Top 10 Best Museums to Visit in France

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The museums in France are mostly for art aficionados, with a plethora of galleries housing anything from classic 15th-century paintings to 1960s Pop art. ... read more...

  1. The Musée Matisse in Nice is a municipal museum devoted to the work of French painter Henri Matisse. It includes one of the world's greatest collections of his works, charting his artistic origins and his growth to his last works. The Palace des Arènes, a seventeenth-century villa in the Cimiez area, houses the museum, which opened in 1963.


    Henri Matisse is a well-known French painter, and this museum provides an opportunity to learn more about him and his work. Matisse lived in the 17th-century villa where the collection is kept from 1917 until his death in 1954, and it provides an intimate view into his life. Many of his early paintings, as well as his later drawings, as well as countless engravings and sculptures, are on display at the museum, providing a historical perspective on how the artist's work evolved through time. The Musée Matisse is located in Cimiez, a green residential neighborhood that was formerly home to a Roman encampment known as Cemenelum. It's also near Matisse's grave in the majestic Cimiez Monastery.


    Location: 164 Avenue des Arènes de Cimiez, Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur 06000

    Website: musee-matisse-nice.org/en

    Musée Matisse
    Musée Matisse
    Musée Matisse
    Musée Matisse

  2. The magnificent Louvre Museum houses works of art and sculpture by world-renowned artists. Without a doubt, the Louvre is the most popular museum in France and one of the must-see attractions in Paris. The mighty edifice of the Louvre museum, located in the heart of the city on the banks of the River Seine, was originally a fort of the French army. This museum, which covers 21,000 hectares, is separated into halls such as Egyptian, Oriental, Islamic, Roman, Greek, and British. Every gallery houses magnificent collections of antique and medieval paintings, sculptures, and antiquities. The Louvre Museum in Paris should be at the top of your bucket list if you enjoy art.


    The permanent collection of the Musée du Louvre spans over 60,600 square meters (652,000 square feet) and has about 380,000 artifacts and 35,000 pieces of art in eight curatorial divisions. Sculptures, objets d'art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds are on display at the Louvre.


    Location: Rue de Rivoli, Paris, Île-de-France 75001

    Website: louvre.fr/en

    The Louvre Museum
    The Louvre Museum
    The Louvre Museum
    The Louvre Museum
  3. The Musée d'Orsay is a museum on the Left Bank of the Seine in Paris, France. The old Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station erected between 1898 and 1900, now houses the museum. Paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, mostly from 1848 to 1914, are on display at the museum. It holds the world's biggest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces, including works by Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Claude Manet, Edgar Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh. Prior to the museum's opening in 1986, many of these works were on display at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume. It is one of Europe's largest art museums.


    Musee de Orsay, one of France's most famous museums, is another marvel. This age-old museum, which has works by Jean Auguste, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Berthe Morisot, and Eugène Carrière, among others, is a renovated national monument that draws a large number of art and history aficionados throughout the year. This is regarded as one of Paris's most lovely tourist attractions.


    Location: 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris, France

    Website: musee-orsay.fr

    Musée d’Orsay
    Musée d’Orsay
    Musée d’Orsay
    Musée d’Orsay
  4. The Musée de l'Armée is a French national military museum located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris in Les Invalides. It is serviced by the Invalides, Varenne, and La Tour-Maubourg Métro stations in Paris. The Musée de l'Armée is located in the centre of Paris and was opened to the public in 1905.


    The museum shows relics and artifacts from the French army in six departments: the main courtyard and artillery collection, antique armor and weaponry, modern department, contemporary department, Charles de Gaulle memorial, and cabinet insolites. Other than artworks and records of French war history, the major displays include a variety of weaponry, armors, private uniforms, royal collections, marshals' batons, and ceremonial swords shown in several halls of the museum.


    Location: 129 Rue de Grenelle, Paris, IdF 75007

    Website: musee-armee.fr/accueil.html

    Musée de l’Armée
    Musée de l’Armée
    Musée de l’Armée
    Musée de l’Armée
  5. Musee Rodin is a fascinating museum in France dedicated to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. This museum, housed in a historic structure, boasts exquisite décor and vast halls, with over 8000 paintings, 6600 sculptures, and 7000 items of art on show. Furthermore, the location has an extraordinary repository of almost 80000 antique pictures. The Musee Rodin also features a special gallery for Camille Claudel's art. Musee Rodin is one of the greatest tourist attractions in Paris, surrounded by a lush garden and a small lake.


    Rodin used the Hôtel Biron as his workshop from 1908 while living in the Villa des Brilliants, and later donated his entire collection of sculptures – as well as paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir that he had acquired – to the French State on the condition that the buildings be turned into a museum dedicated to his works. The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell are among the works of Rodin that may be found in the Musée Rodin. The museum's vast garden houses several of his sculptures. The museum has a chamber dedicated to Camille Claudel's art, as well as one of The Mature Age's two casts.


