Travel. Paris. Paris Museums
The City of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. They are arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral, starting with the first in the middle of the city on the right bank (north bank) of the Seine River. Select an arrondissement on the map below to view the France Today listings for that area.
1st arrondissement
Musée de la Mode et du Textile
107 rue de Rivoli
Paris 75001
Métro: Tuileries.
01.44.55.57.50.
A fashion and fabric museum that is part of the semi-private museum group Les Arts Décoratifs, installed in a wing of the Louvre.
Musée de la Publicité
107 rue de Rivoli
Paris 75001
Métro: Palais Royal.
01.44.55.57.50.
A museum of advertising and poster art, part of the semi-private Les Arts Décoratifs museum group. Closed Mon.
Musée de l’Orangerie
Entrance Place de la Concorde
Paris 75001
Métro: Concorde.
01.44.77.80.07.
The beautifully renovated museum in the Tuileries Gardens is famed for its spectacular series of Monet’s Water Lilies and the Walter-Guillaume collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century art, including works by Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse and Derain. Closed Tues.
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
107 rue de Rivoli
Paris 1st
Métro: Palais Royal
01.44.55.57.50
Installed in a wing of the Louvre, a superb semi-private museum devoted to French decorative arts from the Middle Ages to current-day design. . Closed Mon.
Musée du Louvre
Métro: Palais Royal
01.40.20.50.50
The museum’s comprehensive collections cover the history of art from Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities to mid-19th-century European painting and sculpture, including Oriental, Islamic and primitive art and the monumental medieval remains of the Louvre itself.; information English/Spanish 01.40.20.53.17. Closed Tues.
2nd arrondissement
Bibliothèque Nationale
58 rue de Richelieu
Paris 75002, Métro: Bourse
and
11 quai François Mauriac,
Paris 75013, Métro: Quai de la Gare
01.47.03.81.26. and 01.53.79.53.79
The French national library, offering regular temporary art and history exhibits, now divided between the 19th-century Richelieu site and the new glass towers of the Mitterrand site.
Both locations closed Sun am and Mon.
3rd arrondissement
Musée Carnavalet
23 rue de Sévigné
Paris 3rd
Métro Saint Paul or Chemin Vert
01.44.59.58.58
The city’s fascinating museum of Paris history, installed in two adjoining 16th- and 17th-century mansions in the Marais district, one of them the former home of Madame de Sévigné. Closed Mon.
Musée Cognacq-Jay
8 rue Elzévir
Paris 3rd
Métro: St-Paul, Rambuteau or Chemin Vert
01.40.27.07.21
A remarkable collection of 18th-century furnishings and art assembled by the founder of the Samaritaine department store, now housed in a 16th-century mansion in the Marais. Closed Mon.
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme
Hôtel de St-Aignan
71 rue du Temple
Paris 75003
Métro: Hôtel de Ville
01.53.01.86.53
A beautifully renovated 17th-century private mansion in the Marais district, converted into a museum of Jewish art and history. Closed Sat.
Musée de la Poupée
Impasse Berthaud, near 22 rue Beaubourg
Paris 75003
Métro: Rambuteauu
01.42.72.73.11.
Hidden away in a charming, flowery dead-end alley between the Centre Pompidou and the Marais, opposite the recently opened Anne Frank Garden, the museum has some 500 antique dolls, dating from 1800 to 1919-mostly French, some German, a few from Japan. Closed Mon.
Musée des Arts et Métiers
60 rue Réaumur
Paris 75003
Métro: Arts et Métiers
01.53.01.82.00
Installed in a former medieval abbey, a marvelous presentation of more than 3,000 scientific and technological discoveries and inventions. Closed Mon.
Musée Picasso
5 rue Thorigny
Paris 75003
Métro: Saint Sébastien Froissart.
01.42.71.25.21.
An extensive collection of Picasso’s paintings, sculptures, collages and ceramics, in a splendid 17th-century private mansion in the Marais district. Closed Tues.
4th arrondissement
Centre Pompidou
Place Georges Pompidou
Paris 75004
Métro: Châtelet
01.44.78.12.33
France’s national museum of modern and contemporary art, with works from the mid-20th century to the present day, in the once-controversial inside-out building by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. Closed Tues.
Crypte Archéologique du Parvis Notre-Dame
7 parvis Notre Dame
Paris 4th
Métro: Cité, Saint Michel
01.55.42.50.10
Under the square in front of Notre Dame cathedral, the archeological remains of the ancient Gallo-Roman city, discovered during excavations between 1965 and 1977. Vestiges of streets and houses, with scale models showing the evolution of the city from the Roman era. Closed Mon.
