The history of the French National Library began in the 1660s, when Louis XIV moved manuscripts that couldn't be housed in the Louvre to this lavish Louis XIII townhouse,...

The primary colours, exposed pipes and air ducts make this one of the best-known sights in Paris. The then-unknown Italo-British architectural duo of Renzo Piano and Richard...

Opened in 2007 in the eastern wing of the Palais de Chaillot, this architecture and heritage museum impresses principally by its scale. The expansive ground floor is filled...

Immigration in New York is commemorated on Ellis Island, in Québec at the Musée de la Civilisation. So what of the Paris region? Well, there's Parc Astérix - proof that all...

Opened in 2003, this two-floor gallery is dedicated to the work of acclaimed photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. It consists of a tall, narrow atelier in a 1913 building, with...

Philippe Starck has created a neo-rococo wonderland in the former mansion of the Vicomtesse de Noailles. From the red carpet entrance with a chandelier in a fish tank to the...

This ultra-modern science museum pulls in five million visitors a year. Explora, the permanent show, occupies the upper two floors, whisking visitors through 30,000sq m...

Airport-style security checks mean queues, but don't let that put you off: the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu is an impressively presented and moving memorial to the...

Topped by its gilded dome - a glorious sight when illuminated after dusk - the Hôtel des Invalides was (and in part still is) a hospital. Commissioned by Louis XIV for wounded...

Today, the suburbs play host to a number of mainstream cultural venues, of which the most prominent is undoubtedly the MAC/VAL contemporary art museum in the south-east suburb...

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...

It's fitting that a museum of Judaism should be lodged in one of the grandest mansions of the Marais, for centuries the epicentre of local Jewish life. It sprung from the...

The Musée d'Orsay follows a chronological route, from the ground floor to the upper level and then to the mezzanine, showing links between Impressionist painters and their...

The impressive air and space museum is set in the former passenger terminal at Le Bourget airport. The collection begins with the pioneers, including fragile-looking biplanes...