Hotels near Petit Palais

Charles Girault started the Petit Palais on 10 October 1897 and finished it in April 1900 for the Exposition Universelle, and the city turned it into its fine arts museum in 1902. The permanent collection runs from antiquity to 1914 and costs nothing to enter, with no booking required. The building's best room is not a room: it is the semi-circular interior courtyard, ringed by coupled columns of pink Vosges granite and gilt bronze, with a garden and a cafe in the middle of it.

Geography is the whole argument here. The Petit Palais faces the Grand Palais across avenue Winston-Churchill, a gap of well under 100 m. In 2025 the free Art Basel Paris Public Program placed an installation by Julius von Bismarck inside the Petit Palais and lined avenue Winston-Churchill itself with seven outdoor sculptures, turning the street between the two palaces into an open-air show that cost nothing to walk through. The 2026 line-up is published closer to the fair, so treat that as the pattern rather than a promise. The catch: the museum shuts at 18:00, an hour before the fair, and temporary exhibitions are charged separately at 17 euros full price and 15 euros reduced.

Metro lines 1 and 13 both stop at Champs-Elysees-Clemenceau, which surfaces onto avenue Winston-Churchill less than 200 m from the door; line 9 to Franklin D. Roosevelt is a slightly longer walk. Opening hours are 10:00 to 18:00 Tuesday to Sunday, with galleries clearing from 17:45, and Friday and Saturday extended to 20:00 for the paying exhibitions. Closed Mondays.

Pro Tip: Arrive at 10:00 on Friday 23 October. The permanent collection is free and needs no reservation, and you get the Girault courtyard and the cafe an hour before the Grand Palais opens its doors at 11:00.