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
Musée de la Mode et du Textile
107 rue de Rivoli, 1st, 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, 1st, 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, 1st, 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, 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
Bibliothèque Nationale
58 rue de Richelieu, 2nd
Métro: Bourse
and
11 quai François Mauriac,
13th, Paris
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
Musée Carnavalet
23 rue de Sévigné, 3rd
Métro Saint Paul
01.44.59.58.58
The city’s fascinating museum of Paris history, installed in two adjoining 16th- and 17th-century private mansions in the Marais district, one of them the former home of Madame de Sévigné. Closed Mon.
Musée Cognacq-Jay
8 rue Elzévir, 3rd
Métro: St-Paul
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 private mansion in the Marais district. Closed Mon.
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme
Hôtel de St-Aignan
71 rue du Temple, 3rd
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 des Arts et Métiers
60 rue Réaumur, 3rd
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, 3rd, 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
Centre Pompidou
Place Georges Pompidou, 4th
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.
Maison de Victor Hugo
6 pl des Vosges, 4th
Métro: Saint Paul
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, 4th
Métro: Saint Paul
01.44.78.75.01
France’s national photography museum, with multiple temporary exhibits. Closed Mon and Tues.
Mémorial de la Shoah
7 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier, 4th
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
Institut du Monde Arabe
1 rue des Fossés-St-Bernard, 5th
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, 5th, 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, 5th, Métro: Censier-Daubenton.
01.40.79.54.44.
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
Musée de la Monnaie
11 quai de Conti, 6th, Métro: Pont Neuf/Odéon.
01.40.46.55.35.
The museum of the French national mint, with coins, medals, jewelry and sculptures.
Musée Delacroix
6 rue de Furstenberg, 6th
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, 6th
Métro: Odéon
01.42.34.25.95
A small museum in the Luxembourg Gardens, now used only for temporary exhibits.
7th
Musée de l'Armée
Hôtel National des Invalides
129 rue de Grenelle, 7th
Métro: Invalides
01.44.42.37.72
The national military museum, from medieval armor and weaponry to World War II. Open daily.
Musée du Quai Branly
27/37/51 Quai Branly, 7th, 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, 7th, 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, 7th
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. Closed Tues.
Musée Rodin
77 rue de Varenne, 7th, 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
Musée Cernuschi
7 ave Vélasquez, 8th
Métro: Monceau
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, 8th
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.
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
3 ave Général Eisenhower, 8th
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, 8th
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, 8th
Métro: Concorde
01.47.03.12.52
A small museum in the Tuileries Gardens now devoted to temporary photography exhibits.
Musée Nissim de Camondo
63 rue de Monceau, 8th, 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, 8th, 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
Musée Gustave Moreau
14 rue de La Rochefoucauld, 9th
Métro: Trinité
01.48.74.38.50
A small museum in the former home of the 19th-century Symbolist artist. Closed Tues.
Musée de la Vie Romantique
16 rue Chaptal, 9th, Métro: Blanche.
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.
12th
La Cinémathèque Française
51 rue de Bercy,12th
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, 12th
Métro: Bastille
01.40.01.08.81
A private exhibit space for cutting-edge contemporary art.
14th
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
2 impasse Lebouis, 14th
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.
16th
Maison de Balzac
47 rue Raynouard, 16th
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, 16th
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, 16th
Métro: Trocadéro.
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, 16th
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, 16th, 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, 16th, 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.
18th
Musée de Montmartre
12 rue Cortot, 18th, 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.