PARIS MUSEUMS
MUSEE DE L'ARMEE
This is one of the most comprehensive military museums in the world. The collections are housed in buildings situated on either side of the main courtyard of Les Invalides.
GALERIE DE L'OCCIDENT (west side)
Among the most remarkable exhibits in the ground-floor rooms in Henri II's suit of armour with three interwoven letters, H for Henri, C for Catherine du Medicis (the queen) and D for Diane de Poitiers (the king's mistress). The first floor is entirely devoted to World War I and World War II, with a video film about D-Day.
GALERIE DE L'ORIENT (east side)
On the ground floor there are frescos depicting Louis XIV's campaign in Flanders in 1672 and the famous paintings by Ingres of Napolean on the day of his coronation, as well as numerous flags and a history of cavalry. On the first floor there are mementos of Napolean. The second floor is devoted to the Second Empire and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
Hotel des Invalides
Tel: 45 55 37 70
Open: 10am -5pm, 6pm in summer. Admission charge.
MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
The museum is housed in the Palais de Tokyo, built for the 1937 Exposition Universelle. La Fee Electricite, painted by Dufy for the occasion, is exhibited in the museum, alongside other works of 20th-century art illustrating the main trends.
Palais de Tokyo, 11 avenue du President-Wilson
Tel: 47 23 61 27
Open: 10am - 5:30pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DES ARTS ASIATIQUES-GUIMET
Founded in the 19th-century by Emile Guimet, the museum now houses a major collection of Far Eastern art on three floors. On the ground floor there are some impressive sculptures from Cambodia, including several heads of Buddha. On the first floor there is a wide range of Indian art, exhibits from Pakistan, superb carved ivories from Afghanistan and bronze, jade and lacquered objects from China. On the second floor there are some beautiful Chinese ceramics.
6 place d'lena
Tel: 47 23 61 65
Open: 9:45am - 6pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DES ARTS DECORATIFS
The museum is housed in the north wing of the Louvre and has been refurbished recently. The collections are chronologically presented, the 20th-century section being of particular interest with a splendid reconstruction of Jeanne Lanvin's flat, some Dubuffet paintings and sculptures, and glass objects by Galle ane Lalique. There is also a large toy collection.
109 rue de Rivoli
Tel: 42 60 32 14
Open: Wednesday - Sunday 12:30pm - 6pm. Admission charge.
MUSEE DES ARTS DE LA MODE
Housed in the Pavillon de Marsan, this museum, inaugurated in 1985, depicts the history of fashion and costume from the Middle Ages to the present day, with an emphasis on temporary exhibitions.
107 rue de Rivoli
Tel: 42 60 32 14
Open: Wednesday - Sunday 12:30pm - 6pm. Admission charge.
MUSEE DE CLUNY
Housed in one of the few domestic medieval buildings left in Paris, on the site of ancient Roman baths , this is an exceptionally fine museum entirely devoted to the Middle Ages.
On the ground floor there are 15th and 16th-century tapestries made in Holland in the mille fleurs style. Particularly worthy of note is a set called La Vie Seigneuriale, depicting the life of the aristocracy in the 16th-century.
In room VIII, there are some fragments of sculpture, including 21 heads from the Galerie des Rois that were originally on the west front of Notre Dame. Next door is the well-preserved frigidarium with a fine example of Roman vaulting.
On the first floor is the museum's major exhibit; a set of six tapestries from the late 15th-century, called La Dame a la Licorne (the Lady and the Unicorn). The lovely Gothic chapel contains another set of tapestries illustrating the life of St Stephen.
6 place Paul-Painleve
Tel: 43 25 62 00
Open: 9:30am - 5:15pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE COGNAC-JAY
This collection of 18th-century art has found a proper setting in the recently renovated Hotel Donan in the Marais. Paintings and pastels by Boucher, Fragonard, La Tour, Greuze, Tiepolo and Reynolds and drawings by Watteau are enhanced by beautiful pieces of furniture and other objects of the same period.
8 rue Elzevir
Tel: 40 27 07 21
Open: 10am - 5:40pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE GREVIN
This waxworks, founded in 1882, provides good entertainment for the whole family. There are vivid historical scenes and numerous life-size wax figures of famous people, as well as distorting mirrors.
