Gone are the days of impersonal cafeterias! Museum cafés have been reinventing themselves in recent years to offer visitors an unforgettable museum experience! Whether on a rooftop, in a courtyard or overlooking the Seine, here’s our selection of cafés and terraces that we love just as much as the museums that house them! And some of them are even accessible without a ticket!
The Musée d’Orsay Terrace
La Terrasse takes you to the 5th floor of the Musée d’Orsay. It was on these rooftops that the institution opened its open-air café in June 2025. This new address is already a must for the exceptional panorama it offers museum visitors! The Sacré-Coeur, the Ferris wheel in the Jardin des Tuileries, the Seine and the Olympic Vasque are all part of this postcard setting! On the menu: snacks, champagne, cocktails and soft drinks!
📍 Location: 5th floor of the Musée d’Orsay – Esplanade Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 75007 Paris
📆 Date/time: all summer – Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4:45pm, except Thursday, 10am to 8:30pm
🎟️ Price: free access for museum ticket holders
Han Rooftop at the Musée Guimet
How about a tête à tête with the Iron Lady and some Korean flavors? At the very top of the Musée Guimet, you’ll find Han Rooftop, the special Korean street food spot, offering both on a platter! Its panoramic roof offers a sublime view of the Eiffel Tower and its kitchens, a menu of typical savory dishes (bulgogi, bibimbap…) and sweets!
📍 Location: Han Rooftop on the 3rd floor of the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet – 6 Place d’Iéna, 75116 Paris
📆 Opening hours: every day (except Tuesday) from 10am to 6pm / until October 4, 2025: nocturnes on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
🎟️ Price: free admission for museum ticket holders + free admission on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings in summer
The Café Marmottan at the Musée Marmottan-Monet
Until the end of September, the Musée Marmottant-Monet ‘s café is taking to the air with Jardin Marmottan, its summer tea room! Sit back and relax under the parasols in the elegantly decorated courtyard of the Musée Marmottant-Monet! Hot and cold drinks, small dishes, original ice creams and cultural encounters on Thursdays!
📍 Location: Musée Marmottant-Monet – 2 Rue Louis Boilly, 75016 Paris
📆 Date/time: until September 28, 2025 – Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm, and until 8pm on Thursdays
🎟️ Price: free access for museum ticket holders
Sunfish at the Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration
Poisson Lune is clearly the most festive and electrifying museum terrace of the season! This summer bar at the foot of the imposing Palais de la Porte Dorée, home to the Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration, is the perfect place to sip a drink as the sun goes down, enjoy a street food dish, and take in an explosive program of cultural events!
📍 Location: Poisson Lune at the Palais de la Porte Dorée – 293, avenue Daumesnil, 75012 Paris
📆 Date: May 15 to end September 2025 – Tuesday to Sunday: 4pm to midnight and 12pm to midnight on weekends
🎟️ Price: free admission
Café FIKA at the Swedish Cultural Institute
If you’re looking for a quiet terrace in the Marais district, head for FIKA, the café of the Swedish Cultural Institute. Run by a French couple who have fallen in love with Sweden, this café is a nod to fika, the traditional Swedish snack break. In the elegant courtyard of the Hôtel de Marle, this address offers a parade of kanelbulle, Nordic lattes and other Swedish-inspired dishes!
📍 Location: Café FIKA at the Swedish Cultural Institute – 11 rue Payenne, 75003 Paris
📆 Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 8:30am to 7pm (summer nights: Thursday to Saturday until 9pm)
🎟️ Price: free admission
The Café Renoir at the Musée de Montmartre
High up on the Butte Montmartre, the Café Renoir is the place to be in the neighborhood. Away from the busy tourist streets, this haven of peace has taken up residence in the grounds and garden of the Musée de Montmartre. A peaceful corner of greenery with a view of the Montmartre water tower and the Sacré-Coeur campanile tower… a setting straight out of a painting!
📍 Location: Café Renoir du Musée de Montmartre – 12, rue Cortot, 75018 Paris
📆 Opening hours: daily, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
🎟️ Price: free access for holders of a ticket for the Renoir museum or gardens.
Les Petites Mains terrace at the Palais Galliera
And another view of the Eiffel Tower! At the Palais Galliera, enjoy a gourmet break amidst the majestic columns of the building that houses a museum dedicated to fashion! All summer long, you can sample dishes by chef Youssef Gastli, inspired by his sojourns in the Mediterranean! The Petites Mains terrace is open for lunch, snacks and even longer evenings!
📍 Location: Palais Galliera – 10 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 75116 Paris
📆 Date/time: open in summer – Lunch Tuesday to Friday, 12 noon to 2.30pm, and weekends 12 noon to 4pm. Dinner Tuesday to Saturday, by reservation, from 7:30pm to 10pm.
🎟️ Price: free admission
Rose Bakery Tea Room at Maison de Balzac
Take a seat in this café overlooking the Eiffel Tower, where Honoré de Balzac regales! The house in which he lived from 1840 to 1847 has now been transformed into a delightful museum. Located in the village of Passy, before it became part of Paris in 1860, the house has retained its country house feel. Sitting at one of the tables in the garden, you could almost expect the writer to bring you coffee as if you were friends!
📍 Location: Rose Bakery Team Room at Maison de Balzac – 47, rue Raynouard (entrance via 49, rue Raynouard), 75016 Paris
📆 Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
🎟️ Price: free admission
The Quai de la Photo café
In the 13th arrondissement, you’ll find a café with a very contemporary feel right on the Seine. Quai de la Photo, a floating art center dedicated to photography, hits the nail on the head with its bar-resto-café space, whose interior architecture is cleverly designed to offer views of Quai François-Mauriac and the BNF on one side, and the river on the other! The multi-level, light-filled venue is open until 2am!
📍 Location: Quai de la Photo – 9 port de la Gare, 75013 Paris
📆 Opening hours: 12 noon to midnight/1am/2am depending on the season
🎟️ Price: free admission
The café at the Musée de la Vie romantique
Currently closed for renovations, the Musée de la Vie romantique boasts one of the most delightful cafés. It was in the backyard of an old mansion (from the first half of the XIXᵉ century) that it took root and seduced, for years, visitors to the museum and residents of the neighborhood. Set in a greenhouse-like glass roof, this café is the perfect place for a gourmet and contemplative break! We’re already in the starting blocks for its reopening, scheduled for March 2026… Just in time for spring!
📍 Location: Musée de la Vie romantique – 16, rue Chaptal, 75009 Paris
📆 Date: reopening in March 2026
🎟️ Price: free admission