You can avoid the often long queues to enter by purchasing tickets in advance, but they must be collected at the agency.
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Pompidou was groundbreaking when it opened in 1977, both for Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’s colourful, hi-tech architecture and its multidisciplinary approach and I still find it one of the city’s most exciting buildings. The modern and contemporary art collection ranges from Picasso, Matisse and the surrealists to the latest trends in installation and video and work by artists from emerging countries. Also on offer are temporary exhibitions (Cartier-Bresson, Martial Raysse and Duchamp in 2014), a gallery for children, performing arts and cinema. The centre also has an excellent design shop, art bookshop and the trendy Georges restaurant. Make the most of the late opening hours by coming early evening, when exhibitions are less crowded.
Make the most of the late opening hours by coming early evening, when exhibitions are less crowded.
Musée d'Orsay
Twenty five years after its transformation from train station to the home for the stunning state collection of art from 1848 to 1914, the Musée d'Orsay has at last had a wonderful rehang. It gives much more space to the impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces on the top floor, arranging them both thematically and stylistically to suggest all sorts of new perspectives. Downstairs is devoted to earlier Symbolists and Realists, including a new room for Courbet's giant canvases, and new art nouveau galleries. Admire the view from the Café de l'Horloge, redesigned by the Campana brothers. Consider buying tickets ahead: there's a special, queue-avoiding entrance for advance ticket, and Paris Museum Pass, holders.
Consider buying tickets ahead: there's a special, queue-avoiding entrance for advance ticket, and Paris Museum Pass, holders.
Musée National Rodin
The mansion where Rodin lived at the end of his life now contains an unrivalled collection of the sculptor’s work, arranged around its rooms and beautiful garden. In countless studies and finished works like the great Balzac, the Burghers of Calais and the figure-swarming Gates of Hell, you can trace how he revolutionised sculpture at the end of the 19th century. It's also fascinating to see how he often reused his individual sculptures in later pieces. There are works, too, by his pupil and lover Camille Claudel. Temporary exhibitions are held in the former chapel and there's a pleasant café in the garden.
Temporary exhibitions are held in the former chapel and there's a pleasant café in the garden.
Musée National du Moyen-Age-Thermes de Cluny
This lovely, intimate medieval museum (often known simply as Cluny) is appropriately housed in the gothic town house of the sbbots of Cluny, which was built over the substantial remains of a Roman baths complex. The star turn here is the adorable Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle, a convoluted allegory of the senses. Other treasures include carved capitals, alabasters and altarpieces, the heads of the kings of Judah from Notre-Dame cathedral, Limoges enamel caskets, and secular items such as combs and a fragile leather shoe. Behind the museum is a garden and playground inspired by plants found in medieval treatises (entrance boulevard St-Germain).
Behind the museum is a garden and playground inspired by plants found in medieval treatises (entrance boulevard St-Germain).
Jardin des Plantes (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle)
Descended from the royal medicinal garden and menagerie, this botanical garden has plenty to occupy all ages, including alpine and ecological gardens, palmy hothouses, an 18th-century belvedere, the Ménagerie zoo (which plays an important role in conserving endangered species), playgrounds and cafés. Within the park also lies the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Its Grande Galerie de l’Evolution brilliantly displays stuffed animals according to their habitat, rising up from marine species through the savannah, jungle and polar regions. Interactive panels and a children's gallery devoted to biodiversity and ecology are great for kids. Another building contains the skeleton-filled museum of palaeontology and anatomy.
In the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, interactive panels and a children's gallery devoted to biodiversity and ecology are great for kids.
Place Valhubert or rue Geoffroy St-Hilaire, 75005 Paris
0033 1 40 79 56 01
www.mnhn.fr
Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet
This Second Empire villa is one of Paris’s secret gems, with its wonderful array of Empire furniture and the world’s largest collection of works by Claude Monet, most of them donated by the artist’s family. Among the paintings are Monet’s Impression, Soleil Levant, which gave its name to impressionism. I adore Monet's vibrantly coloured late canvases of his water garden at Giverny, as well as Berthe Morisot's affectionate paintings of children. Other impressionist painters on display include Pissarro, Renoir, Manet, Degas and Caillebotte. Don't miss the Sèvres porcelain geographical clock, either, which shows when it is midday around the world.
Don't miss the Sèvres porcelain geographical clock, which shows when it is midday around the world.
Musée du Quai Branly
Non-western tribal art is showcased in this quirky modern building by Jean Nouvel. Although the museum is incredibly popular, I find the presentation and labelling a little chaotic in displays that go for drama over scholarliness. That said, there are fascinating sculptures, textiles, jewellery, ritual objects and musical instruments to discover, complemented by film footage and archive photos. The arrangement is by continent, although you can also slip between sections - taking in African masks, American Indian painted cowhides, carved Polynesian beams and Moroccan jewellery. The museum has a café in the garden and upmarket restaurant, Les Ombres, on the roof. Tickets can be bought ahead on the website and at counters and machines in the ticket office.
The museum has a café in the garden and an upmarket restaurant, Les Ombres, on the roof.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Occupying the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo (
www.palaisdetokyo.com), the municipal modern art collection has a more Paris-centric bias than the Centre Pompidou. It is particularly strong on fauves and cubists, the Ecole de Paris, and works by the Delaunays and Fautrier. These are mixed with art deco furniture and artists' ceramics, and a more international display of contemporary art. There are also often excellent temporary exhibitions (consider reserving ahead for these, to jump the entrance queues). Be sure to see Raoul Dufy's vast mural La Fee Electricité halfway up the stairs, and the Salle Matisse, with its two versions of Matisse's La Danse.