10 boulevard Montmartre
Tel: 47 70 85 05
Open: 1pm - 6pm. Admission charge.
MUSEE HISTORIQUE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
Housed in the imposing Hotel Carnavalet, the museum was recently extended to the Hotel Le-Peletier-de-St-Fargeau and covers the history of Paris from its origins to the present day.
HOTEL CARNAVALET
The museum is reached through the monumental doorway and across the courtyard with an equestrian statue of Louis XIV by Coysevox. There are some interesting scenes from Paris life in the 16th-century, supported by a host of authentic details such as shop and inn signs. Upstairs are reconstructed rooms from the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI and Madame de Sevigne's apartments.
HOTEL LE-PELETIER-DE-ST-FARGEAU
This is linked to the Hotel Carnavalet and covers the period from the French Revolution; start on the second floor. There are models of the Bastille and the guillotine and objects from everyday life, and a reconstruction of the Temple prison where Louis XVI was held. The ground floor deals with the first half of the 19th-century through portraits of people in the lime life. The first floor follows on with the Second Empire and the great architectural schemes that were carried out during that period. The lifestyle of the early 20th-century is presented through reconstructions of rooms such as Marcel Proust's bedroom.
23 rue de Sevigne
Tel: 42 72 21 13
Open: 10am - 5:40pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DE L'HISTOIRE DE FRANCE
This museum, housed in the beautiful Hotel de Soubise, depicts French history through documents selected from the national archives. Of particular interest are the Edit de Nantes of 1598 recognising religious freedom, and its Revocation in 1685, which led to the exile of the Huguenots; the Declaration des Droits de l'Homme of 1789 (Declaration of Human Rights); Louis XVI's diary; Napolean's will and many others. The apartments of the Princess de Soubise have the most exquisite rococo decorations, with paintings by Natoire, Boucher and Van Loo.
60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois
Tel: 40 27 61 78
Open: 1:45pm - 5:45pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DE L'HOMME
This museum of mankind, housed in the vast Palais de Chaillot, depicts the evolution of the human race since the origin of the species, and presents a comparative study of the different races in their traditional environment.
Place du Trocadero
Tel: 44 05 72 72
Open: 9:45am - 5:15pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE
The building situated along the river, facing the lle St-Louis, is the result of close co-operation between France and 19 Arab countries with the aim of promoting cultural exchanges between Islam and the West. The institute houses a reference centre, a video centre, a comprehensive library, research facilities and a museum (on the 7th floor), which illustrates Arab civilisation from the 9th-century onwards. From the cafeteria on the 9th floor there are lovely views of the river.
Rue des Fosses St-Bernard
Tel: 40 51 38 38
Open: 1pm - 6pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE JACQUEMART-ANDRE
Situated right in the centre of town, but a little off the visitor's beaten track, this elegant 1870 mansion houses fine collections of Renaissance and 18th-century art, displayed in beautiful surroundings. They include portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, paintings and drawings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, and Ruysdael, 16th-century enamels and ceramics, some beautiful furniture, Beauvais tapestries and paintings by Boucher and Watteau. The museum is currently undergoing major refurbishment and is only open for groups by prior appointment.
158 boulevard Haussmann
Tel: 45 62 39 94
Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DE LA MONNAIE
Founded in 1827 by Charles X, the museum now occupies the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot. With the help of scale models and actual crafts, it illustrates all kinds of maritime transport from battleships to pleasure-boats. There is an interesting royal toy called the Louis XV, Marie-Antoinette's pleasure-boat at Versailles, a rowing-boat specially built for Napolean in 1811 and the Belle Poule in which his remains were brought back to France from the island of St Helena. The Gloire, dating from 1859, was the first armoured warship in the world. And, of course, exhibits includes ships used for exploration, such as the Astrolabe, which took Dumont d'Urville to the Antarctic in the 19th-century, and the mementos of the great explorers La Perouse, Brazza and Charcot. Temporary exhibitions are a regular feature.
