9 of the Best Museums in Paris and How To Visit

No Paris museums guide is complete without the Louvre, so let's start there. Officially the largest museum on Earth, the Louvre is a cultural treasure trove that’s home to some of the world’s best-known artworks, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and ancient Greek marvels from the Venus de Milo to the Nike of Samothrace. While the Louvre attracts crowds that match its scale, it’s worth booking a tour with reserved entry to make exploring easier—or upgrading to a private experience for the most personal way to view its collections.

Don’t miss: Once you’ve made requisite stops at the Louvre’s best-known works, discover famed French masterpieces such as The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault and Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.

Located in a historic beaux-arts train station—and home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist art—the Musée d’Orsay is another top-rated Parisian museum. It’s also considered an essential complement to the Louvre: While the Louvre’s collection spans antiquity to the mid-19th century, the Musée d’Orsay picks up where it leaves off, focusing on the period between 1848 and 1914. And though it too attracts sizable crowds, booking a highlights tour with skip-the-line entry will help you waltz right past those long lines.

Don’t miss: This museum has no shortage of masterpieces, from Édouart Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette to Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone.

Art galleries in Paris certainly boast some special accolades. Take the Centre Pompidou: Opened in 1977, the landmark cultural institution is home to the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in all of Europe. It’s also nearly as notable for its building as for what’s inside it: The 6-story industrial creation by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers features all its ducts and piping on the outside, and has become a Paris icon. To learn about the museum’s collection—and to delve into the history of cubism, pop art, and other movements—explore on a small-group, skip-the-line tour.

Don’t miss: While the museum regularly rotates the works on display, look out for pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Delaunay, and more.

Pablo Picasso may have been born in Malaga, but he spent the majority of his life in France. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that Paris’ Picasso Museum (Musée National Picasso-Paris) is home to the largest public collection of Picasso’s art in the world, featuring more than 5,000 artworks, many of which came from his personal collection. Housed in a grand, 17th-century hôtel particulier in Le Marais, it’s a must for any modern art lovers visiting museums in Paris—book a collection tour to learn details about the artist and the meaning behind his artwork.

Don’t miss: The Picasso Museum’s collection is known for its breadth, and covers everything from paintings and drawings to sculptures and engravings. Look out for works such as the Portrait of Dora Maar, Massacre in Korea, and Portrait of Olga in an Armchair.

Paris’ Army Museum (Musée de l’Armée) is really a two-in-one attraction. Based in the Hôtel National des Invalides—a former home for war veterans commissioned by Louis XIV—it’s an architectural and historic marvel. And once you head inside, you’ll be rewarded with one of the largest and richest military history collections anywhere, which encompasses weapons and armor dating to the 13th century, as well as Napoleonic artifacts and objects from the World Wars. For the optimal experience, head on a collection highlights tour to navigate with ease.

Don’t miss: Invalides’ soaring, gilded Dome Church is the monument’s claim to fame, and an icon of the Paris skyline. The Army Museum has also had Napoleon's tomb in its collection since 1861—it's now one of the site's top attractions.

The Palais de Tokyo is among the newest of Paris’ museum highlights. Founded in 2002, the hip and boundary-pushing institution is located in a building that was built for the 1937 International Exposition, but was later stripped back to raw concrete to give it a stark, eye-catching appeal. Inside, the institution continues to captivate, with a series of rotating temporary exhibitions that range from installations and other interactive museum experiences to two-dimensional pieces and multimedia art, all representing the cutting edge of international contemporary art.

Don’t miss: Although it doesn’t have a permanent collection, the Palais de Tokyo is home to several restaurants and a bookshop that are destination-worthy in their own right—not to mention its exceptional esplanade views of the Eiffel Tower.

Already been on an Eiffel Tower tour, and ready for your next sightseeing stop? Then head to the Quai Branly Museum (Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac), located just steps from the monument. The museum—opened in 2006—is inside an innovative building designed by Jean Nouvel; the anthropology museum features a collection of more than 300,000 artifacts representing Indigenous cultures from the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and beyond, which span the Neolithic period to the 20th century. It’s an ideal way for Paris visitors to explore beyond European art and culture—all without leaving the City of Light.

Don’t miss: The museum’s wide-ranging permanent collection includes everything from a carved Easter Island head to British Columbian totem poles and Congolese masks.

Home to one of the world’s largest collections of art from the Middle Ages, the Cluny Museum (Musée de Cluny) stands on the site of ancient Roman-era baths, and partly occupies a medieval abbot’s residence. Today flanked by an ultra-modern extension that expands its square footage, the museum’s collection offers visitors a journey across 1,500 years of art history, from antiquity to the beginnings of the Renaissance, and encompasses everything from stained glass and carvings to illuminated manuscripts. Given its convenient Latin Quarter location, you can visit following a walking tour of the neighborhood.

Don’t miss: The Cluny Museum is perhaps best-known for The Lady and the Unicorn, a 6-part medieval tapestry series that dates to around 1500.

On the list of top-rated Paris museum attractions, it’s hard to get more recognizable than The Thinker. But while it’s the best-known sculpture by Auguste Rodin, it’s also just one of many highlights at Paris’ dedicated Rodin Museum (Musée Rodin). Located within a grand building that was once the sculptor’s workshop and showroom—and is now accompanied by a sculpture garden, which displays a number of his works in a peaceful setting—the museum is really a two-in-one experience. It’s best to book your tickets in advance, as the Rodin Museum gets crowded, and you can even choose combination itineraries that also include entry to the Musée d’Orsay.

Don’t miss: Once you’ve seen The Thinker, look out for other Rodin masterpieces including The Gates of Hell and The Kiss.