Be sure to see Raoul Dufy's vast mural La Fee Electricité halfway up the stairs, and the Salle Matisse with its two versions of Matisse's La Danse.
11 avenue du President-Wilson, 75116 Paris
0033 1 53 67 40 00
Musée Jacquemart-André
This museum is testimony to the taste of a pair of 19th-century connoisseurs, banking heir Edouard André and his artist wife Nélie Jacquemart, who scoured the continent for artistic treasures and housed them in their extravagant mansion built for the purpose. A series of salons and the galleried music room contain paintings by Boucher, Fragonard, Nattier and Canaletto, while the library has a lovely small Rembrandt, and the smoking room is hung with English portraits. Upstairs in the "Italian museum" are a Botticelli Virgin and Child, and a tiny Uccello. Finish with lunch or tea in the elegant café, under a Tiepolo ceiling.
Finish with lunch or tea in the elegant café, under a Tiepolo ceiling.
Musée Carnavalet
Sprawling over two historic Marais mansions, the extraordinarily eclectic museum of Parisian history feels a little shambolic but is also the place to unearth some fascinating nuggets, from a Neolithic canoe excavated near Bercy to souvenir plates of the French Revolution, old shop signs and a fabulous art nouveau jeweller's shop. The furnished, panelled interiors were reconstructed from houses demolished during Haussmann's urbanisation schemes, while literary memorabilia includes the desk of the Marquise de Sévigné, who lived at this address, and furniture from Marcel Proust's bedroom. There are plenty of fine mansions to admire along the street and on rue des Francs-Bourgeois.
There are plenty of fine mansions to admire along the street and on rue des Francs-Bourgeois.
Grand Palais
The grandest remnant of the 1900 World Fair forms an ensemble with the Petit Palais and extravagant Alexandre III Bridge. The north wing is used for prestigious art exhibitions (in 2014, on video artist Bill Viola and Roman emperor Augustus). The rue Franklin D Roosevelt wing contains the Palais de la Découverte science museum. The glass-roofed Grand Nave, with its incredible art nouveau metalwork, provides a spectacular setting for all manner of events from FIAC art fair in October, Paris Photo in November and Monumenta art installation (Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, May-June 2014) to fashion parades. Advance booking recommended for exhibitions.
Advance booking is recommended for exhibitions.
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
Occupying a wing of the 1930s Palais de Chaillot, this architecture museum was born from the slightly unlikely merger of the museum of French monuments and the French architecture institute. Downstairs is a mini tour through lifesize plaster casts of romanesque and gothic heritage, such as Vézelay and Reims. There's a section with reconstructions of frescoed church interiors. Upstairs leaps suddenly to modernity, where models, drawings and film footage include the circular Maison de la Radio and the Carré d'Art in Nîmes, and you can go inside a reconstruction of an apartment at Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille. Construction games for young children are dotted around the mouldings gallery.
Construction games for young children are dotted around the mouldings gallery.
Musée Bourdelle
This little-known museum built around Antoine Bourdelle's studio and apartment gives an insight into Montparnasse in its artistic heyday. While not a major sculptor, Bourdelle is an interesting in art history, as he was an assistant of Rodin and teacher of Giacometti. He specialised in monumental sculptures, including the frieze for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and an equestrian monument to Argentine general Alvear. Another gallery shows how he endlessly reworked the head of Beethoven in different moods. At the rear, a row of studios includes those of Bourdelle and Eugène Carrière, left in atmospherically dusty state. Montparnasse is still littered with artists' studios – look out for the big north-facing windows.
Montparnasse is still littered with artists' studios – look out for the big north-facing windows.
Musée Maillol
Works by early 20th-century sculptor Aristide Maillol are displayed around the panelled rooms of a beautiful rococo mansion. These include little-known early paintings from his Nabis period, and sculptures, especially women, with their rounded classical forms. Many are modelled on Dina Vierny, who amassed this collection and was his model from the age of 15 (she also sat for Matisse and Dufy), before opening her own gallery. There are also drawings by Matisse, Dadaist objects, naive art and Russian art. The museum puts on some exceptional temporary exhibitions that range from contemporary art to antiquities, and has a pleasant Italian café.
The museum puts on some exceptional temporary exhibitions that range from contemporary art to antiquities, and has a pleasant Italian café.
La Villette
This modern park and museum complex reinvigorated the former abattoir district with its red follies and themed gardens. On the northern edge, the Cité des Sciences (advance booking recommended, especially during the school holidays) swarms with kids, for its interactive exhibits in the Explora display, its excellent children's section and spherical Géode IMAX cinema. South of the canal are the Cité de la Musique music museum and concert hall, Zénith rock venue and Grande Halle, last remnant of the livestock market. Numerous events include circus, theatre, a summer outdoor film festival and Jazz à la Villette in September.
Numerous events include circus, theatre, a summer outdoor film festival and Jazz à la Villette in September.
Musée de l'Orangerie
This museum is a treat for Monet's eight water lily canvases, painted 1909-26, and donated by the artist to be displayed in two specially conceived, elliptical rooms. The paintings show the artist's ultimate exploration of light, as water lilies, willows, watery reflections and clouds almost dissolve into abstraction. The basement contains the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection of impressionist and Ecole de Paris paintings, including works by Matisse, Renoir, Derain, Rousseau and Soutine, as well as some chunks of former city wall. For more Monet, combine the Orangerie with Musée d'Orsay, across the footbridge from the Tuileries.
For more Monet, combine the Orangerie with Musée d'Orsay, across the footbridge from the Tuileries.
These recommendations, and hundreds more, can be found in the
free Telegraph Travel Guides app. The app features expert guides to destinations including Paris, Rome, New York and Amsterdam, with Edinburgh, Barcelona and Venice among those to be added in the coming weeks.
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