Top 10 museums to visit in Paris

1. The Louvre
2. The Musée d'Orsay
3. The Pompidou Centre
4. The Musée Picasso
5. The Musée Rodin
6. The Musée du Quai Branly
7. L'Orangerie
8. Paris Museum of Modern Art
9. The Musée Marmottan
10. The Musée Guimet

The Louvre is for sure one of the world’s most famous museums, understandably so given the masterpieces that it displays!

Make sure that you allow yourself enough time, not necessarily to see everything, but to enjoy your stay and see the pieces that interest you: the Mona Lisa and other paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, David’s giant paintings depicting Napoleon, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and other Greek or Roman sculptures, the ancient Egypt section or the Islamic art section, the crown jewels, etc.

Due to the Louvre having been a royal palace, the stairways are monumental, the ceilings stunning and the dimensions incredible.

After heading out of the Louvre, you can explore the nearby Jardin des Tuileries on foot. Moreover, if you feel like continuing your museum tour, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is nearby.

>> The masterpieces of the Musée du Louvre

This museum set in a former train station building boasts fabulous architecture and is home to the world’s largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings including, for example Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and l’Olympia by Édouard Manet, Danseuses by Degas, Les joueurs de cartes by Cézanne, Les Cathédrales de Rouen by Monet and works by Courbet, Renoir, Corot, Caillebotte, Derain, Ensor, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Millet, Seurat, Pissaro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vuillard, Whistler, Munch, etc.

In the centre of the museum, you will also find sculptures. Temporary exhibitions add to the permanent collection and you can stop for refreshments in the various cafés and eateries.

>> More information on the Musée d’Orsay

The Centre Georges-Pompidou, often simply referred to as Beaubourg, lies in the heart of Paris in the 4th district, between Les Halles and Le Marais. It is a museum of modern and contemporary art, a library, a multiplex cinema… A real culture hotspot.

The permanent collections across two floors change regularly and the temporary exhibitions are either themed or real retrospectives that allow in-depth study of a given artist.

Directly opposite, do not hesitate to go inside the atelier Brancusi - it is free of charge and fun to see how the artist works.

On a regular basis, the Musée Picasso mixes it up and displays its amazing collection of works by Picasso in a thematic way, also incorporating pieces on loan from other major museums. This means that the museum is different every time you visit.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the world-famous Spanish painter, constantly found new ways to create art on recurring themes such as love, bullfighting, politics, etc. He spent much of his life in France, and Hôtel Salé is a beautiful building in the Marais in the heart of Paris, dedicated to the artist.

Rodin himself is behind this museum, which opened in 1919 in the Hôtel Biron mansion in the 7th district of Paris. The museum’s collections are impressive: some 6,800 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 10,000 old photographs and 8,000 other pieces. Rodin’s masterpieces are there, such as works on the Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais Monument, the Thinker, Balzac and many more. It also shows works by other painters. Several rooms are dedicated to the works of Camille Claudel.

Temporary exhibitions play with inspiration drawn from Rodin’s works. On summer days the garden is like a little corner of paradise. 

At the foot of the Eiffel tower, on the banks of the Seine, the Musée du Quai Branly showcases art from Africa, the Asia Pacific region, Asia and America. Travel the world and back in time in this fine building designed by Jean Nouvel. Besides the permanent collection where you will find Berber jewellery, African masks, native Indian tunics, pre-Colombian statues, funerary totems from Australia, musical instruments and more, you will find surprising themed temporary exhibitions.

>> More information on the Musée du Quai Branly

Place de la Concorde, at the end of the Jardin des Tuileries park, facing the Jeu de Paume photography gallery, the Musée de l'Orangerie is dedicated to impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. By far the main event is visiting the two rooms designed by Monet himself, with natural light flooding in through skylights to showcase eight huge waterlily paintings.

You will also find works by Renoir, Sisley, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Derain, Soutine, Marie Laurencin, Utrillo, Gauguin, van Dongen and more.

The permanent collection of the Paris Museum of Modern Art is fantastic, and best of all, it is free! The museum mixes it up on a regular basis to showcase more of the pieces among the collection’s 10,000 works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

You’ll be dazzled, as all the art movements are there: Picasso, Braque, Gris, Matisse, de Vlaminck, Dufy, Bonnard, Vuillard, Zadkine, Duchamp, Picabia, Kupka, the Delaunay spouses, Léger, Modigliani, Derain, Chagall, Soutine, Foujita, Calder, Giacometti, Man Ray, Ernst, Dubuffet, Soulages, de Staël, Tàpies, Fontana, Klein, Arman, Raysse, Christo, Buren, Annette Messager and more.

A temporary exhibition completes the tour.

The MAM shares the building with the Palais de Tokyo, which puts on contemporary art exhibitions.

Near the Bois de Boulogne park, in western Paris, the Musée Marmottan Monet was converted into a museum in 1934 and has since become home to one of the largest Claude Monet collections, as well as paintings by Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir and more. The museum has held onto its high society home look, with quite a few masterpieces on the walls around the dining table. On the first floor you’ll find a fine collection of illuminated manuscripts.

The main event of the museum is, of course, Impression, Soleil levant by Monet, the very first impressionist painting! And also a great deal of Waterlilies.

The Musée Guimet, located between the Palais de Tokyo and the Trocadéro, is a fine building brimming with treasures from southern Asia. Stroll between architectural decors from the Khmer empire (9^th-13^thcentury), art from the former Siam (Thailand), Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, Buddhas from India, Moghol jewellery, prehistoric ceramics and Chinese porcelain, statuettes from Tibet and Nepal, Japanese samurai costumes and more, including photographs of the first travellers to reach the Orient.

>> Check out the Top 10 arty spots in Paris!