Book the Louvre Book now
Paris has more museums than a lifetime could get through, and the risk is not missing the masterpiece: it is spending three days queuing in front of three buildings and never seeing the city that holds them. Here the museums are grouped by neighbourhood, because that is how you actually walk through the city, and next to the six great ones you will find artists’ houses, workshops, private collections turned public, and places that lie beneath street level.
3 articles
Start here
If this is your first time in Paris, begin with these three. The first is the itinerary that lines up three whole days, built for anyone who has never been round the city before. The second is the museum people fly in for, and it is also the one you enter by time slot: knowing what to look for before you walk through the door is the only way not to rush through it. The third is the guide that lines up the works worth travelling across the whole city for, and it is the one to read if you only have one afternoon and have to choose.
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The works to look for
If you only have a few hours and want to know what is worth the trip, this guide chooses for you and says where to find each one, museum or not.
→The big museums
Jump straight to the six big museums: they are the ones to book before you leave home, and two of them fill a whole morning on their own.
→Getting into the Louvre without the queue
The alternative entrances to the pyramid, the least crowded days, and the cases where you do not need a ticket at all.
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Experiences to book in Paris
Discover the best things to do nearby: tours, museums and experiences you can book online, skip the queues, at the best price.
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6 articles
The big museums
These are the city’s most imposing collections, but they do not all ask for the same amount of time: the Louvre and the Orsay are the two you truly cannot pass through in an hour, and you go in during the morning and come out in the afternoon. The Orangerie takes far less, and for that very reason it fills up fast as soon as it opens. Putting two of them back to back on the same day is still the decision that ruins more plans than any queue, and the other three stand in buildings that are, on their own, already the reason to go.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée du Louvre: 12 artworks to see beyond the Mona Lisa
14 min read Museums & masterpieces · EuropaMusée d’Orsay: 12 artworks to see in the 19th-century railway station
14 min read Museums & masterpieces · EuropaMusée de l’Orangerie: Monet’s Water Lilies and the collection nobody expects
15 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Rodin: 10 works to see between the hôtel Biron and the garden
12 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée du quai Branly: 7 works to see in the museum under the trees
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée des Arts décoratifs: 7 rooms to see in the Louvre wing almost nobody opens
11 min read 6 articles
The Marais
The district is walked on foot, without ever going down into the metro, and here what decides is not the collection but the courtyard you step into: the building is half the visit. Six museums inside as many aristocratic mansions; two are monographic and ask you to already know who you are going to see, the others open up to anyone passing by, and none of them eats up a whole day.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée national Picasso-Paris: 10 works to see in the hôtel Salé
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Carnavalet: 8 stops to see in the museum that tells the story of Paris
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Cognacq-Jay: 6 stops in one collector’s 18th century
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Maison de Victor Hugo: 7 rooms to see on place des Vosges
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme: 7 works to see in the hôtel de Saint-Aignan
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature: 6 stops in the oddest museum in the Marais
10 min read 6 articles
The Rive Gauche
On the Rive Gauche, one large museum and five small ones, and the difference matters more than the theme: the large museum asks for a whole morning, the others fit inside a walk and slot between two other plans. Three are studios and houses where someone truly worked, and the pieces are looked at in the rooms where they were made; one goes down beneath a square, into the bunker that was the headquarters of the Resistance, and changes register completely.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de Cluny: 6 works to see in the museum of the Middle Ages
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Delacroix: 6 things to see in the painter’s last home
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Zadkine: 5 things to see in the hidden house on rue d’Assas
9 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Bourdelle: 6 works to see in the sculptor’s studios
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de la Libération: 6 stops and the bunker under Denfert-Rochereau
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Maillol: 6 things to see in Dina Vierny’s museum
10 min read 6 articles
Chaillot and the Trocadéro
In the same building looking over the Seine stand three of these museums, and you can chain them together in a single day by changing floor rather than neighbourhood: the time that elsewhere goes into moving around here stays for the rooms. The other three are a few blocks away, and one of them has no permanent collection, so before you set out check what is on show at that moment.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Guimet: 6 things to see in the museum of Asian art
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris: 6 artworks to see, and entry is free
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Cité de l’architecture: 6 stops among full-size casts and copies
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de l’Homme: 6 things to see in the Trocadéro museum
