GENERAL INFORMATION ON HUNTS
THATMuse stands for Treasure Hunt at the Museum.
We do not offer tours, nor is any THATMuse treasure hunt guided or accompanied.
The purpose of THATMuse is to allow you to get to know the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Streets of Paris, V&A, Natural History Museum or British Museum on your own, independently of being led.
BOOKING PROCESS
We are happy to answer questions by phone, but only take bookings in writing. To make a booking please fill out this form. In general we request a one-week lead time to take bookings and arrange dates/time. Though there may be chance availabilities with shorter notice, we cannot guarantee this.
TICKETS & LINES IN PARIS & LONDON MUSEUMS
Please note that because of Paris’s heightened security, though there’s an “express lane” for ticket-holders/Museum Passes there is still a security line to enter museums.
There is no skip the line ticket available at any of our museums
Depending on when you go, this can be a bit of a wait. We cannot control the Louvre or Musée d’Orsay’s crowds, and cannot offer a return of your deposit if you cancel on the spot (if you get to the airport and see a long security line Air France would not return your ticket). If you decide to postpone your visit due to these lines, one thing we can offer is to explain the rules of the game and provide the actual materials for you to return on your own at another time, however, please note our introduction will be abbreviated in this case (as some of our presentation includes physically pointing out points within the museum lobbies).
You must get your entry tickets directly from the Louvre or Musée d’Orsay websites, although please purchase these after we’ve confirmed the time of your hunt and please remember to print them prior to meeting. There are also city-wide Museum Passes (which include both the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay) which the Paris Tourist Board sells (& they’re also apparently sold in Paris’s airports), however, please note you have to use slower security lines to enter both museums with these. The museums where we have hunts at in London are all free, however security lines are also unavoidable, unless you want to buy special exhibition tickets (which can be pricey, depending on the show). For all of our private hunts you’re always met outside the museums and escorted through security. For our public hunts and group bookings you’re met within the museum after security lines.
MUSEUM PASSES IN THE HIGH SEASON
If you would like to enter the Louvre with a Museum Pass, it is still necessary to book a timed entry slot online. You can do so here. Please note that without doing so, there is a very high chance that you will be refused entry to the museum, especially in the high season.
Please note that despite the Paris Tourist Board issuing Museum Passes (that lists the Louvre), the Louvre has (as of 25 July 2019) started delaying entry to Museum Passes when their own tickets are sold out. We cannot control nor predict what the Louvre and the Paris Tourist Board do or how they settle their altercation. At other times, when the Paris Pass is accepted at the Louvre (most times) due to long waiting times in the high season (upwards of 2 hours long), the format of the hunt will change slightly. Rather than entering the museum with you, your THATMuse rep will tell you the rules of the hunt outside of the museum in a pleasant shady Louvre alcove rather than accompanying you into the museum.
Note on tickets: None of our hunt prices include museum tickets—it is the client’s responsibility to buy their own tickets. If Louvre tickets are sold out, which often happens a week in advance during high season, we will try to reschedule the client’s hunt but we are unable to issue a refund in this case. Please note in all of correspondences we hyperlink the Louvre entry tickets and have this blog post on alternative ticket sites that sell tickets.
PAYMENT
All private hunts require the payment of a deposit, of an amount to be confirmed by email by the THATMuse team. Please note a booking is not secured until we receive your deposit. Please note that requests may be processed through our head office in London, and will therefore be in pounds, using the exchange rate of the day the PayPal request is sent. The remaining balance is to be paid on the day of the hunt, in cash or by French check for Paris museums, or UK check for London museums. Please note our THATMuse Reps don’t accept other currency, apart from whichever country they’re in (Euros in France, Pounds in England). The purpose of making a deposit is to keep the date and time that we’ve agreed to meet. If you are 20 minutes late, we reserve the right to keep your deposit / payment without waiting further. The contact details of all THATMuse reps is always provided, we request that the client be in touch if they foresee being late (especially if they’ve opted for “friendly competition”).
