World-class art in Paris

Set in the old Hotel Donon, this museum houses a collection of 18th-century art and decorative arts collected by a department store mogul. An insight into the elegance and opulence of the French Enlightenment era.

This museum in the Montmartre neighbourhood is dedicated to the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, displaying over 300 of his works.

Dali’s art is characterised by his unique blend of dreamlike and bizarre imagery, exploring the realms of the subconscious and the irrational. His works often featured melting clocks, distorted figures, and fantastical landscapes, reflecting his fascination with the subconscious mind and the exploration of the human psyche. His creativity also extended beyond the art world as he collaborated with filmmakers, designed sets, and even dabbled in fashion and jewellery design.

He lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success.

A museum dedicated to the works of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, housed in his former home and studio.

Moreau (1826-1898) was a French Symbolist painter known for his visionary and mystical works; he was inspired by mythology, biblical stories, and literary sources. His works are typcially richly detailed and often featured exotic and fantastical elements, combining classical themes with a sense of mystery and symbolism. His meticulous technique and use of vibrant colour also contribute to the dreamlike quality of his art.

He had a significant impact on the Symbolist movement, influencing artists such as Odilon Redon and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

Jacquemart-Andre Museum is proof of the discerning taste of the 19th-century banking heir Edouard Andre and his wife Nelie Jacquemart. Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Botticelli and Uccello, French portraiture and decorative arts, Dutch and English paintings are all displayed around this grandiose mansion – even the café has a Tiepolo on the ceiling.

The museum is divided into five major parts:

• The State Apartments, for formal receptions, rich in French paintings and 18th-century decorative art.
• The Informal Apartments, for receiving business relations, is decorated in a refined style.
• The Winter Garden is inspired by Opera Garnier.
• The Italian Museum is home to their collections of 15th- and 16th-century Italian sculpture, with masterpieces by Francesco Laurana, Donatello, Luca Della Robbia and others; plus painted masterpieces by Botticelli, Francesco Botticini and Perugino, and Ucello’s celebrated St. George and the Dragon.
• The Private Apartments occupy part of the mansion’s ground floor.

The Fondation Louis Vuitton’s building is an attraction in itself – a wacky, silver structure in the middle of Bois de Boulogne (built by Frank Gehry), with futuristic-looking glass sails, clever lighting and whimsical, sunken water features.

Inside, you’ll find a cutting-edge exhibition space that promotes both contemporary and historical art via ever-changing shows and music concerts. What you see will depend on when you go, but more recent exhibitions have included Monet and Basquiat.

Feasting your eyes is hungry work, so there’s a chic restaurant too, serving contemporary French cuisine! And even an excellent bookshop about art and architecture.

The world’s most visited museum, the Louvre dates back to the 13th century, and was the primary residence of the French Royal family until Louis XVI moved the household to the Palais of Versailles in 1682. It opened as a museum in 1793 with 537 paintings – mainly from the Royal collection; today it houses 35,000 works of art and 380,000 objects.

The building is almost as much of an attraction as the exhibits; explore the grand galleries with ornately painted ceilings, opulent stairways and remnants of a medieval Parisian palace. Let yourself wander – and wonder – your way through the museum’s beautifully laid out, labyrinthine halls and discover world-class Italian Renaissance and French Neoclassical and Romantic painting, antique sculpture, treasures from Ancient Egypt and Assyria, or medieval gold and silverwares.

The sheer wealth of exhibits in the Louvre can be intimidating on the one hand; on the other, it means there’s always something fascinating to discover.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is one of France and the world’s most celebrated and influential painters, and is credited with founding the Impressionist movement. Impressionist painters attempt to paint nature, especially outdoor landscapes, through their perception and senses.

This museum, housed in a grand 19th-century mansion and appropriately one of the loveliest art venues in Paris, holds the world’s largest of Claude Monet’s paintings. They’re displayed along with Empire furniture and other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, many collected over two hundred years by the Marmottan family.

The highlight of the collection is Monet’s atmospheric ‘Water Lily’ (Nymphéas) canvases in brilliant blues. They’re part of a series of 250 such oil paintings depicting his flower garden at his home in Giverny, which he dedicated himself to creating during the last 30 years of his life. The rest of the paintings are now held in museums and private collections around the world. Wikipedia has a list of the full series.

