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The many studies undertaken on museum visitors in the last quarter of a century in France clearly show that museums are as widely diverse as their visitors. They show how far the characteristics of museum visits have changed, whether in terms of context, organization, or the nature and experience of a museum visit and its aftermath. They also bring a more relative perspective to the idea that interest in museums, and therefore types of museum visitors, are mechanically reproduced in society. Scepticism on this point nevertheless remains, and this study brings in three new analytical criteria to help overcome this: free access to museum collections, the company of the visitor and the social moments of museum visits.