Maison de Victor Hugo
6 pl des Vosges
Paris 4th
Métro: Saint Paul, Bastille
01.42.72.10.16
In the beautiful Place des Vosges, the author's home from 1832-48, with original furnishings, paintings, manuscripts and memorabilia. Closed Mon.
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
5-7 rue de Fourcy
Paris 75004
Métro: Saint Paul
01.44.78.75.00
France’s national photography museum, with multiple temporary exhibits. Closed Mon and Tues.
Mémorial de la Shoah
7 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier
Paris 75004
Métro: Saint Paul
01.42.77.44.72
A memorial and documentation center dedicated to the history of European Jews and the Holocaust, holding regular temporary exhibits. At the entrance is the Wall of Names, inscribed with the names of 76,000 deportees. Closed Sat.
5th arrondissement
Institut du Monde Arabe
1 rue des Fossés-St-Bernard
Paris 75005
Métro: Cardinal Lemoine
01.40.51.38.38
A museum of Arab and Islamic arts, in a building designed by architect Jean Nouvel, with a permanent collection that extends from early archaeological artifacts to the 20th century. Regular temporary exhibits too. Closed Mon.
Musée National du Moyen Age–Musée Cluny
6 pl Paul-Painlevé
Paris 75005
Métro: Cluny-La Sorbonne.
01.53.73.78.00.
A wonderful museum of medieval history and art, including the renowned Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, housed in a resplendent 15th-century residence built on top of immense early Roman baths.
Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle
Jardin des Plantes, 36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Paris 75005
Métro: Censier-Daubenton.
01.40.79.54.79.
A natural history museum first established in the 18th century, famed for its dinosaur hall and its Grande Galerie de l’Evolution, a Noah’s Ark display of thousands of animal species. Closed Tues.
6th arrondissement
Musée de la Monnaie
11 quai de Conti
Paris 75006
Métro: Pont Neuf/Odéon.
01.40.46.58.58.
The museum of the French national mint, with coins, medals, jewelry and sculptures.
Musée Delacroix
6 rue de Furstenberg
Paris 75006
Métro: St-Germain-des-Prés
01.44.41.86.50
A tiny museum in Eugène Delacroix’s former home and studio, with a small collection of the artist’s paintings, drawings and memorabilia. Closed Tues.
Musée du Luxembourg
19 rue de Vaugirard
Paris 75006
Métro: Odéon
01.42.34.25.95
A small museum in the Luxembourg Gardens, now used only for temporary exhibits. CLOSED FOR 2010.
Musée Zadkine
100 bis rue d'Assas
Paris 6th
Métro: Vavin, Notre Dame des Champs
01.55.42.77.20
The charming garden home and studio of Russian-born sculptor Ossip Zadkine, hidden behind a wall near the Luxembourg Garden. The sculptor lived here from 1928 to his death in 1967 and his work is displayed in the studio and garden. Closed Mon.
7th arrondissement
Musée de l'Armée
Hôtel National des Invalides
129 rue de Grenelle
Paris 75007
Métro: Invalides
01.44.42.37.72
The national military museum, from medieval armor and weaponry to World War II. Open daily except closed the first Monday of every month except July, Aug and Sept.
Musée du Quai Branly
27/37/51 Quai Branly
Paris 75007
Métro: Alma-Marceau.
01.56.61.70.00.
In a colorful and dramatic new building designed by architect Jean Nouvel, set into gardens facing the Seine, a new museum devoted to the tribal arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Closed Mon.
Musée d’Orsay
1 rue de la Légion d’Honneur
Paris 75007
Métro: Solférino.
01.40.49.48.14.
The renowned national museum housed in a Belle Epoque railroad station brilliantly transformed by architect Gae Aulenti, focused on Western art from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, including the Impressionists, Manet, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Closed Mon.
Musée Maillol–Fondation Dina Vierny
59-61 rue de Grenelle
Paris 75007
Métro: Rue du Bac
01.42.22.59.58
A museum established by Dina Vierny, who as a very young woman was the model and muse of sculptor Aristide Maillol. The permanent collection offers Maillol sculptures and drawings, along with works by Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis, Redon and Kandinsky, and Vierny’s own collection of modern primitive artists. Open daily except on Christmas and Jan 1.
Musée Rodin
77 rue de Varenne
Paris 75007
Métro: Varenne.
01.44.18.61.10.
Displayed in a former private mansion, its gardens and chapel, a major collection of sculpture, sketches, engravings and paintings by Auguste Rodin, along with works by his student Camille Claudel and paintings and sculpture from the artist’s own eclectic collection. Closed Mon.
8th arrondissement
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
3 ave Général Eisenhower
Paris 75008
Métro: Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau
01.44.13.17.17
National galleries for major temporary exhibits, installed in the wings of the glass-roofed “palace” built for the 1900 World’s Fair.
