The strategy
One museum each morning, lunch nearby, then an afternoon outside. Spend the Louvre day around Palais-Royal and the Orsay day around Saint-Germain. If you’re tired after lunch, skip the walk.
This itinerary needs two full days; arrive the night before. For a trip with more monuments and neighborhoods, use the three-day Paris itinerary.
Key decisions
Book the museum slots before lunch reservations. Ticket availability and closure days decide the order.
Monday–Tuesday: Louvre, then Orsay. Tuesday–Wednesday: Orsay, then Louvre. Otherwise choose the order around available entry slots, checking both official calendars for holiday closures and exceptional notices.
| Museum | Normally closed | Time to set aside |
|---|---|---|
| Louvre | Tuesday | One morning plus entry time and a flexible lunch |
| Musée d’Orsay | Monday | One morning plus entry time and a flexible lunch |
The closure days come from the Louvre visitor page and Orsay visitor page. The visit blocks are Carmen’s planning estimates, not measured queue times. Allow longer if you like to read labels, sketch or take frequent breaks.
Check your dates
Enter your dates to check closures and get a suggested order.
Museum and venue rules checked 5 September 2026. This is a planning aid, not live ticket availability or a guarantee of opening. Special closures and future schedule changes can affect the result. Confirm your dates with the museums before booking.
A sample two-day itinerary
Times are planning estimates. Use your booked entry slot and allow extra time for queues.
Louvre → Palais-Royal → Le Fumoir
Louvre day: the museum, Palais-Royal and dinner nearby
- 08:00–09:00
Breakfast and the journey in
Have breakfast near your hotel. If you are approaching from Opéra on a weekday, Café Nuances at 25 rue Danielle Casanova opens at 08:00 for coffee. On weekends it opens at 09:00: save it for after the museum rather than squeezing it in before a 09:30 ticket.
- 09:30–12:30
Louvre: Géricault and Delacroix
Start in the Denon wing. Give yourself three hours, including entry and time to walk between rooms.
Géricault and Delacroix
Start with Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. The first turns a shipwreck into an enormous, uncomfortable public image; the second takes the July 1830 uprising into the language of allegory. Look at who is carrying the picture forward, who has fallen, and where the painter makes your eye travel.
The Louvre’s own trail places this stop in Room 700, Denon wing, Level 1. Check current room access before setting out.
If this is your first Louvre visit
Use the official Masterpieces trail as the route. The museum labels it 90 minutes; we keep a three-hour morning for entry, walking, crowds and time to look. Those are different measures. If you have already seen the familiar highlights, the same page offers a one-hour Richelieu trail as an alternative. Choose one route before adding another wing.
- 12:30–14:00
Leave the museum and have lunch
Allow time to exit and reach a table. Le Fumoir, at 6 rue de l’Amiral de Coligny on the east side of the Louvre, is one nearby option. Reserve its restaurant if you want a fixed meal; allow a buffer after the museum.
- 14:00–16:00
Palais-Royal, or a longer break
Walk toward Palais-Royal for a change of scale after the galleries. Keep this afternoon unreserved. If you choose the Tuileries instead, walk west and skip Palais-Royal rather than forcing both into the afternoon.
The garden at Palais-Royal. Gerda Arendt, 2023 · CC0. - 16:00–19:00
Hotel break and an optional drink
Return to your base before dinner if you need to. Le Fumoir also has a bar, so it can be your drinks stop if you ate elsewhere at lunch. Its bar does not take reservations.
- 19:30 onward
Dinner on the Right Bank
Use Le Fumoir for dinner instead of lunch if that fits your museum exit better. Choose another table near your hotel if returning to the Louvre area means backtracking.
Musée d’Orsay → L’Arrêt → Saint-Germain → Cravan
Orsay day: art, rue du Bac and Saint-Germain
- 08:00–09:00
Breakfast at Café de Flore, or near your hotel
If you are staying in Saint-Germain, Café de Flore opens at 07:30. It takes no reservations; leave by about 08:45 to walk toward Orsay and find your entrance. If your hotel is beside the museum, eat there instead of walking away from it first.
Café de Flore on boulevard Saint-Germain. Celette, 2019 · CC BY-SA 4.0. - 09:30–12:30
Orsay: Manet and Monet
Start with the two paintings below, then explore the neighboring rooms. If you book a temporary exhibition, allow for it within this morning.
Manet and Monet
Make Manet’s Olympia and Monet’s La Gare Saint-Lazare your two anchors. One gives you a person looking directly back at the viewer; the other makes a railway station dissolve into steam and light.