Place du Trocadero
Tel: 45 53 31 70
Open: 10am - 6pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE MARMOTTAN
This is a strange museum which, as a result of various bequests, has developed from the original private collection into an original museum of Impressionist painting. It bears the name of the art historian, Paul Marmottan, who, in 1932, donated his house and private collections to the Academie des Beaux-Arts. These included Renaissance tapestries, furniture and sculpture as well as early 19th-century paintings and object d'art.
Following other legacies, the museum acquired some beautiful medieval manuscripts and its first Impressionist paintings, including Monet's famous Impression (1872), which gave the movement its name.
However, the outstanding asset of the museum is the collection of 65 paintings by Monet donated by his son in 1971. Exhibited in a specially built underground gallery, they testify to Monet's love of this country home in Giverny. The different moods of his garden are rendered with supreme mastery. The studies of water-lilies, for instance, show the master's obsessive progression towards the huge canvases exhibited in the Orangerie museum.
2 rue Louis-Boilly
Tel: 42 24 07 02
Open: 10am - 5:30pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DES MONUMENTS FRANCAIS
Housed in the east wing of the Palais de Chaillot, this museum was founded by the brilliant 19th-century architect, Viollet-le-Duc, who made such a splendid job of the restoration of Notre-Dame. He wanted to provide an opportunity to compare and study the evolution of monumental sculpture and architecture throughout France from the Romanesque period to the 19th-century. It contains plaster casts of sculptures from outstanding French monuments as well as life-size replicas of parts of these monuments.
Place du Trocadero
Tel: 44 05 39 10
Open: 9am - 5:15pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE DE L'ORANGERIE
The south pavillion on the place de la Concorde, recently refurbished, houses a substantial collection of paintings from the Impressionist period to the early 20th-century, but it is mostly renowned for Monet's Nympheas. There are some remarkable still life's by Cezanne, some delightful portraits by Renoir, and paintings by Picasso, Derain, Modigliani and Matisse, as well as a few of Henri Rousseau's best naive works, including La Carriole du Pere Funier.
Monet's huge Nympheas (Water-lilies), painted at Giverny, are exhibited on the ground floor, in two oval rooms, according to the instructions of the artist.
Place de la Concorde
Tel: 42 97 48 16
Open: 9:45am - 5:15pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE PICASSO
The ornate elegance of the 17th-century Hotel Sale makes a perfect background for the works of a great master of 20th-century art. The building was renovated recently to accommodate a collection of Picasso's works donated to the state by his heirs in lieu of death duties: 200paintings, more than 150 sculptures, 3,000 drawings and engravings, and 88 ceramics.
Picasso's personal collection of works by other major artists of his time, such as Cezanne, Derain, Braque, Miro, Rousseau and Matisse, was also donated to the state by Jacqueline Picasso.
Picasso's prodigious output is presented in a chronological order, starting on the first floor with the 'blue period' (Autoportrait), followed by the Cubist period (Nature morte a la chaise cannee). The period between World War I and World War II is illustrated by such paintings as Paul en arlequin, le Baiser, Femme lisant and the famous Portrait de Dora Maar. Among Picasso's post-war production, the series of studies on Manet's Dejeuner sur l'Herbe is particularly remarkable.
Some of Picasso's sculptures are exhibited in the garden, where there is also a pleasant cafe.
5 rue de Thorigny
Tel: 42 71 25 21
Open: 9:30am - 6pm. Closed: Tuesday. Admission charge.
MUSEE RODIN
The superb collection of Rodin's sculptures is exhibited in the Hotel Biron, where he lived from 1907 until his death in 1917. Some of his works, in bronze and white marble, are in the house while others are distributed wound the beautiful garden, so that a visit to the museum on a sunny day is recommended.
In the garden are two of his most famous works: Le Penseur and Les Bourgeois de Calais, as well as La Porte de l'Enfer and Ugolin. On the ground floor there are more masterpieces such as Le Baiser and La Cathedrale. On the first floor are the plaster casts used for the statues of Balzac and Victor Hugo.
77 rue de Varenne
Tel: 47 05 01 34
Open: 10am - 5pm. Closed: Monday. Admission charge.
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