Sorting out museum and metro passes

A family trip for 2 adults and an 8 year old. I have found something called the Paris Pass and also something called the Paris Museum Pass. From everything I can tell, the Paris Pass, which includes a Paris Visite card is much more expensive than buying a Paris Museum Pass and a separte Visite card. (The Navigo doesn%26#39;t make sense for us, based on our arrival and departure dates.)

Both the Paris Pass and the Paris Musuem Pass offer admission to 60 museums and sites (I haven%26#39;t yet compared to see if the lists are identical.) The much more expensive Paris Pass offers some extras the Musuem pass doesn%26#39;t, but nothing we find worth the extra price. So, my plan is for us to get Paris Museum Passes and Paris Visite cards, unless someone sees a flaw in my reasoning or knows something I%26#39;m missing that would change my mind.

But that still leaves me with a question, assuming our son doesn%26#39;t have a Paris Museum Pass. What happens at, eg, the Louvre, which is free to our son. Do we still get to use the special, no wait, Paris Museum Pass line if all 3 of us are going to the museum? And what about some place like La Villette, where there is a charge for him, because he%26#39;s older than 7? Do we have to stand in the long line even though my husband and I have passes in order to buy a ticket for our son?

Of course, we%26#39;re going in December, so my concern about lines may be overblown. On the other hand, we%26#39;ll be there Christmas week and I assume that child oriented places like La Villette will be busy during the week because the local children will be on school vacation.

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Over several visits to Paris there is no way a Paris Visite pass would have been worthwhile for me. I find Paris is a place to walk so a carnet (10 tickets) will usually suffice. On the other hand, in December you may be taking public transportation more often due to the weather.

As for lines, we had museum passes 2 years ago and

skipped the long ticket lines with our then 15 year old daughter so you won%26#39;t have any worries there.

Rob

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You are correct the %26quot;Paris Pass%26quot; is just a combination of the Paris Museum Pass and a separte Visite card. Its basically a rip off. You are better off getting the Paris Museum Pass when you get to Pairs (at the airport or any of the museums - just don%26#39;t try to get it at one of the busy ones!)

I%26#39;m mixed on the Paris Visite pass - you need to take like 5 or 6 metro/bus trips a day to save money over just buying the carnet of tickets. I find the tickets fun to play with but others like to have a single pass to use.

Yes your son will get to go in with you - no problem.

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Thanks. I suspect between the weather and the 8 year old, who can%26#39;t walk as far as we can and who has a passion for subways, we may be spending more time on the metro than we ordinarily would if it were just the 2 of us. But I will look again at the relative prices of the carnet and the Visite. It%26#39;s a good point.