Musee de l’Armée – Hotel National de Invalides (129 rue de Grenelle, Paris) (Metro La Tour-Maubourg, Varenne) – this is the country’s national military museum. Opened in 1905, is today one of the largest military museums in the world with an astonishing collection of different weapons from different time periods. The museum’s collections range from […]
Musée d’Orsay (5 Quai Anatole France, Paris)(Metro Assemblée Nationale, Solferino, RER Musée d’Orsay) – this museum is distinct, since it is housed within a former train station (Gare d’Orsay) built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It has the largest […]
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (11, av. du Président Wilson, Paris)(Metro Iéna) — this is a major municipal museum dedicated to Modern and Contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries (including artistic movements such as Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, etc.). Free Admission, Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm […]
Musée Dapper (35 bis, rue Paul Valéry, Paris) — since France once colonized most of West and Central Africa, it would be expected to find a museums that specializes in art (and artifacts) from that part of the world. Opened in 1986, the Musée Dapper has been helping to bring the African arts to a […]
Musée Curie – Institut du Radium (1, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris)(Metro Place Monge, RER Luxembourg) — the Curie Museum, a national authority on Marie Curie (1867-1934), pays homage to this great French physicist who discovered radioactivity and her entire family, two generations of which won the Nobel Prize. The laboratory that houses the […]
Musée Carnavalet – Musée de l’histoire de Paris (23 rue de Sévigné, Paris)(Metro: Saint-Paul) — Opened in 1880, this museum is devoted to the history of Paris from its origins to recent times. It occupies two adjoining mansions- the hôtels Carnavalet and le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau- and displays exceptional collections: rich archaeological artefacts of the […]
Maison de Balzac (47 rue Raynouard, Paris)(Metro: Passy or La Muette) – this is a house museum located within the former residence of French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), who wrote “La Comédie Humaine”. Admission: free for permanent collections. Special exhibition admission €4 adults, €3 seniors and students, €2 ages 14-26, free for children 13 […]
Maison de Victor Hugo (6 pl. des Vosges, Marais, Paris)(Metro: St. Paul) – this was a one-time residence of famed French writer Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) between 1832 and 1848. Nowadays, this is a museum dedicated to Hugo and his literary works. Admission: Free; temporary exhibits €7. […]
Louvre Museum (Palais du Louvre, Louvre/Tuileries, Paris)(Metro: Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre) – this is the world’s greatest art museum, with three wings (the Richelieu, the Sully, and the Denon) exhibiting works from all over the world. The Louvre’s best-known holdings include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory. The Louvre […]
La Défense (Parvis de La Défense, La Défense, Paris) (Metro: Esplanade de la Défense, RER: La Défense) – during the 1960s, the French government, under Charles de Gaulle, established a business district toward the western outskirts of Paris, in a successful effort to prevent the character of the central historic areas of Paris from being […]