Step Off Rue du Faubourg Montmartre Into the World of Banksy
You come up the street through the 9th arrondissement, past the shopfronts and café terraces of a working Paris boulevard, and stop at number 44 on rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Inside is Le Musée Banksy, also branded The World of Banksy: a permanent exhibition devoted to the street artist's murals. What you are walking into is not a white-cube gallery. It is an immersive scenographic exhibition, built to put you in front of more than 100 works and to reconstruct the walls, cities and contexts they came from. Note what this place is and isn't: it is a commercial exhibition and it is not affiliated with the artist.
More Than 100 Works, From Paris to Bethlehem
The collection gathers Banksy's murals as they exist — or existed — across Paris, London, Bristol, Bethlehem, Los Angeles and Port Talbot. Because the exhibition is scenographic, you move through the material as a series of environments rather than a single room of frames. Among the works named in the exhibition are:
- "Flower Thrower" (also called "Flower Chucker"), 2003
- "Out of Bed Rat", 2002
- "No Ball Games", 2009
- "If Graffiti Changed Anything It Would Be Illegal", 2011
- "Puking", 2015
- "Kids Rolling a Burning Tire", 2016
- "The Little Girl and the Soldier", Bethlehem, 2008
- "Rats de Paris"
Recognising a piece you have only ever seen as a photograph, then finding it at scale in a staged street, is the pleasure of the visit. Take your time with the Bethlehem and Port Talbot pieces in particular — they carry the furthest distance into the room.
See the Walled Off Hotel Next Door
Before you leave, look to the neighbouring address. A related attraction, "The Walled Off Hotel" installation, sits right next door to the museum, which makes the visit naturally into a two-part one. Plan your time so you are not rushing the second half.
Know Before You Go
The museum is open every day, and tickets are sold through Fever (feverup.com). Opening hours and prices are listed on the exhibition's practical information page, so check those before you set out and book ahead rather than arriving hopeful. The site is published in both French and English. The address is 44 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009 Paris, and the phone number is 01 82 83 28 55.
If you are building the rest of your Paris days around this, remember the city's own rhythms: most museums and galleries close on either Monday or Tuesday, and all national museums and monuments are free to everyone on the first Sunday of the month — which also means long lines and crowded rooms. The Paris Museum Pass, sold in 2-day, 4-day and 6-day denominations, covers more than 70 museums and monuments and lets you skip lengthy queues, though you still pay for most special exhibitions. Keep away from Paris during Easter week if crowds are what you want to avoid.
Make It a Day in the 9th
Pair the visit with the neighbourhood you are already standing in. From rue du Faubourg Montmartre you are within reach of the Opera Garnier, the 19th-century theatre masterpiece built by Charles Garnier and inaugurated in 1875, and of the Musée national du Moyen Âge, home to the five "The Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries in a part-Roman, part-medieval building. Both reward a slower afternoon. If you have the appetite for a longer walk, the Musée de l'Orangerie in the Jardin des Tuileries holds Monet's "Water Lilies" — a 360-degree depiction of his flower garden at Giverny — alongside Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings by Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau, Soutine and Sisley.
Start with the practical information page for opening hours and a Fever booking, then give the day room on either side of it: the 9th arrondissement in the morning, the Walled Off Hotel next door after, and one of the city's older museums before the light goes. Build the trip around the address at 44 rue du Faubourg Montmartre and the rest of Paris arranges itself around you.