Paris Rainy Day Museums: Indoor Plan

Paris records about 110 rainy days a year. That means roughly one in three days of any trip will involve at least a drizzle. The classic mistake is to flip an outdoor plan into a Louvre dash and end up in a 2 hour security queue with wet shoes.

This guide shows how to chain three Paris museums in one rainy day while staying mostly dry, plus the best covered passages between venues and the indoor lunch options that beat huddling under a cafe awning.

The classic dry chain: Orsay - Orangerie - Louvre

Three top museums on the same kilometer of right and left bank. Start at the Orsay at 9:30 opening. Cross the Pont Royal at 12:00. Walk 5 minutes covered through the Tuileries arcade to the Orangerie. Lunch at the Orangerie cafe.

Walk 7 more minutes along the rue de Rivoli arcades to the Louvre Carrousel entranceCarrousel entranceAn underground access point to the Louvre through the Carrousel du Louvre complex. at 15:00. The Carrousel entry skips the outdoor pyramid queue and is fully covered. This dry chain works in any month.

Best single rainy day museum

If you can only choose one museum for a rainy day, pick the Louvre. Its 73,000 square meters of indoor space and 35,000 artworks mean you can spend 6 hours inside without retracing your steps.

The Sully wingSully WingThe Louvre wing surrounding the eastern Cour Carrée and housing collections including Greek antiquities and palace history., the Egyptian antiquities and the Apollo Gallery are the best dry zones. Avoid the Cour Marly and the Cour Puget on a rainy day because their glass roofs amplify the noise.

Best small museums when it rains

The Musee Cognacq-Jay in the Marais is free, fully indoor and full of 18th century French decorative art. The Maison Victor Hugo nearby is also free.

The Musee Carnavalet, free permanent collectionPermanent collectionThe works an institution holds and presents over time, although individual objects may rotate or leave display., runs an entire square kilometer of indoor rooms and connecting hallways. You can spend 3 hours there without seeing a window.

Covered passages between venues

Paris has 20 covered passages from the 19th century that you can chain into a 4 km indoor walk. Passage des Panoramas, Galerie Vivienne, Passage Choiseul and Passage Jouffroy connect the Opera quarter to the Pompidou neighborhood.

On a rainy day, exit the Pompidou at 17:00, walk Galerie Vivienne and Passage des Panoramas to the Grands Boulevards, then take metro line 8 to Concorde. You see actual Paris architecture without an umbrella.

Rainy day lunch and pause options

The Louvre has 3 cafes inside the museum plus a food court at the Carrousel. The Orsay has 2 restaurants including the Belle Epoque dining room. The Pompidou has a top floor cafe with city views.

The Marais offers Cafe Hugo on Place des Vosges and the Marche des Enfants Rouges covered food market just north. Both are 5 minutes walking from the Picasso Museum.

A rainy Paris day is actually the best museum day because lines shrink by 30 to 40 percent. Plan the dry chain, book your timed slots in advance, pack a small umbrella for the doorways, and you will get more art and less queue than any sunny visitor.