Visit to Paris needn't cost arm and leg

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 2, 2005 | by Jocelyn Gecker Associated Press

Entry to the Musee d'Orsay, www.musee-orsay.fr, for Paris' great Impressionist collection, costs $9.30 but drops to $6.80 on Sundays and every day after 4:15 p.m. (or 8 p.m. on Thursdays) -- two hours before closing time.

For art en pleine air head to the Rodin Museum, www.musee- rodin.fr, where the real bargain is the $1.25 entry fee to the gardens. Tucked amid the linden trees are some of Rodin's greatest works -- large bronze casts of The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais. Bring a picnic lunch and stay awhile. The museum itself charges $6.20.

Eagerly awaited this fall is the return of a Paris architectural jewel, the Grand Palais. Its grand central hall reopens after a 12- year structural overhaul that restored the building's glass-and- steel cupola, a glittering landmark in the Paris skyline. The work cost $124 million but visitors get to view it for free until Oct. 1. After that, the Grand Palais resumes its function as a cultural center for festivals, exhibits and fashion shows.