Orsay’s current record places the Monet on the upper level in Room 31. Use the linked artwork records and museum map to check today’s display locations; loans and gallery changes can affect what you see. Spend the rest of the morning with the neighboring works that interest you. Add a temporary exhibition only by taking time from the collection visit.
- 12:30–14:00
Lunch around rue du Bac
Book L’Arrêt by The Grey at 36 rue de l’Université for lunch after Orsay. Chef Mashama Bailey’s Southern cooking is the reason to come. Weekday lunch runs noon–15:00; Saturday, noon–16:00. It is closed Sundays; use Les Antiquaires at 13 rue du Bac as a nearby alternative, checking its service before you go.
- 14:00–16:00
Continue into Saint-Germain
Follow rue du Bac toward boulevard Saint-Germain, then head east into Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Stop when a café or shop appeals.
- 16:00–19:00
Rest, then dinner
Return to your hotel if you want a break. Les Antiquaires can be your dinner option instead of lunch; otherwise choose a restaurant around your base so dinner does not add a cross-city transfer.
- After dinner
Logistics
Keep each day on its own side of the river. Most transfers within these routes are walking connections; the museum visit itself also involves substantial time on your feet.
| Journey | How to plan it |
|---|---|
| To the Louvre | The museum lists Métro lines 1 and 7 at Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre. Check your ticket’s entrance instructions. Official directions. |
| To Orsay | The museum lists Métro line 12 at Solférino and RER C at Musée d’Orsay. Official directions and access. |
| Louvre → Le Fumoir | Walk toward the museum’s eastern side. Your actual exit changes the route. Open walking directions. |
| Orsay → L’Arrêt | Continue toward rue du Bac and rue de l’Université. Open walking directions. |
| Saint-Germain → Cravan | Finish on boulevard Saint-Germain if you want cocktails. Open walking directions. |
Use the linked directions for a current route and time estimate. With luggage, limited mobility or heavy rain, compare a taxi with public transport from your actual starting point. These walking routes have not been audited for step-free access.
Before you leave the hotel
- Leave an exit buffer. Do not place lunch immediately after an optimistic museum finish time. Tell the restaurant if your plans change.
- Check entry and bag rules. Look at the museum’s current visitor information before bringing luggage. Ask your hotel about storage instead of assuming every bag will be accepted.
- Keep the last day realistic. If you leave Paris that afternoon, remove the neighborhood walk and evening. Plan your station or airport transfer separately around your actual departure.
- Make dietary needs part of the booking. Read current menus and contact restaurants about allergies or other requirements; a generic cuisine label is not enough.
Hotels
Keep one base for the whole stay. For this route, start by comparing the Orsay area with the Louvre/Palais-Royal area: both keep your hotel connected to the days you came for. Pick Orsay for an easy return after the second collection; pick the Right Bank if the Louvre and Palais-Royal are your main anchor.
Two full museum days may mean three hotel nights if you arrive the evening before and leave the morning after. Match the stay to your actual trains or flights before comparing prices.
These are researched candidates, not personally inspected stays. Official hotel information checked on . Compare the full stay total, including breakfast and taxes, for the same occupancy and cancellation terms. If central rates do not work, look farther out and price the daily journey as well as the room; keep museum tickets, meals and airport or station transfers separate.
Food & drink sources
The café choices draw on Eater’s June 2024 café guide; see its coverage of L’Arrêt by The Grey and Cravan in its 2024 Paris guide. Le Fumoir and Les Antiquaires are nearby practical options, checked against their own websites. Venue links are in the itinerary above.
Secrets
Orsay doesn’t have to be a morning visit
Check Thursday evening tickets. Orsay lists a Thursday late opening, so you can spend the day outside and visit later. Check last admission before booking dinner. Official hours.
There’s a bookshop inside Cravan
Look for the Rizzoli bookstore at the Saint-Germain address. The building at 165 boulevard Saint-Germain combines books, three cocktail bars and interiors by Ramy Fischler. Check bookstore hours separately from bar service. Cravan’s website.
Travel with Carmen
Personalized itineraries are coming. For now, read the complete guide, use the date planner and make the route your own.
Sources and editorial approach
Museum, hotel and venue information researched on 5 September 2026. Hotel and restaurant links appear beside each recommendation. Museum information comes from the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay. Always check their current notices before booking. Route choices and time allocations are Carmen Editorial recommendations, not claims of firsthand testing.
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