Closed Tues.
Grand Palais
Ave Winston Churchill
Paris 75008
Métro: Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau
The spectacular exhibit hall built for the 1900 World’s Fair. The recently restored nave is used for exhibits, trade fairs and other special events.
Jeu de Paume
1 pl de la Concorde
Paris 75008
Métro: Concorde
01.47.03.12.52
A small museum in the Tuileries Gardens now devoted to temporary photography exhibits. Closed Monday.
Musée Cernuschi
7 ave Vélasquez
Paris 8th
Métro: Monceau or Villiers
01.53.96.21.50
A Paris city museum with an extraordinary collection of Asian art, in a former private mansion built around a colossal bronze Buddha. Closed Mon.
Musée Jacquemart-André
158 blvd Haussmann
Paris 75008
Métro: Miromesnil
01.45.62.11.59
The exquisitely decorated mansion of 19th-century magnate Edouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart, whose private collection of mostly 18th-century furniture and art also includes Italian Renaissance masterworks by Mantegna and Botticelli. Open daily.
Musée Nissim de Camondo
63 rue de Monceau
Paris 75008
Métro: Monceau.
01.53.89.06.40.
An early 20th-century reconstitution of an 18th-century private mansion, filled with an exceptional collection of 18th-century furniture and art, built by the Camondo family, Sephardic Jews who were bankers in the Ottoman Empire and moved to Paris in 1868. Now part of the semi-private museum group Les Arts Décoratifs. Closed Mon-Tues.
Petit Palais
Ave Winston Churchill
Paris 75008
Métro: Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau.
01.53.43.40.00.
The fine arts museum of the City of Paris, in a beautifully renovated Belle Epoque building, originally built for the World’s Fair of 1900. The permanent collection covers the history of art from antiquity to the early 20th century. Closed Mon.
9th arrondissement
Musée de l'Opéra
Palais Garnier
Entrance: corner of rue Scribe and Rue Auber
Paris 9th
Métro: Opéra
01.53.79.37.47
Temporary exhibits relating to opera and ballet productions, along with a permanent collection of paintings, scores, and scale models of sets housed in the Opera library. Entrance fee is included with the visit to the Opera house itself, open daily for visits from 10 am to 5 pm; to 1 pm on days when a matinée performance is scheduled. The excellent bookshop and boutique are open daily from 10 am to 6:30 pm (to 5 pm on Sundays).
Musée de la Vie Romantique
16 rue Chaptal
Paris 9th
Métro: Blanche, Saint-Georges, Pigalle
01.55.31.95.67.
The small 19th-century home and garden of Romantic painter Ary Scheffer, with the artist’s paintings and charming mementos of his neighbors, the novelist George Sand and Chopin. Closed Mon.
Musée Gustave Moreau
14 rue de La Rochefoucauld
Paris 75009
Métro: Trinité
01.48.74.38.50
A small museum in the former home of the 19th-century Symbolist artist. Closed Tues.
12th arrondissement
La Cinémathèque Française
51 rue de Bercy
Paris 75012
Métro: Bercy
01.71.19.33.33
Now installed in a building designed by Frank Gehry at the edge of the Bercy park, France's legendary Cinémathèque includes a superb movie museum and a vast film-archive library. Daily screenings and excellent temporary exhibits.
Closed Tues.
La Maison Rouge - Fondation Antoine de Galbert
10 blvd de la Bastille
Paris 75012
Métro: Bastille
01.40.01.08.81
A private exhibit space for cutting-edge contemporary art.
14th arrondissement
Catacombes de Paris
1 ave du Colonel Henri Roi-Tanguy
Paris 14th
Métro: Denfert-Rochereau
01.43.22.47.63
An extensive network of underground passages, originally quarries, later the resting place of the tightly packed bones of six million people, transferred here in the late 18th century. An extraordinary sight, but not for the claustrophobic. Over two hundred steps and a little over a mile to walk. Bring a flashlight and don't take a bone souvenir; bags are searched at the exit. Closed Mon.
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
2 impasse Lebouis
Paris 75014
Métro: Gaîté
01.56.80.27.00
A foundation housing the archives of the great French photographer, offering regular temporary exhibits of work by Cartier-Bresson and other photographers.
Open Tues-Fri & Sun afternoons, Sat 11 am-6 pm, closed Mon.
15th arrondissement
Mémorial du Maréchal Leclerc et Hauteclocque et de la Libération de Paris & Musée Jean Moulin
Jardin Atlantique
23 allée de la 2e DB (above the Gare Montparnasse)
Paris 15th
Métro: Montparnasse Bienvenüe
01.40.64.39.44
Two museums devoted to World War II and the French Resistance: one following the exploits of the Free French commander General Leclerc and the Liberation of Paris; the other recounting the story of Resistance hero Jean Moulin. Films, slides and documentary material. Closed Mon.
