Visiting Le Marais Paris: Getting There, Hours and Tickets

Hours, prices and access verified by the Le Marais Paris Tours team — last checked 2026-09-20.

Nobody sells a ticket to the Marais. It is a quarter of public streets across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, free to walk into at any hour. If you are pricing Le Marais tours and tickets, start with what costs nothing, then decide what is worth paying for.

There is no gate, and a few things that charge

The entrance you are looking for does not exist. You come up out of Saint-Paul metro onto the Rue Saint-Antoine, walk north, and you are in it. The Place des Vosges is five minutes away and costs nothing to stand in. What you pay for is a guide, a museum that charges, or a table.

The museums are the part to plan around. The Carnavalet, the city's own museum of the history of Paris, keeps its permanent collections free. So does the Maison de Victor Hugo, the writer's apartment on the square. The Mémorial de la Shoah is free as well. The Musée Picasso and the mahJ, the museum of Jewish art and history, both charge, and almost every museum here closes on Monday. Each one is described in the museums guide.

What it is	What it costs	When it opens
The Marais itself	Nothing. No gate, no ticket	Always. The streets have no opening hours
Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris, 23 rue Madame de Sévigné	Permanent collections free, no booking	Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00; closed Monday, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Maison de Victor Hugo, 6 Place des Vosges	Permanent collections free; temporary exhibitions €11 full, €9 reduced	Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00
Musée national Picasso-Paris, 5 rue de Thorigny	€16; free on the first Sunday of the month, for under-18s and for EU residents under 26	Tuesday–Sunday 9:30–18:00; closed Monday
mahJ, the museum of Jewish art and history, 71 rue du Temple	€13 full; free under 18, and on the first Saturday of the month from October to June	Tuesday–Friday 11:00–18:00 (Wednesday to 21:00), weekends 10:00–19:00; closed Monday
Mémorial de la Shoah, 17 rue Geoffroy l'Asnier	Free, no reservation	10:00–18:00 every day except Saturday; Thursday to 21:00
Centre Pompidou	Closed. No ticket is sold	Shut since 22 September 2025 for works; reopening in 2030

The Centre Pompidou is shut. It closed on 22 September 2025 for works and reopens in 2030. Some walks still meet opposite it or pass it, and none can take you in. Check each museum's own site before you go, because exhibitions and holiday closures change. The same answers, one by one, are in the FAQs.

Getting here

Take the metro. Line 1 stops at Saint-Paul, on the Rue Saint-Antoine, which is where most walks meet. Line 5 stops at Bréguet-Sabin on the eastern edge, and line 7 at Pont-Marie by the river; the Carnavalet names all three as its own stops. For the covered market at the northern end, use Filles du Calvaire.

Leave the car. The streets are narrow, and every meeting point here is a short walk from a metro exit. One listing gives a street address for drivers, 125 Rue Saint-Antoine, and none promises parking.

Where the tours meet

Four operators meet at Saint-Paul metro, at four different spots. The difference matters: the station has several exits, and a guide waiting by the merry-go-round will not see you at the church. Read the address in your confirmation, not the pin on a map, and see each spot on the meeting-point map. One traveler in the reviews was late for a full-meal walk because the booking app's pin did not match the meeting point.

Meeting point	Where it is	Who meets there
Saint-Paul metro, by the merry-go-round	133 Rue Saint-Antoine	The Secret Food Tours tastings walks, shared and private: look for the orange umbrella
Saint-Paul metro, outside the bakery	129 Rue Saint-Antoine	Both LivTours food walks
Saint-Paul metro, Rue du Prévôt exit	20 Rue du Prévôt, the exit opposite the stairs	Both Babylon history walks through the Jewish quarter
Église Saint-Paul Saint-Louis	99 Rue Saint-Antoine	The ninety-minute history walk
10 Rue Saint-Antoine	By the benches, towards the Bastille end	The Eating Europe food and wine walk: look for the purple bag
Place Louis Aragon	On the Quai de Bourbon, at the tip of the Ile Saint-Louis	Both Do Eat Better full-meal walks
40 Rue de Bretagne	By the Marché des Enfants Rouges	The Original Food Tours walk
Rue des Rosiers	Outside a patisserie on the street itself	The NO DIET CLUB food walk
Place des Vosges	The Louis XIII statue at the center of the garden	The four-hour Jewish history walk
Place de la République	In front of a burger restaurant on the square	The two-hour walk with small tastings
123 Rue Saint-Martin	Opposite the closed Centre Pompidou	The Intrepid history walk
Outside the Marais	Saint-Sulpice, the Fontaine Saint-Michel, and an office in the 15th near Dupleix metro	The walk from Saint-Germain and both bike rides
Your hotel	Any address in central Paris	The private custom day

The walks that start on the Place Louis Aragon begin on the Ile Saint-Louis and cross into the Marais on foot. The walk from Saint-Germain spends its first hour on the Left Bank. The two bike rides start further out still: the Blue Bike ride spends about an hour in the quarter, and the Fat Tire ride stops there for about twenty minutes.