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée national de la Marine: 6 things to see after the reopening
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Palais Galliera: the Paris fashion museum with no permanent collection
10 min read 6 articles
From Monceau to the Nouvelle Athènes
Six addresses where someone lived, collected or painted, and where the room matters as much as what it holds: here you choose by who you want to meet, not by school of painting. The exception is the state building overlooking place de la Concorde, where the rooms themselves are the visit and the collection comes second.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Cernuschi: 5 Asian masterpieces in a villa on the parc Monceau
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Jean-Jacques Henner: 3 works in the painter’s house of the plaine Monceau
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Jacquemart-André: 4 works in the house of the two collectors
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Hôtel de la Marine: 5 rooms and two stories on the place de la Concorde
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de la Vie romantique: 5 keepsakes in Ary Scheffer’s house
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Gustave Moreau: 25,000 works in the house the painter made his own museum
10 min read 6 articles
Science, technology and books
Here the museum explains before it shows: a craft, a science, a civilisation or a workshop left as it was, more than a single masterpiece to look at in silence. This is the part of Paris to keep for the day the art museums have worn you out, and it also holds up best with children in tow, because more than one of these places tells a process rather than a single work.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée des Arts et Métiers: 8 machines to see, from the fardier to the pendulum
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de la BnF: 7 treasures at Richelieu, and the free reading room
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Institut du monde arabe: 7 works to see before the museum closes
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Grande Galerie de l’Évolution: 7 stops in the iron and glass nave
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Monnaie de Paris: 6 rooms of the musée du 11 Conti, and the workshops at work
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Curie: 6 stops in Marie Curie’s real laboratory, and entry is free
10 min read 6 articles
Artists’ houses and the outskirts
Six visits that leave the circuit of the big museums, each for a different reason: the Philharmonie and the museum at the Porte Dorée sit at the edge of the city and ask for a trip planned on purpose, while the other four are houses and private collections closer to the centre, but still stay outside the classic museum route. Take one at a time and pair it with something else in the same neighbourhood, because getting there matters as much as the visit itself.
Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Maison de Balzac: 7 things to know in Passy, and the false name on the lease
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Marmottan Monet: 4 works, and the painting that gave Impressionism its name
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de Montmartre: 7 stops at 12 rue Cortot, and the manor house that never was
10 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée de la musique: 6 instruments at the Philharmonie, and the harp with no known owner
11 min read Museums & masterpieces · Europa
Musée Méliès: 8 stops at the Cinémathèque, and the colours painted by hand 13,795 times
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Palais de la Porte Dorée: 7 stops between the immigration museum and the aquarium
10 min read 6 articles
Beneath Paris, and the places of memory
Some of these places go down beneath the pavement, others hold the dead, and in more than one case the two things coincide. These are not visits to chain one after another: they weigh on you, and two in the same afternoon cancel each other out. The cemetery is the easiest to fit in, because it is outdoors, you walk through it freely and there is no need to book: it is the right choice when the rest of the plan is still undecided.
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Catacombes de Paris: 8 stops twenty metres under Denfert-Rochereau
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Panthéon: 8 stops between the nave and the crypt, and the view that is closed
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Conciergerie: 8 rooms of the kings’ palace that became a prison
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Mémorial de la Shoah: 6 stops, and the wall with 75,568 names
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Paris Sewer Museum: 7 stops in five hundred metres of real tunnels
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The Invalides and the seventh arrondissement
In a few blocks, three stops line up that do not resemble each other at all: a gilded dome with a tomb underneath, a building on the riverbank that almost nobody walks into, and the tower everyone has already seen in a photograph before arriving. The right order goes from the quietest to the most crowded, and if the Orsay is also on your list, the Musée de la Légion d’honneur stands right next to it, a step from the entrance.
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Musée de l’Armée at the Invalides: 8 stops, ending at Napoleon’s tomb
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Musée de la Légion d’honneur: 7 stops in the hôtel de Salm, and it is free
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Monumental Paris, 19th century
Six monuments born or completed in the nineteenth century, scattered across the 8th, 9th and 18th arrondissements: not a neighbourhood, but a century that remade Paris in stone and gold. The Arc de Triomphe and the Madeleine were already building sites when Napoleon fell, the Palais Garnier and the twin Palais of the Champs-Élysées arrive at the century’s end, and the Sacré-Cœur closes the list, born of a defeat rather than a victory. Pick one by theme, not by distance: here you jump from one side of the city to the other.