    Location: 79 Rue de Varenne, Paris, IdF 75007

    Website: musee-rodin.fr/en

    Musée Rodin
    Musée Rodin
    Musée Rodin
    Musée Rodin
  6. Another prominent name on the list of finest museums in France, Paris, is the Palace of Versailles, which is unquestionably a must-see. Every visitor is captivated by the beautiful structure, melodic fountains, and creative décor. The art, relics, armors, paintings, and sculptures of French kings on exhibit at the Versailles Palace museum most likely embody the actual essence and spirit of history's medieval and Renaissance periods. Enjoy the strange splendor of the area by taking a short tram ride through the beautiful green expansive garden that surrounds the palace.


    UNESCO declared the palace and park a World Heritage Site in 1979 due to its significance as a center of power, art, and science in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The palace, its gardens, and several of its auxiliary constructions have been added to the French Ministry of Culture's list of culturally important monuments.


    Location: Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France

    Website: en.chateauversailles.fr

    Palace of Versailles
    Palace of Versailles
    Palace of Versailles
    Palace of Versailles
  7. Any Chagall fan should pay a visit to the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice. The museum has the world's biggest collection of Chagall's work, which includes everything from practice drawings to full-scale paintings. The Bible Illustrations, a collection of remarkable paintings inspired by pivotal events from the Old Testament and reflecting Chagall's own Jewish ancestry, are on display at the museum. The artworks on display depict religious characters and scenes which Chagall developed for The Bible Illustrations series after spending time immersing himself in the Holy Land of Israel in the 1930s and, later, studying Rembrandt’s biblical paintings in Amsterdam between the wars.


    The museum was founded during the artist's lifetime with the help of Minister of Culture André Malraux and opened in 1973. It's also known as the "National Museum Marc Chagall Biblical Message" ("Musée national message biblique Marc Chagall") since it features a set of seventeen paintings by Chagall that illustrate the biblical message and were donated to the French government in 1966. The books of Genesis, Exodus, and Song of Songs are depicted in this series.


    Location: Avenue du Docteur Ménard, Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur 06000

    Website: musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/chagall/en

    Musée National Marc Chagall
    Musée National Marc Chagall
    Musée National Marc Chagall
    Musée National Marc Chagall
  8. Since its inception in 1977, the Centre Georges Pompidou has fascinated tourists with its unusual architecture. Its Lego-like walls have long dazzled art aficionados and even children who visit. The CGP has about 65,000 pieces of contemporary art from France's National Museum of Modern Art, ranging from surrealism to pop art. Another feature that makes it one of the top museums in France is its massive 245-piece Matisse collection. After you've seen everything the museum has to offer inside its walls, head outside to take in the sweeping panoramic views of the city from the 6th level!


    The Centre received 1.5 million visitors in 2021, up 65% from 2020 but down significantly from 2019 owing to closures induced by the COVID epidemic. Since 1977, it has had over 180 million visits, including more than 5,209,678 in 2013, including 3,746,899 the museum. Horizontal, a free-standing mobile by Alexander Calder that is 7.6 meters (25 feet) tall, was installed in front of the Centre Pompidou in 2012.


    Location: Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris, France

    Website: centrepompidou.fr/en

    Centre Georges Pompidou
    Centre Georges Pompidou
    Centre Georges Pompidou
    Centre Georges Pompidou
  9. The Musée des Beaux-Arts, which was built in 1878 for Ukrainian Royal Princess Kotchoubey, is housed in an Italianate mansion that will take your breath away, both because of its magnificent architecture and because of the difficult uphill journey required to access it from Nice's city center. Wandering around the museum, which holds a remarkable collection of art from the 15th to the 20th centuries, including everything from French and Italian classics to post-Impressionist works, can let you catch your breath. The Musée des Beaux-Arts has been the victim of several heists over the years, the most recent of which occurred in 2007, when thieves stole four artworks, all of which were ultimately found near Marseille.


    The museum includes an art collection that spans four centuries. Paintings by Chéret and other painters from the French Riviera, such as Alexis Mossa and his son Gustav-Adolf Mossa, who served as curators of the museum for many years. Sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, François Rude, Michel de Tarnowsky, and Auguste Rodin, as well as ceramics by Pablo Picasso, are on display at the modest museum.


    Location: 33 Avenue des Baumettes, Nice, PACA 06000

    Website: musee-beaux-arts-nice.org

    Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice
    Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice
    Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice
    Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice
  10. The MAMAC is devoted to modern American and European art from the 1960s to the present, including Pop art and new realism. There are almost 1,300 pieces of art on show, including work by Andy Warhol, a well-known Pop artist. The first permanent show features Yves Klein's monochromatic paintings from the 1960s, which include a sequence of simple blue canvases.


    The other permanent exhibition is Niki de Saint Phalle's remarkable series of shooting paintings from the 1970s, in which she physically fired paint into her canvases to take aim at social injustice. "By shooting the pistol myself, I was taking aim at society and its unfairness", she explained. After you've had your fill of the art, travel to the roof terrace for spectacular views of the city.


    The shop and entrance are on the same level as the Niki de Saint Phalle esplanade, which overlooks the Place Yves Klein. The first level of the gallery houses temporary exhibitions, while the second and third floors house permanent collections. The museum is open every day from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., except on Mondays and certain holidays.


    Location: 1 Place Yves Klein, Nice, PACA 06300

    Website: mamac-nice.org

    Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC)
    Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC)
    Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC)
    Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC)



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