Beaux Arts

The Louvre is the one place nobody can miss on any trip to Paris. Occupying the former Palace of the Kings of France, it is one of the richest buildings in the world. A magical place visited by over 8 million art lovers every year.

Enlarged and embellished over the centuries: the Louvre consists of 135.000m2 of space dedicated to the art of great civilisations from Antiquity to the 19th century.

Address: Musée du Louvre, 75001 Paris, France
Access: Metro Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre / Bus: 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 76, 81, 95
Opening times: 9am - 6pm (closed on Tuesdays) and 9AM - 9:45PM on Wednesday and Friday
Phone: +33 1 40 20 50 50

More info here. 

Internationally renowned for its rich collection of impressionist art, the Musée d'Orsay also displays all western artistic creation between 1848 and 1914. Its collections represent all expressive forms, from painting to architecture, not forgetting sculpting, decorative arts and photography. 

You're sure to be dazzled by the beauty of the place: a palace-like railway station, launched for the 1900 Universal Exposition.

At the end of 2011, the museum reopened all of its entirely renovated spaces as well as some new rooms: an additional 400 m² for the Pavillon Amont, post-impressionist artists at the heart of the museum, the restructuring of the Galerie des Impressionnistes, a new space for temporary exhibitions, and a new aquatic decor in the Café des Hauteurs, designed by Brazilian designers, the Campana Brothers.

Address: 1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris
Access: Metro Solférino / RER C : Musée d'Orsay / Buses: 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 94
Opening times: 9:30 am – 9:45 pm (closed on Mondays)
Phone: +33 (0) 1 40 49 48 14

More info here. 

The Petit Palais is an architectural gem from 1900 situated on the Champs-Elysées. The building was built for the World Expo, like the Grand Palais which is across the street, and houses the Musée de Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. 

Sculptures, paintings, tapestries, items of art, icons offer a large artistic panorama. Ancient and Medieval collections stand alongside works from the French and Italian Renaissances and Flemish and Dutch paintings. 

Visitors can discover a collection of canvases from major French artists of the 19th century: Delacroix, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Courbet, etc. 
An interior garden, which you can stroll along, accentuates all its charm.

Address: Avenue Winston Churchill 75008 Paris
Access: Metro: Champs-Élysées - Clemenceau / Buses: 28, 42, 72, 73, 83, 93
Phone: +33 (0) 1 53 43 40 00
Opening times: 10AM - 6PM (closed on Mondays)

More info here. 

Discover the Musée de l'Orangerie, Claude Monet's Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies) and the Walter-Guillaume collection, including masterpieces of modern art, from Renoir to Picasso.

Situated in the heart of Paris in the Tuileries gardens, the Musée de l'Orangerie, renovated in 2006, offers visitors a poetic and artistic discovery of two prestigious collections.

Address: Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris
Access: Metro: Concorde / Buses: 24, 42, 52, 72, 73, 84, 94
Phone: +33 (0) 1 44 77 80 07
Opening hours: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9.30am to noon and from 2pm to 4pm

More info here. 

The Musée National Picasso has the biggest collection of works by Pablo Picasso in the world. 

The collection is displayed inside the Hôtel Salé which was renovated for the occasion, located in the heart of the Marais district. 

This unique collection is composed of 5,000 pieces by the artist, more than 200,000 personal archives, and his own collection of some 150 works (Matisse, Cézanne, Le Douanier Rousseau, etc.)

Address: Hôtel Salé - 5 rue de Thorigny 75003 Paris
Access: Metro: Saint-Sébastien - Froissart / Buses: 29, 69, 75, 96 / RER: Châtelet - Les Halles
Phone: +33 (0) 1 42 71 25 21
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday from 11.30am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday: 9.30am to 6pm

More info here. 

Impressionist collection: 100 masterpieces by Claude Monet from the 'Impression Soleil Levant' to 'Les Nymphéas' as well as many other works from the artist's personal collection, by Gauguin, Guillaumin, Renoir, Sisley, Degas and Monet. The female of the impressionist group, Berthe Morisot, is represented by many oil, pastel and watercolour paintings.

A large collection of paintings, objects and Empire furniture. Collection of originals, illuminations: the Wildenstein collection groups together 228 English, Flemish and notably French and Italian miniatures of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

Address: 2 rue Louis Boilly 75016 Paris
Access: Metro: La Muette / Buses: 22, 32, 52, PC, 63 / RER: Boulainvilliers
Phone: +33 (0) 1 44 96 50 33
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm

More info here. 

Following Marc Restellini's initiative, the first Parisian private museum opens its doors on the 28, place de la Madeleine in June 2007.

Arranged on three levels, la Pinacothèque de Paris receives large-scale international temporary exhibitions and rethinks the classic realm of art history. Those shows explore and compare diverse eras and areas which are rarely examined, from archaeology to contemporary art. Through this new approach, la Pinacothèque de Paris wishes to make art accessible to everyone and reaches its aim via a varied and outstanding program.

The public already had the opportunity to rediscover important civilizations as well as brillant artists whose work has scarcely been exhibited in France such as Roy Lichtenstein, Chaïm Soutine, The Chinese Terracotta Warriors, Georges Rouault, Jackson Pollock, Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, 17th century Flemish Masters, Edvard Munch, The Jade Masks of The Mayas. In October 2012, for the first time, two exhibitions were shown simultaneously on both sites of the Pinacothèque de Paris, Van Gogh, Dreaming of Japan, and Hiroshige, The Art of Travel. In April 2013, you could discover Art Nouveau, The Decorative Revolution and Tamara de Lempicka, The Queen of Art Deco.

Address: 28 place de la Madeleine, 75008 Paris
Access: Metro Madeleine (Line 8, 12, 14)
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 68 02 01
Opening hours: everyday from 10.30am to 6.30pm

More info here.