The day of the week matters more than the month

Monday is the day to avoid if you want a museum afterwards: the Carnavalet, the Maison de Victor Hugo, the Musée Picasso and the mahJ all close. The walks themselves run every day.

Saturday is the Mémorial de la Shoah's closed day. On Sunday the shops open, because the Marais is one of the city's international tourist zones, where shops may trade on Sundays and in the evening. Expect the streets at their busiest on a fine Sunday afternoon.

What a first morning costs

A morning here can cost you nothing at all, or as much as a good dinner. The difference is whether you add a guide, a museum or a meal. Museum prices are in euros, as each museum publishes them; tour fares are in US dollars, as the operators' own listings show them.

The morning	What you pay	What it gives you
Walking the streets	Nothing	The Place des Vosges, the townhouse courtyards that stand open, the Rue des Rosiers and the covered market
A free museum	Nothing	The history of Paris at the Carnavalet, or Victor Hugo's apartment on the square
A paid museum	€13 to €16	The Musée Picasso, or the mahJ in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan
A history walk	$50 to $117 per person	Ninety minutes to four hours with a guide, and no food
A food walk	$37 to $174 per person	Two to three and a half hours, tastings or a full meal, most with wine
A private walk	$222 to $274 per person for the private food walks	Your party alone at the hour you choose; the fare falls per head as the party grows

None of the fares includes a museum, and none includes a tip. A food walk's fare is the food, the drinks it lists and the guide. A history walk's fare is the guide alone.

Not sure which kind of morning you want?

A history walk takes ninety minutes to four hours and feeds you nothing. A food walk takes two to three and a half and replaces a meal.

See Le Marais tours Compare every tour

Diets, children and wheelchairs

Read the listing before you book a food walk. Several say they cannot take vegan or gluten-free diets. Do Eat Better and Eating Europe both turn away severe or life-threatening allergies, and Do Eat Better offers vegetarian options. The listings that state a drinking age set it at 18.

Small children free: the Intrepid history walk takes under-6s free and calls itself child-friendly; Eating Europe takes under-4s free, with food tickets from age 4.
Child fares: the Do Eat Better walk sells a band from 6 to 10, and the Blue Bike ride carries child seats and tandems, booked in advance.
Age limits: the private Secret Food Tours walk is for adults only, and the four-hour Jewish history walk sets a minimum age of 11.
Wheelchairs: a few listings say they are accessible, among them the Eating Europe walk and the ninety-minute history walk. Most say nothing, so ask.

When a tour is worth paying for

For the streets and the squares you need nobody: walk in and look up. A history walk earns its fare in the courtyards and the stories you would walk straight past, and in the Jewish quarter, whose history is not written on the walls. A food walk earns it in knowing which counter to queue at and which bakery is worth the detour.

It also earns it by holding you a place. The shared walks cap their groups at between 6 and 14, so a popular morning fills first, and the private walks need a guide free on your day.

Asked before you go

Do you need a ticket to visit Le Marais Paris?

No. The Marais is a district of public streets with no gate and no admission charge, so you can walk in at any hour for nothing. What costs money is a tour fare, or a museum that charges, such as the Musée Picasso at €16.

Is the Centre Pompidou open?

No. It closed on 22 September 2025 for works and reopens in 2030. A few walks still pass the building, but none can take you in.

What day is best for a tour of the Marais?

Avoid Monday if you want a museum afterwards: the Carnavalet, the Maison de Victor Hugo, the Musée Picasso and the mahJ all close. The Mémorial de la Shoah is shut on Saturday, and on Sunday the shops open, because the Marais is an international tourist zone.

Which exit of Saint-Paul metro should I use?

The one your operator names. Four operators meet at Saint-Paul, at four different addresses: by the merry-go-round, outside a bakery at 129 Rue Saint-Antoine, at the exit on the Rue du Prévôt, and at the church. Read the confirmation, not the map pin.

Are the tours wheelchair accessible?

A few say so in their listings: the Eating Europe walk, the Original Food Tours walk, the Paris Always Walk history walk and the private Babylon walk. Most do not, so check the listing and ask the operator.

Can I go inside a synagogue on a tour?

Not on the Babylon walks, which say entry is restricted for security reasons. If going inside matters to you, ask the operator of any Jewish history walk before you book.

Do the tours include hotel pickup?

No, apart from the private custom day, which meets you at your hotel or any address in central Paris. Every other tour starts at a meeting point in the street.

Next: read when to visit Le Marais for the days and seasons, see what to look for in things to do, or compare every fare on Le Marais Paris Tours.