Musée Rodin Tickets: the Garden, the House and What to See in Two Hours

You pay for the Musée Rodin once, and the garden is already in the price, so the only money worth holding back is the audio guide until you know what you want to look at. The standard ticket costs €14 and covers the Hôtel Biron and the grounds together, which is where the two hours of a normal visit are split almost evenly.

Which Musée Rodin ticket: single, or with the Orsay

Buy the single ticket for €14 on the official site or at the desk, and it opens both the house and the garden. If the Musée d'Orsay is on the same trip, the combined ticket at €25 is cheaper than €14 plus €16 bought apart. It gives one entry to each museum and stays valid for three months, so the two visits do not have to share a day.

Resellers list a “skip the line” Rodin ticket, but it saves nothing here, because the official online ticket already walks past the desk and the museum rarely sells out on the day. The audio guide at €6.50 runs for over two hours across the house and the garden, which is more than most people will use. The Paris Museum Pass is accepted too, so holders just walk in.

A garden-only ticket is sold at the desk; no price is given, not even on the official page.

When to come

Opening hours are Tue–Sun 10 am–6:30 pm, closed Mondays, with the last entry at 5:45 pm and the sales desk closing at 5:30 pm. The rooms start emptying fifteen minutes before closing, so a late arrival buys you the garden and a quick pass through the house. On 24 and 31 December the museum shuts at 5:30 pm and the last entry is 4:45 pm. It stays closed on Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.

The quietest hour is the first one after opening, and the second quiet window starts after 5 pm. Tuesday and Wednesday are calmer than the rest of the week, and tour groups fill the house before lunch. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month from October to March, with no booking needed. The house has no air conditioning, which in July is a reason to do the garden first.

The Thinker sits in the open air in front of the former chapel, so it is the first thing most visitors photograph and the easiest to see without a queue. Then come the Gates of Hell, the doors Rodin worked on for 37 years and never saw cast. Give them a slow minute, because the crowd thins out as soon as the photographs are taken.

The Burghers of Calais stand further along the paths, and the rose garden beside them peaks in June. The café L'Augustine sits in the middle of the garden, with toilets close by, which makes it the natural place for a break. From October to February the garden closes at sunset and it can shut in bad weather, but the Hôtel Biron and its courtyard stay open either way.

Inside the Hôtel Biron the cloakroom is free and sits before the permanent display. The Kiss was carved from a single block of marble, and it deserves a slow circle, since the stone looks very different from each side. Rilke, who worked as Rodin's secretary, has a plaque in the building.

The house also shows Rodin's own collection, which holds three Van Goghs, one Monet and one Renoir, so it works as a small gallery of his taste. Plan half the visit for the house and half for the garden, and note that the shop at 79 rue de Varenne is open without a ticket.

MuseumsThe Rodin is one of the five museums compared by price and closing day in the museum guide, next to the Orsay and the Orangerie, which are the natural next stops.Museums in Paris →

When you only have an hour

With sixty minutes, the garden comes first, because the Thinker and the Gates of Hell are outdoors and the house has no cooling. Cut the visit in this order and the best of it survives.

• Start in the garden with the Thinker, the Gates of Hell and the rose garden.
• Then go into the house for the Kiss and Rodin's collection.
• Leave the audio guide, which needs more than the hour you have.
• Afterwards take the metro or the RER C from Invalides, because the Orsay is one stop away on the RER C.

Getting aroundThe museum sits on metro line 13 at Varenne, and Invalides on lines 8 and 13 and the RER C is close by, all on the same ticket as the rest of the city.Getting around Paris →