Musée Bourdelle
16 rue Antoine Bourdelle
Paris 15th
01.49.54.73.73
In the gardens and studios where Bourdelle (1861–1929) lived and worked, an exceptional collection of plaster casts, bronzes and marble sculptures—some of them monumental in size—created by the man who was an assistant to Rodin as well as a teacher of Giacometti and others. Closed Monday.
Musée de la Poste
34 blvd de Vaugirard
Paris 75015
Métro: Falguière
01.42.79.24.24.
This museum is much more exciting than it sounds-in this age of instant communications, traveling back through the history of postal services becomes a poetic experience. Closed Sun.
16th arrondissement
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
1 pl du Trocadéro
Paris 16th
Métro: Trocadéro
01.58.51.52.00
Occupying one wing of the Palais de Chaillot, this museum displays impressive, life-size models of the façades of cathedrals and other monuments on the ground floor, with upper floors devoted to medieval and Renaissance murals and stained-glass windows and modern and contemporary architecture. Also houses temporary exhibits. Closed Tue.
Galerie-Musée Baccarat
11 pl des Etats-Unis
Paris 75016
Métro: Boissière
01.40.22.11.00.
This museum is intended to dazzle. Set up in the former home of the socialite Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles, this is the flagship of the Baccarat crystal manufacturer, also housing three boutiques and an upscale restaurant. One section of the museum showcases special commissions for Baccarat's most prestigious clients—the Prince of Wales, the Emperor of Japan, the Shah of Iran, King Farouk of Egypt, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Aristotle Onassis, even Pope John Paul II. Closed Sun and Tues.
Maison de Balzac
47 rue Raynouard
Paris 75016
Métro: Passy
01.55.74.41.80
19th-century author Honoré de Balzac's home from 1840-47, displaying original manuscripts and memorabilia.
Musée Dapper
35 bis rue Paul Valéry
Paris 75016
Métro: Victor-Hugo
01.45.00.01.50
A private museum offering top-notch temporary exhibits of African art. Closed Tues.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
11 ave du Président Wilson
Paris 16th
Métro: Alma-Marceau or Iéna; RER Pont de l'Alma
01.53.67.40.00
The city’s modern and contemporary art museum, with a permanent collection ranging from the early 20th century to the present day. Closed Mon.
Musée Guimet
Place d’Iéna
Paris 75016
Métro: Iéna
01.56.52.53.00
One of the Western world's most important Asian art museums, with outstanding collections from China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Closed Tues.
Musée Marmottan Monet
2 rue Louis-Boilly
Paris 75016
Métro: La Muette.
01.44.96.50.33.
A small museum which boasts the world’s largest collection of works by Claude Monet, along with an impressive array of works by Berthe Morisot and other Impressionists; more than 300 medieval miniatures donated by dealer Daniel Wildenstein; and decorative arts from the Empire period.
Musée National de la Marine
Palais de Chaillot, 17 place du Trocadéro
Paris 75016
Métro: Trocadéro.
01.53.65.69.69.
France’s impressive maritime museum, with superb scale models of historic galleys and ships from the 17th century to the present day. and remnants of the ornately gilded royal vessel of Louis XIV.
17th arrondissement
Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner
43 ave de Villiers
Paris 75017
Métro: Malesherbes
01.47.63.42.73.
Henner (1829-1905) was one of the most appreciated painters of his generation. The museum's mansion was bought by Marie Henner, the widow of Henner's nephew, and donated to the state to house the artist's work. Although Henner never lived here, he sometimes dined with the original proprietor, Guillaume Dubufe, a fellow society painter who would have shared the same lifestyle and eclectic taste. Closed Tues.
18th arrondissement
Musée de Montmartre
12 rue Cortot
Paris 75018
Métro: Abbesses.
01.49.25.89.37.
A small museum—installed in a charming garden house whose former tenants included Renoir, Dufy, Valadon and Utrillo—documenting the history of the hilltop village of Montmartre and its role in the artistic life of 19th-century Paris. Closed Mon.
19th arrondissement
Musée de la Musique
221 ave Jean Jaurès
Paris 19th
Métro: Porte de Pantin
01.44.84.44.84
Within the Cité de la Musique at the Parc de la Villette, a museum displaying 1,000 musical instruments and art objects including some rare and extraordinary items belonging to such musical celebrities as Frédéric Chopin, Django Reinhardt and Frank Zappa. A chronological journey through Western musical forms from the 17th-century to the present day, with a look at different cultures along the way. Closed Mon.