gratuité des collections seulement en partie en temps d’exposition)

Hôtel Donon – 8 rue Elzévir, Paris 3e — Métro Saint-Paul

Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris 8e — Métro Champs-Elysées – Clemenceau

Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée — 6 place des Vosges, Paris 4e – Métro Bastille

16 rue Chaptal, Paris 9e — Métro Pigalle

You may find the list of museums which are free all year round below :

2 rue de la Légion d’honneur, Paris 7e — Métro Solférino

10 rue Mabillon, Paris 6e — Métro Saint-Germain-des-Prés

11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 5e — Métro Cardinal Lemoine / Place Monge

3-5 square de l’Opéra Louis-Jouvet, Paris 9e — Métro Opéra

Hôtel de Police du Ve arrondissement – 4 rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, Paris 5e — Métro Maubert – Mutualité

47 rue Monge, Paris 5e — Métro Cardinal Lemoine

Place Georges Pompidou / Rue Saint Martin, Paris 4e — Métro Rambuteau

142 avenue des Champs-Élysées – 2ème étage, Paris 8e — Métro Charles de Gaulle – Etoile

Place Hannah Arendt, angle des rues des Alouettes et Carducci, Paris 19e — Métro Buttes-Chaumont Jourdain

  • Musée Zadkine (gratuité des collections hors période d’exposition temporaire)

100 bis rue d’Assas, Paris 6e — Métro Notre-Dame-des-Champs

17 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier, Paris 4e — Métro Saint-Paul

59 avenue Foch, Paris 16e — Metro Porte Dauphine

2. Free Cinemas and Open Air Cinemas

Next, if you are a movie lover, there are cinemas that display movies for free and every summer there is the open air cinema located in the 19th district, at Paris la Villette that displays a collection of classic and iconic movies.

There are also free movie festivals organized each year:

Earlier this month, associations in the Ménilmontant neighbourhood organized the Festival des canotiers. The programme includes film screenings, concerts and exhibitions, mainly on the Place Maurice Chevalier, in the 20th arrondissement.

The Silhouette festival takes over the Butte-du-Chapeau-Rouge square in the 19th arrondissement and other locations every year at the end of August and beginning of September and screens short films there. Here’s the information on this year’s program.

To see the best of the world’s short films, go to the Nuits en or: during three evenings in June, the UGC Odéon cinema shows the short films that have won awards at the various international film academies. A must!

The Cinéma du réel festival, which takes place every year in spring in various Parisian cinemas, offers a few free screenings. The programme includes international feature-length and short documentaries and retrospectives of great directors.

3. Free Guided Visits in Paris and Ballads

The Parisian City Hall offers several walking guides to discover the different districts of the city, and Balades Paris Durable, which offers almost twenty walking routes to discover the capital in a different way, encouraging sustainability and favoring the environment. They even have an app!

For lovers of the 7th art (seventh art = septième art in French refers to cinema and film making), the Paris City Council’s Cinema Routes invite you to discover famous, unusual or historic Parisian neighbourhoods based on films shot in the capital: Chocolat, La Môme, Ratatouille, Le Petit Nicolas, Le Diable s’habille en Prada

You can also discover the Tuileries Gardens with a free tour, accompanied by reception staff. From April to the end of October, meet on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays at 3.30 pm at the foot of the triumphal arch of the Carrousel du Louvre.

Finally, there are all sorts of free cultural activities in Paris, including free exercise sessions. To find out more about the open air free gym sessions, you can also be on the lookout on the Paris Info website or follow the exosport page on Instagram for daily updates.

Finally, one more way to find out about free cultural activities is to go to the city hall of Paris in the 1st district (Hôtel de Ville metro station), where you can find flyers about new activities in Paris!

Free cultural activities are a great way to discover the city and even make new friends so we definitely encourage you to hop on this adventure and get out of your comfort zone!

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One thought on “Free Cultural Activities in Paris

  1. I use the website L’Officiel des Spectacles (www.offi.fr) to find classical music concerts in fabulous venues that are free; you can make a contribution to the sponsoring church if you would like, but it is not required for admission. This website has an enormous amount of information to help plan your Paris entertainment.

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