3 articles
The churches
The Sainte-Chapelle has a ticket office and a time slot, like a museum, and it is the only one of the two where the queue is predictable. Notre-Dame reopened after the fire with its own access rules, which are worth reading before you join a line. The third guide gathers seven churches beyond Notre-Dame, from the great Gothic basilica to small neighbourhood buildings, the Sainte-Chapelle included: some can be visited freely, others cannot, and it is worth knowing which before you reach the door.
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Notre-Dame de Paris: 8 things to know about the 2019 fire and the rebirth (updated 2026)
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Gardens and squares
Outdoors, and the season matters more than elsewhere: a rose garden makes sense when the roses are there, and a Japanese garden is not the same thing in spring and in autumn. The square, on the other hand, can be crossed in any month, and since it sits in the same block as one of the Marais museums, it is the break that slots itself into an already full programme.
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The Bagatelle rose garden in Paris, an oasis of wonders and scents (updated 2026)
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The Japanese Garden of Paris: the hidden message among the flowers of the Albert-Kahn museum (updated 2026)
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What you don’t know about Place des Vosges: one of the most beautiful squares in Paris (updated 2026)
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Out of Paris, in a day
Six day trips out of Paris, chosen by how much time you accept spending on the train and by what you are going to see once you step off it. The basilica of the kings of France sits inside the urban network and is reached like any other neighbourhood, so it fits into half a day too. The other five ask for a longer ride and split by nature: a palace that fills a whole day on its own, a garden that only makes sense in one particular season, a cathedral you can see in a few hours, and two whole towns you walk through on foot.
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Off the beaten track in Paris: the royal necropolis of Saint-Denis (updated 2026)
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Giverny: Monet’s house and garden, and why it pays to go before 1 November
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Chartres Cathedral: the free nave, the paid Treasury and the labyrinth on the floor
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5 things to see in Provins, to dive into the Middle Ages near Paris (updated 2026)
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What to see outside Paris: the remains of Soissons Abbey (updated 2026)
6 min read 7 articles
Neighbourhood by neighbourhood
These guides take one neighbourhood at a time: the places worth going inside, the ones you only see from the street, and the day each of them closes. They are for when you have already picked an area and want to know what sits around it, instead of crossing the city for a single museum.
What to see in the Marais: 9 stops from place des Vosges to the Arts et MétiersWhat to see in the Latin Quarter: 6 stops from the Panthéon to the Jardin des PlantesWhat to see in Saint-Germain-des-Prés: 7 stops from the Delacroix to the Monnaie de ParisWhat to See in Montparnasse: 6 Stops Between Three Free Museums and the CatacombsWhat to see on the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis: 6 stops from Notre-Dame to the ConciergerieWhat to see between the Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville: 5 stops and four centuries of architectureWhat to see in Montmartre: discovering bohemian Paris (updated 2026)
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The guides that orient you
These two do not describe a place, they help you decide. The first helps you choose which works are worth travelling across the whole city for, the second is the practical side of the Louvre, meaning how to get in without losing half a day at the door. Read them before you set out, not while you are already standing in line.
2 articles
Passes and free entries
These two guides describe not a place but a way to spend the day: the first helps you work out whether the Paris Museum Pass is actually worth it for your itinerary, the second collects what you can see in Paris without paying for a ticket. Read them before you leave, while the plan is still on paper, not once you are already queuing at a ticket desk.