CLASSIC PRIVATE HUNTS IN PARIS & LONDON MUSEUMS
As is clearly stated in the “Rules + Tools” and on all first-email responses, classic private hunts do not include the THATMuse Rep meeting teams after their hunt. If you would like to be met after for a wrap up (sometimes within the museum, sometimes at a nearby café, depending on what you order) which includes score tallying & a light-hearted prize giving ceremony, we offer the “Luxe Hunt” which includes Kid Packs for families of 6 or fewer.
2-PERSON BOOKINGS – Louvre
With the exception of Public Hunts, we have a 3-person minimum for Louvre bookings without friendly competition, unless you pay a supplement. If you’d like to book for 2 people, we can either a) offer you a slot with friendly competition, in which case you’d pay 58€ (29€ per person), or b) offer you a slot which doesn’t yet have friendly competition, in the hope that someone surfaces closer to the date. In the instance that no competition arises, you’ll be requested to pay the extra 29€ to meet our 3-person minimum (if you’re a 2-person group who’d like to book without friendly competition, the cost is 87€).
PUBLIC HUNTS IN PARIS & LONDON MUSEUMS
Public hunts have themes pegged to holidays and only occur a few times a year for our Paris & London museum hunts. We also have public hunts when we launch new hunts.
TICKETS
THATMuse does not offer museum tickets for Public Hunts. To take part in a Public Hunt, please use the booking page or contact form, or email info@thatmuse.com to book your place. Please do not buy your museum entry ticket until we have confirmed your place, as the public hunt may be full (see below). This applies to Paris museums only, as entry to London museums is free.
ORGANIZATION ON THE DAY
When taking part in a public hunt, please buy your museum entry tickets, check your coats & go to the restroom prior to our agreed meeting time. In the interest of letting the game run smoothly, we reserve the right to start within 10 minutes of meeting (Apologies, but large groups of people have waited because one person was on a very long bathroom line. An average of 30,000 people visit a day, lines can be horrible – please keep this in mind).
TEAMS
Teams are made up of 2 to 4 people. They cannot be larger than 4 people, which touches one of the prime rules (stay together and don’t run!). The only exception to this rule is families with three children, where there can be 5 people per team, at the ratio of 3 kids to 2 adults.
CONDITIONS FOR A PUBLIC HUNT
Public hunts require a minimum of 8 people, and cannot exceed 30 people. When fewer than 8 people have signed up for a public hunt, it is cancelled and your money is returned (sadly). Meeting point within the museum lobby is confirmed 48 to 72 hours (3 days) before the hunt.
PHOTOS
There is a Gallery Page for teams to upload their team photos, if they’d like to see the fun other teams have gotten up to and show your own. Please note by choosing to upload these photos it is public. Special Note to anyone over 18 years of age: Unless you notify THATMuse prior to the hunt, anyone participating must be willing to have their photograph taken for publicity purposes. Your presence indicates your tacit agreement.
THATRUE
Our Paris Street Hunts require a 12-person minimum and are hosted, including score tallying at the end.
THATRUE AS AN ADDITION TO THATLou OR THATd’Or
If you’re going on a classic private hunt in a Paris museum, THATRue is an extra you’re welcomed to purchase but you must schedule your THATRue after your museum hunt (we cannot provide it prior to meeting). We cannot post THATRues to you ahead of time (we offered this at the start and had too many postal problems/hotels misplacing the parcels, unfortunately).
THATRUE AS AN INDEPENDENT BOOKING
THATRue can be ordered independently of the museum hunts if it’s for a group of 12 or larger. It is usually chosen for Hen Parties, Birthdays and Corporate Hunts. And it is often customized. The base price for a 12 person, 4-team THATRue, using 2 routes is 350€ (not including customization). We’ve hosted THATRues up to 200 people, using all three routes of the Latin Quarter. For more information please contact us.
