Top 30 Museums in Paris


Paris is an enchanted city of elegant architecture and world famous museums. There are hundreds of art-galleries and museums through the “City of Light” that inherit cultural treasures. Below you can find a compiled list of the most beautiful and most interesting Museums in Paris. See also Top Places in Paris!

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1 – The Louvre Museum

The Musée du Louvre or officially Grand Louvre (in English, the Louvre Museum) is a must stop for those going to Paris. It is a retreat that appeals to both lovers of art, as well as to common people who after a day touring the museum become art lovers. The Grand Louvre is one of the greatest art museums in the world, with …see more

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2 – Musée d’Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay, one of Paris’s most popular museums, owns roughly 6,000 works of art, which are mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including 2,600 paintings, 1,250 sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces …see more

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3 – Musée de l’Orangerie

The Musée de l’Orangerie (Orangerie Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. The building of the museum was originally a winter greenhouse for the orange trees of the Tuileries Garden, and is glass-walled on the south side to allow as much sunshine into the interior as possible and rock-walled …see more

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4 – Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the biggest science museum in Europe, presents a host of attractions combining science and interactive leisure activities. Located at the top of the greenery 35-hectare Parc de la Villette, the museum is a masterwork of modern architecture. The impressive glass and steel building was design …see more

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5 – Musée Rodin

The Musée Rodin (The Rodin Museum) in Paris is the most popular museum in Paris devoted to a single artist, which displays works by one of the greatest sculptors of all time, the French Auguste Rodin, who had, among others, the ability to show the inner feelings of the men and women he portrayed …see more

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6 – Petit Palais – Musée de la Ville de Paris

The Petit Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, became a museum in 1902 and now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris). Designed by Charles Girault, it is based on a trapezium shape and is made up of four wings around a semi-circular …see more

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7 – Musée du Quai Branly

The Musée du Quai Branly (Quay Branly Museum) features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Opened in 2006, its collection comprises some 300,000 artefacts organised by geographical area, including sculptures, fabrics, statues and jewellery, 3,500 of which are on …see more

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8 – Musée d’Histoire Naturelle

The Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) in Paris includes the Jardin des Plantes, the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy, and the famous Grande Galerie de l’évolution (Grand Gallery of Evolution) …see more

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9 – The Pompidou Centre

The Centre Pompidou houses Europe’s most important museum of modern art, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, and one of the world’s most significant art galleries. It also consists of a vast public library, a centre for industrial design, a centre for music and acoustic research, a bookshop, a cinema and performance halls, a …see more

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10 – Les Invalides – Musée de l’Armée

Completed in 1676, the impressive building complex of Les Invalides, officially known as L’Hôtel National des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a masterpiece of French classical architecture. Originally built as a hospital and retirement home for disabled soldiers by Louis XIV, it now houses the …see more

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11 – Palais de la Découverte – Grand Palais

The Palais de la Découverte (Palace of Discovery) is a 25,000 square meters science museum located in the Grand Palais, where science is demystified by making it more accessible. It all began when Jean Perrin, awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926 for his work on the atom, conceived the idea of an educational museum, where the …see more

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12 – Institut du Monde Arabe

The Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) (in English, Arab World Institute) was established in 1980 in Paris, with the purpose to disseminate information about the Arab world culture by the exchange of information on the arts, sciences and modern technologies …see more

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13 – Musée de Cluny

The Musée de Cluny (Cluny Museum), officially known as Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages), is housed in an exceptional Parisian monument, the Gothic mansion Cluny Abbey Hotel (late 15th century), which is partially constructed on the remains of Gallo-Roman baths dating from the 3rd century …see more

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14 – Musée Grévin – Grevin Wax Museum

The Musée Grévin in Paris is one of the oldest waxwork museums in Europe. It was founded in 1882 by Arthur Meyer, a journalist for Le Gaulois, and named for its first artistic director, caricaturist Alfred Grévin. It has over 300 characters in realistic wax copies arranged in about fifty scenes from both French and World history …see more

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15 – Musée Marmottan Monet

The Musée Marmottan Monet (Marmottan Monet Museum) features a collection of art ranging 700 years, from the 13th century to the 20th century, with over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by Claude Monet (with the largest collection of his works in the world), Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas …see more

