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Visitors guide to the Legion of Honor

On the windy Golden Gate side of the city, in the Richmond District far from downtown and tourists, the Legion of Honor sits on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and it is rarely crowded.

Many people come for the art - it offers one of the finest collections of European art in the country, including an impressive array of sculptures - but the views of the Golden Gate and the building itself are big draws as well. 

Don’t miss a larger-than-life cast of Rodin’s “The Thinker” in the front of the building. It’s free to go in that far ($15 to go farther).

Inside, be ready for a tour of works by Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, van Gogh and many more of the most famous artists in history.

The museum borrows a lot from France. Rodin was French. The Legion of Honor was designed as a replica of a French palace, and out front near the Rodin sculpture is a small glass pyramid akin to (but much smaller than) the one at the Louvre in Paris.

One advantage to this museum: They have plenty of benches on which you can rest while gazing at the art.

Another advantage: It has one of the better cafes to be found inside a museum. It’s in the basement.

The museum sits adjacent to the Lincoln Park Golf Course. From the outside, where you can admire the grandiose Beaux-Arts architecture, walk toward the ocean and check out the Holocaust memorial beside the parking lot. Look for it to the left of the big fountain at the front of the museum.

Hot tip: You can get in free on the first Tuesday of each month. If you go another time and pay the $15, that entitles you to visit another extraordinary art museum, the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, for free on the same day.

Beware: The museum is closed on Mondays.

Oddly: Stop by at 4 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday for a free organ concert in the Rodin Gallery. It’s a 1924 Skinner organ and there are some 4,500 pipes hidden behind the canvas ceiling painted to resemble marble.  

Getting around: It is easy to get there on public transit. Take MUNI bus No. 31 from downtown at Powell and Market streets, get off at the corner of Balboa and 37th streets. From there you can either hop on the No. 18 bus or walk up the hill. It’s not a small hill. Total travel time if you take the bus(es) is about one hour from downtown. If you drive, beware of the limited parking. On a busy weekend afternoon, you might have to park in the nearby neighborhood and walk up the big hill.

Good eats: Head over to nearby Clement Street for a taste of real San Francisco. No T-shirt vendors here, just a ton of great restaurants. The Carbon Grill (852 Clement St.) is sure to please, though you might have to wait in a line. It’s all you can eat - and cook yourself over fire in the middle of your table.

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Nearby: You're adjacent to a beautiful golf course and the gorgeous coastal hiking trail, Land's End.

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Photo op: The best photo ops are free. Rodin's The Thinker out front of the museum, and the views of the Golden Gate nearby from the golf course.