Overview

Free to visit and free Audio Guide because experience is vastly subpar to an able bodied experience. In France, the term PMR (person of reduced mobility) Is used to class some physical disabilities. In this case I would say that this museum is not accessible to most PMR/ those who have reduced mobility, independently. They have some resources for the visually impaired, can't comment on them. However, it’s a free activity, and the artefacts are stunning and inspiring for creatives. Spent about 8 hours across two days and visited about half the collection.

Transport & Parking

I'm a wheelchair user, so we took the bus to get here twice. The 42 service and the 80. Also available and within reasonable range for a manual chair user are the 92 and 63. Journey from the bus stops to the main entrance is level. There is supposedly a car park around the north, we did not use it.

Access

Principal Entrance Disabled access is poor. If you use the principal entrance, you are immediate greeted by rolling hills as part of the landscaping and theme of the gardens. There was supposedly a lift to get past this and we tried using it, but were told by staff not to use it, because it’s for staff, despite it being labelled as an accessible entrance. Staff are not trained or briefed that its available to PMR. Regardless, to get from the ticketing office to the museum entrance and to the cafe/restaurant is a steep artificial hill which you cannot get around. Staff push you up to the entrance, but you have to wait for someone to be available and you cannot do this independently. Price Completely free to PMR and disabled folk and their accompanying person, including permanent collection and temporary exhibitions and audio guides. You need proof of this, I used a blue badge. Entry to museum Then when you enter the museum, almost none of the floor is level. This is a nightmare when trying to get around and exhausting. someone will normally accompany you from the ticket office, through a separate entrance, take you to the ticket office, or sometimes validate your ticket themselves, get your free audio guide (Which has only English and French) then take you to the lift that you can’t access without a member of staff swiping their badge. You can be left waiting a while for staff to come down on busy days. The reason given that staff have to swipe their badge to let you use the lift was that people were avoiding paying by using the lift. It does mean you can't go up independently. You also end up in an odd spot in the visit. Your entrance doesn’t follow the direction of the visit, so it’s a little disorienting. Permanent collection hall: The first thing I noticed was how dark it was. It was hard to see the floor as it was in some places either painted black, or obscured in shadow. This make it hard to gauge where you were and manoeuvre. Because the alarms are very sensitive, Alarms go off several times per hour. The museums floor is shaped like a very shallow bowl. you are meant to walk or roll down from each corner into the centre, four times. unfortunately, it means you have to climb that small gradient of about 3 or three meters across a very large distance over again 3 or 4 times. you could probably ask staff to push you back up, but it is not doable for a manual chair user independently. This is the design of the building, so there’s not much the museum could do. Displays All the few oil paintings in the museum were both hung far to high to see, and the spotlight aimed at them, is angled to reflect back at eye level for chair users. This meant if you tried to get close, the paintings would be blown out by the spot light, and when you were far enough back, you couldn’t see the details. Hanging these slightly lower would solve the problem. The oceanic section was mostly accessible, with many displays that you could roll under and get a closer look at things. The north Africa and Africa sections were much less accessible, with standard vertical cabinets with sunken in displays. You can see the top half of the display, but not the bottom. There are also many artefacts that are in deep box like displays, some of which are very high up, and deep into them. it’s impossible to see these from a lowered point of view. There were also painted plates and bowls that were angled to be seen from a standing angle, but not possible to see from below this sightline. Information The display information, which is already sparse is mostly in French. there are a few English paragraphs here and there about the collections in general. Audio books seemed to be in English or French, but only covered about 3 percent of the collection, so unless you know French, or are able to read long paragraphs of small white letters, you won’t get much information about the objects. Most of the artefacts, from being looted, or purchased and donated through several private buyers don’t have any information about their context to begin with. Zombie exhibition This was a very nice exhibition, well researched and entertaining. Unfortunately, many people were viewing it, and navigating the exhibition, down narrow crooked corridors made it hard to get around people. everything was thankfully level, and we got a free ticket with our general admission. All in All The artefacts are stunning and inspirational. It’s a rough experience, but it’s completely free and doable with assistance. Good if you need to waste time, and you can visit again and again. The collection is pretty unethical, so anything that wastes their money is a plus imo. If you want a great museum experience when you are in Paris though, I recommend the Cluny museum instead, which is only 12 euros, level and fully accessible.

Toilets

Accessible loos were decent, but badly stocked. Did not spot a red chord.

Staff

Staff were willing to help but were not always up to date with accessibiliy information

Photos