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16 – Grand Palais – Galeries Nationales

The Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Grand Palais National Galleries) are museum spaces located in the Grand Palais, Paris. They serve as home to major art exhibits and cultural events organized by the French National Museums Associations – Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN) and exhibit works from Painting …see more

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17 – Musée Carnavalet

The Carnavalet Museum in Paris occupies two neighboring mansions built in the 11th and 17th centuries: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. The buildings are beautifully preserved and have formal gardens designed in the classic 18th century French style and lined with finely sculpted shrubs …see more

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18 – Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris Museum of Modern Art) is an art museum located in the eastern wing of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris dedicated to the arts of the 20th century …see more

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19 – Musée de l’Homme

Located in the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot, the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Mankind) is one of the seven departments of the extensive Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History), and is one of the world’s most important museums devoted to anthropology, ethnology, and prehistory …see more

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20 – Musée des Arts et Métiers

The Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) is a museum located in the former 11th-century Saint-Martin-des-Champs abbey in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Industry), which was founded in 1794 as a repository for the …see more

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21 – Musée Galliera

The Musée Galliera, also known as the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris or the Paris Fashion Museum, is housed in the 19th century Renaissance style palace that was owned by the Duchesse Galliera and is surrounded by a beautiful and extensive garden. Opened in 1977 the museum contains both temporary exhibits and permanent …see more

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22 – Musée Victor Hugo

Maison de Victor Hugo is a museum that preserves the second floor apartment of the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée where Victor Hugo, a famed poet, writer and dramatist, lived in for 16 years from 1832–1848. Located in the delightful Place des Vosges, the building dates from 1605 and it was inaugurated as a museum in 1902 …see more

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23 – Musée Picasso

The Musée Picasso (Picasso Museum) in Paris is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé, a large 17th century mansion that was built in 1656 for Aubert de Fontenay. Pablo Picasso, one of the masters of 20th Century Art, was born in Spain and spent most of his life in Paris. The artist made a significant contribution to the birth of Cubism, a style …see more

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24 – Jacquemart André Musée

The Musée Jacquemart-André is a museum created from the private mansion of the avid art collectors Édouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart to display the art they collected during their lives. Following the death of her husband in 1894, Jacquemart didn’t give up her collection passion, and she visited India, Egypt and …see more

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25 – Musée de la Marine

Fouded in 1827, the Musée National de la Marine (National Navy Museum) is a wonderful museum dedicated to the long and illustrious history of the French Navy. Located in the Palais de Chaillot, one of the most beautiful Parisian monuments of the Thirties, it is one of the best maritime museums in the world, due to the age and …see more

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26 – Musée Guimet

The Guimet Museum (Musée National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet or Musée Guimet) is a museum of Asian art that has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia. It was founded by Emile Guimet (1836-1918), a Lyon’s industrialist who devised the grand project of opening a museum devoted to the religions of Ancient Egypt …see more

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27 – Musée des Arts Décoratifs

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is a museum of the decorative arts and design, with displays and exhibits of French furniture, tableware, glassware, scenic wallpaper, tapestries, porcelain, doll’s houses, and many others, which range from the Middle Ages to the present day, although a large emphasis is put on exhibits from the …see more

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28 – Musée Maillol

The Musée Maillol is an art museum established in 1995 in an 18th century townhouse by Dina Vierny, model for the sculptor Aristide Maillol. It houses around 400 works of Aristide Maillol, drawings, engravings, paintings, sculptures, decorative art, original plaster and terracotta work, as well as a collection of the masters of French …see more

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29 – Musée de la Poupée

The Musée de la Poupée is a museum in Paris opened in 1994 that presents the private antique doll collection of father and son Guido and Samy Odin as well as the donations to the Museum. The permanent collection of more than 500 dolls is arranged chronologically from about 1800 to the present, offering a more educative approach …see more

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30 – Musée du Luxembourg

Musée du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Museum) in Paris, situated near the Palais du Luxembourg, was the first French museum to be opened to the public, in 1750. It was initially housed in the Palais du Luxembourg that Marie de Medici had built between 1615 and 1630. At that time, visitors could admire the Royal collection …see more

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