GROUP BOOKINGS
Group Bookings are defined as 12 people or more, examples of which are Corporate Hunts, Birthday / Hen / Stag parties. Groups are charged at a flat rate and are also offered light customization (short-answer questions to be embedded as sneaky bonus questions that are customized to either the corporate culture or the person the event is celebrating) or full-on customization (where we build a whole theme around your industry, person of honor). Groups are also automatically met after the hunt and, if requested, we are happy to arrange for a nearby café or restaurant where you’ll tally scores and have an all-important prize-giving ceremony. However, please note we cannot negotiate menus or include the price of the drinks/dinner (as prohibitive French taxes would cause us to double charge you, and we do not wish to make our clients poor!).
PAYMENT FOR GROUP BOOKINGS
For group bookings we automatically invoice through our head office in London, THATMuse, Ltd. We generally need a minimum of 2-week lead time and Bookings are not secured until the 50% deposit is received (via Wire Transfers), with the remaining 50% paid the day of the hunt. For our invoices please provide us with 1) the Legal Entity, 2) the postal address & 3) the person to whose attention it should be sent. Should you wish to pay the entire cost upfront, please contact us.
MUSEUM TICKETS & REGISTRATION
Please note for large bookings we encourage clients to handle their own entry tickets and registration (we’re happy to send links to facilitate this). For London museums, though entry is free you will still need to register as a group. Please contact us for more details.
TEAMS
Concerning team break-ups (as with all THATMuse museum hunts, teams consist of 2-4 people; THATRue teams, on the streets of Paris, can be larger when need be), we request that you send us your list of teams a minimum of 1 week in advance, to facilitate the organization of the hunt and ensure that it runs smoothly. For groups of 30 or more we request a “team leader” be named per team and often revert to 5-person teams when the group is larger.
CANCELLATION POLICY
PUBLIC & CLASSIC HUNTS (directly booked hunts)
100% of deposit returned if cancelled more than 14 days before the hunt.
50% of deposit returned if canceled more than 72 hours before the hunt (and less than 2 weeks)
None of your deposit is returned if canceled less than 72 hours before the hunt
GROUP BOOKINGS
Cancellation for Group Bookings must be made a minimum of 30 days in advance, or we reserve the right to keep 50% of your deposit. If canceled less than 7 days in advance we reserve the right to keep 100% of your deposit Please note that if you need to re-schedule there is a £100 re-scheduling fee.
LUXE HUNTS & 3rd PARTY BOOKINGS
Cancellations for Luxe Hunts must be made two weeks in advance. Although we are not obliged to postpone/re-schedule a hunt, if we’re able to accommodate, please note there is a €100 re-scheduling fee.
EXPRESS BOOKINGS
Please note that we are unable to offer any refunds with Express bookings.
MUSEUM STRIKES
France is a crazy place and unfortunately strikes do happen at almost every public institution. The Louvre is no exception. Most of the time, strikes do not last the entire day, in which case we will try and reschedule your hunt for later in the day, or if that’s not convenient, later in the week. Please note however, that we are not able to issue a refund if you are unable to attend our rescheduled timings.
GENERAL DISCLAIMER
THATMuse is a great introduction to + overview of Paris and London’s museums; in no form or fashion is there a minute for you to actually take in, let alone fathom the beauty that you’re snapping up. It is a treasure hunt (not a scavenger hunt, as that would connote My Man Godfrey). In addition to being a treasure hunt it’s also a teaser or trailer of what’s on offer. Our mission is to 1) take the “over” out of overwhelming (the Louvre’s 65,000m² is, after all, overwhelming), 2) expand the museums for you, and 3) to get you to un-investigated nooks. Our hope is to get you (or your children) to want to see the museum slowly and on your own, after we’ve whet your art-appetite. Content aside, please note we do not accept liability for any accidents, falls, physical damage, incidents, property loss or property damage during the hunt.