Housed in a wing of the Louvre – but independently run and ticketed – the Musee des Arts Decoratifs is an inspirational collection of items around the decorative arts, featuring diverse and beautiful types of furniture, home decor and accessories. With over one million objects in its collection, it’s the largest museum of decorative arts in continental Europe.

The collections are arranged chronologically, by period – ranging from the Middle Ages all the way to the latest designers – as well as by theme. Other highlights include beautiful period rooms and historic jewellery.

Changing exhibitions also run, themed around types and styles of furniture, ceramics, fashion and advertising.

The Centre Pompidou revolutionised both Paris and art museums when it opened in 1976 – and this multi-coloured glass and steel structure, designed by ‘starchitects’ Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, is still one of the city’s most exciting modern buildings.

Inside, the fabulous Musée National d’Art Moderne – Europe’s largest collection of modern and contemporary art – takes you from Picasso, Matisse and Kandinsky, via Pop Art and Arte Povera, to the latest installation and video art. The multidisciplinary spirit encompasses exhibitions, a cinema, performing arts space, library, bookshop, design shop and a trendy restaurant, Forest.

The celebrated ride up the escalators is still unmissable, providing one of the best views in Paris as the city unfolds before you.

This brilliantly converted Belle Epoque train station is now a temple to art from 1848 to 1914, and it’s looking better than ever after a revamp for the museum’s 25th anniversary.

Downstairs, sculptures sit where trains once pulled in, and rooms pit Symbolists against Realists. On the top floor, the crowd-pulling Impressionists and Post-Impressionists include Monet, Manet, Degas, Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh. The mezzanine levels feature Rodin sculptures, early photography and superb Art Nouveau decorative arts. At any one time, around 3,000 artworks are on display. Check out their Wikipedia page for a list of 24 selected collection highlights.

Francois Auguste Rene Rodin, born 1840, was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. His unconventional and unexpected works challenged the norm, but despite controversy and ridicule from traditionalists, his popularity grew and by 1900 he was world-renowned.

Displayed around the house and gardens where he lived at the end of his life, this fabulous museum collection illustrates how he revolutionised sculpture at the start of the 20th century – reworking figures and themes to create such iconic and distinctive works as The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais and The Gates of Hell.

It’s surprisingly good for families, with special family audio guides designed to introduce kids to sculpture. They include an interactive plan with an audio pen – point the pen at an exhibit and hear the commentary.

Napoleon III’s former citrus greenhouse is (along with the Orsay Museum) one of the loveliest places in Paris to admire Impressionist and Modernist art.

Works by many of the big 19th- and 20th-century names are there— Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse—but the stars of the show are Monet’s monumental ‘Water Lilies‘, which wrap around the gallery’s curved walls in pastel-hued beauty and draw crowds by the dozens.

Regular temporary exhibitions complete the offerings.

If you like coffee table books, you’ll be well-served in the bookshop, which sells an excellent array of art-themed tomes.

The museum sits within the Jardin des Tuileries – after your visit, you should take a stroll through the park (former royal gardens), up towards the Louvre.

In a grand Seine-side palace built for the World Fair of 1937, Paris’ museum of Modern art covers the major 20th-century movements of fauvism, cubism, surrealism, realism, neorealism and expressionism, with works by iconic artists including Braque, Modigliani, Chagall, Leger, Picasso and Matisse.

The biggest piece by far greets you as you arrive: Raoul Dufy’s 1937 Fee Electricte, an awe-inspiring, monumental painting that depicts mythology and technology in sumptuous flurries of blues, yellows and oranges.

Don’t forget to check out the museum’s temporary exhibitions, which cover works by today’s Contemporary artists.

Paris’ Picasso Museum is set in the grandiose, Hotel Sale, one of the most extravagant 17th-century mansions in the city.

Inside, over 400 of Pablo Picasso’s artworks are displayed – everything from sculpture and drawings, to collages and paintings (of an estimated 5000 pieces in the museum) – showing just how productive he was.

Unbeknown to many, Picasso was also a great art collector, and his personal collection is displayed on the 2nd floor. It includes works by many of his friends, including Matisse and Braque.