Musée Chagall Nice: €12 during exhibitions, free on the first Sunday, shut for lunch in November and December 2026

💡 The Short Version: The Chagall museum is €12 while an exhibition runs and €10 when none does. It is free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month: 1 November and 6 December 2026, 3 January, 7 February, 7 March and 4 April 2027. It shuts from 13:00 to 14:30 in November and December 2026, except from 2 to 7 November, and all day Tuesday. From 1 November it closes at 17:00. No booking is needed for a self-guided visit. The Chagall Couture show runs to 18 January 2027 and again from 6 February to 23 May 2027. Bus 5 or a 15-minute walk from Nice-Ville reaches it. Prices are in euros. Or book a tour: the hop-on hop-off busad round the city is from €24 (it does not stop at the museum), and the Old Town and Castle Hill walking tourad from €26 (GetYourGuide).

Tickets and prices

Prices are the museum’s own, from its practical information page. It is a national museum, separate from the City’s museums, so the City’s Museums Pass does not cover it.

The price is adjusted to the number of rooms open, and some rooms may be shut on some days. The ticket covers the permanent collection and the temporary exhibition. The museum takes euro cash, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express and holiday vouchers.

• Free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month: 1 November and 6 December 2026, 3 January, 7 February, 7 March and 4 April 2027.
• Free on other days for under-26s from the European Union, teachers with a current Pass Éducation, holders of some social benefits, and disabled visitors with one companion each.
• Joint ticket: a combined ticket with the Fernand Léger museum in Biot is valid for 30 days from the day it is issued.
• The French Riviera Pass includes the museum, which it lists at €10. Is the French Riviera Pass worth it?

Guided visits

Self-guided visits need no booking: buy the ticket at the museum on the day. Guided visits for individuals run in French, English and Italian, last an hour and cost €5 on top of the reduced entry price (€4 for ages 6 to 25 and other reduced categories). Groups are limited to 20. Book through the museum’s online platform, or on +33 4 93 53 87 20 from Monday to Friday; there is no booking at weekends, only places left on the day.

Every ticket includes an audio guide for individuals, handed over against an original identity document, not a photocopy. The audio guide is also on your phone through a QR-code route, so bring headphones. It comes in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, and children have a French and English route. Visitors who go free pay €2 for it.

What to see

The museum was built to hold Chagall’s Biblical Message, which he began in the early 1950s and gave to the French State in 1966. The architect André Hermant designed it as a house rather than a gallery, with plain walls and strict forms.

1. The garden and the pond. A garden of olives, cypresses and pines with white and blue flowers leads to the entrance. A pond against the building reflects a mosaic made by Chagall. The garden stays open during the lunch closure.
2. The Biblical Message room. Twelve large paintings on Genesis and Exodus hang in the main hall, which Hermant planned as three interlocking lozenges so that each canvas has its own wall. The Creation of Man (1956 to 1958) and The Sacrifice of Isaac (1960 to 1966) are among them.
3. The Song of Songs room. Five more paintings hang in the hexagonal room next door.
4. Chagall Couture. 76 costume pieces designed by students of the stage-costume course at the Lycée Les Coteaux in Cannes, inspired by Chagall’s work. The first part, to 18 January 2027, centres on the Dead Souls engravings and the colours of the Biblical Message; the second, from 6 February to 23 May 2027, on the Fables illustrations and the Message’s main figures.
5. The café. The Café Chagall in the garden is open without a museum ticket, every day except Tuesday, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December: 10:00 to 16:30 from 2 November to 30 April.

The order that works: arrive at 10:00 and be out by 13:00, then walk the garden or eat during the closure in November and December. If you also go to the Matisse museum, do Chagall in the morning and Matisse in the afternoon, because Matisse has no lunch closure. Allow an hour. What to skip: the guided visit unless you want the commentary; the audio guide covers the rooms.

Hours and practical information

The museum is open daily except Tuesday, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. In November and December 2026 it closes from 13:00 to 14:30, except from 2 to 7 November, when it stays open through the day. On 24 and 31 December it closes at 16:00 and the ticket office at 15:30. Ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing, and the rooms empty 15 minutes before the doors shut.

• Getting there: the museum is on avenue du Docteur Ménard. From Nice-Ville station it is a 15-minute walk. Bus 5 stops at Musée Chagall; the Nice Le Grand Tour sightseeing bus does not come up to Cimiez. Tram 1 to Gare Thiers is 15 minutes on foot from the museum. Parking is free for cars and coaches. The airport is 7 km away.
• Bags: bags are searched at the door. The cloakroom takes only small bags up to 20 x 25 x 40 cm and motorbike or bicycle helmets, not jackets, handbags or laptops.
• Liquids: no water or other liquids inside the museum; they are allowed in the garden, where a bin and a table for bottles are provided. A water fountain is in the first reception building.
• Access: the museum has disabled access and toilets.
• The one thing that ruins a visit: arriving at 13:15 in November or December and waiting until 14:30, or arriving on a Tuesday.

The Matisse museum is also served by bus 5. The Cimiez walk starts at this museum and climbs the hill to the Matisse museum and the Roman baths. Cimiez has the Roman site and the monastery gardens. Best museums in Nice lists the City’s museums with their closed days, and what to book in Nice has the hours of every sight. Things to do in Nice lists the rest. For a bed, see where to stay in Nice, and 3 days in Nice builds the days around the lunch closure.