Unmissable Museums
Check out this list of twelve Paris museums to see before you die…
Musée d'Orsay
Consider this your cultural bucket list: There is something so impressive, lovely or beautiful about each of these institutions that it would be a shame to miss out on any of them...
The Louvre
The world's largest museum is also its most visited, with an incredible 8.5 million visitors in 2009. It is a city within the city, a vast, multi-level maze of galleries, passageways, staircases and
- Rue de Rivoli, 1e
The Centre Pompidou
The primary colours, exposed pipes and air ducts make the Centre Pompidou one of the best-known sights in Paris. The then-unknown Italo-British architectural duo of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers won
- Rue Saint-Martin, 4e
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay, originally a train station designed by Victor Laloux in 1900, houses a huge collection spanning the period between 1848 and 1914, and is home to a profusion of works by Delacroix,
- 62 rue de Lille, 7e
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the Grand Palais was the work of three different architects, each of whom designed a façade. During World War II it accommodated Nazi tanks. In 1994 the
- 3 avenue du Général Eisenhower, 8e
Petit Palais
Despite it’s elegant, Belle Époque allure the ‘Little Palace’ is overshadowed by its big brother, Le Grand Palais, just across the road. But ignore it and you’ll miss out on one of Paris’s loveliest
- avenue Winston-Churchill, 8e
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
Opened in 2007, this architecture and heritage museum impresses principally by its scale. The expansive ground floor is filled with life-size mock-ups of cathedral façades and heritage buildings, and
- Palais de Chaillot, 1 place du Trocadéro, 16e
Musée du Quai Branly
Surrounded by trees on the banks of the Seine, this museum, housed in an extraordinary building by Jean Nouvel, is a vast showcase for non-European cultures. Dedicated to the ethnic art of Africa,
- 37 quai Branly, 7e
Musée National du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny
The national museum of medieval art is best known for the beautiful, allegorical Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle, but it also has important collections of medieval sculpture and enamels. There is
- 6 place Paul Painlevé, 5e
Musée des Arts et Métiers
The 'arts and trades' museum is, in fact, Europe's oldest science museum, founded in 1794 by the constitutional bishop Henri Grégoire, initially as a way to educate France's manufacturing industry in
- 60 rue Réaumur, 3e
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Taken as a whole (along with the Musée de la Mode et du Textile and Musée de la Publicité), this is one of the world's major collections of design and the decorative arts. Located in the west wing of
- 107 rue de Rivoli, 1er
Musée Jacquemart-André
Long terrace steps and a pair of stone lions usher visitors into this grand 19th-century mansion, home to a collection of objets d'art and fine paintings. The collection was assembled by Edouard
- 158 boulevard Haussmann, 8e
Musée Carnavalet
Here, 140 chronological rooms depict the history of Paris, from pre-Roman Gaul to the 20th century. Built in 1548 and transformed by Mansart in 1660, this fine house became a museum in 1866, when
- 23 rue de Sévigné, 3e
Comments & ratings