Exhibitions on now in Paris
All the guides to Paris- closes in 5 days Simone Veil. Mes sœurs et moi Mémorial de la Shoah
- closes in 8 days Tisser, broder, sublimer. Les savoir-faire de la mode Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de Paris
- closes in 8 days Underground ! La presse alternative des années 1970 en France Bibliothèque nationale de France, site François-Mitterrand
- closes in 10 days Libye, patrimoine révélé Institut du monde arabe
- closes in 21 days Gianni Versace Retrospective Musée Maillol
- closes in 22 days La Mode en majesté. Haute couture et tradition à la cour de Thaïlande Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD)
- closes in 22 days Video Games & Music. La musique dont vous êtes le héros Philharmonie de Paris, Musée de la musique
- closes in 22 days La Palestine photographiée par Joss Dray Institut du monde arabe
- closes in 22 days Marc Chagall. « Jour de fête », 1914 Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ)
- closes in 29 days Ingres et la mode Musée du Louvre
- closes in 29 days Plumes du paradis Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
- until 22 November 2026 Hugo et l’architecture. De la pierre à la plume Maison de Victor Hugo
- until 7 December 2026 Talisman. Carte blanche à Ali Banisadr Musée national Gustave Moreau
- until 13 December 2026 Hashigakari. Works by Matsutani Takesada Musée Cernuschi, musée des Arts de l’Asie de la Ville de Paris
- until 13 December 2026 Chaïm Kaliski. « Jim d’Etterbeek » Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ)
- until 14 December 2026 Les Hôtes du Louvre Musée du Louvre
- until 20 December 2026 Robert Capa, photographe de guerre Musée de la Libération de Paris - musée du Général Leclerc - musée Jean Moulin
- until 31 December 2026 Affinités. Les merveilles des arts de l’Islam aux Objets d’art Musée du Louvre
- until 31 December 2026 Images de la rafle du « billet vert » Mémorial de la Shoah
- until 3 January 2027 Paris > Kyoto > Paris. Quatre designers de retour du Japon Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD)
- until 3 January 2027 Patrimoines en résistance. De Tombouctou à Odessa Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
- until 3 January 2027 Les grands âges Musée de l’Homme
- until 3 January 2027 Tenter l’art pour soigner. À l’hôpital psychiatrique de Blida-Joinville dans les années 1960 Institut du monde arabe
- until 4 January 2027 Le savoir en trompe-l’œil. Corée, 18e-20e s. Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet
- until 4 January 2027 Portraits de famille Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner
- until 10 January 2027 Le monde selon Penn Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection
- until 10 January 2027 Andy Warhol. La ligne et l’image Musée du Luxembourg
- until 10 January 2027 Animalia. Bestiaire de la Collection Al Thani Hôtel de la Marine
- until 11 January 2027 La donation Michel Lacoste au musée du Louvre. Orfèvrerie française de Mangot à Puiforcat Musée du Louvre
- until 17 January 2027 Cezanne et nous Grand Palais
- until 17 January 2027 Premières Nations. Arts et cultures du Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
- until 17 January 2027 Penn & Fashion Maison européenne de la photographie (MEP)
- until 18 January 2027 Remember Me Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection
- until 24 January 2027 Crosscurrents. Masterpieces of Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman art Musée du Louvre
- until 24 January 2027 Eva Gonzalès. Parcours d’une artiste libre Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
- until 24 January 2027 Kerry James Marshall. The Histories Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
- until 24 January 2027 Simone Fattal. Des villes au fond d’un lac Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
- until 24 January 2027 L’étoffe de l’artiste Musée Bourdelle
- until 24 January 2027 Éternel Tintoret Musée Jacquemart-André
- until 25 January 2027 Zurbarán (1598-1664) Musée du Louvre
- until 25 January 2027 Sculpter la couleur. Chefs-d’œuvre du Musée national de sculpture, Valladolid Musée du Louvre
- until 25 January 2027 Monet, peindre le temps Musée de l’Orangerie
- until 31 January 2027 Auguste Bartholdi. La Liberté éclairant le monde Musée d’Orsay
- until 31 January 2027 Mary Cassatt. L’indépendante Musée d’Orsay
- until 31 January 2027 Voir Tahiti. Premières photographies 1859-1870 Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
- until 31 January 2027 Nadar : inventer Paris, des profondeurs au ciel Catacombes de Paris
- until 31 January 2027 Vies minuscules Panthéon
- until 31 January 2027 Histoires de paysages. De Monet à Hockney (1890-2026) Musée Marmottan Monet
- until 31 January 2027 Belmondo, le Magnifique Cinémathèque française
- until 7 February 2027 Prix Marcel Duchamp 2026 Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
- until 7 February 2027 Kurt Schwitters. Le chaos-monde 1918-1948 Musée national Picasso-Paris
- until 8 February 2027 DAL DARI. La Lune et les Jambes Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet
- until 14 February 2027 Un vestiaire à soi. Féminités dissidentes au 19e siècle Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de Paris
- until 28 February 2027 Le Bicentenaire de la Photographie à la Monnaie de Paris Monnaie de Paris, musée du 11 Conti
- until 28 February 2027 Vive la mariée ! Algérie, Maroc, Tunisie Institut du monde arabe
- until 7 March 2027 Artistes au Muséum Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle
- until 8 March 2027 Gustave Fayet, Collectionneur - Créateur. Icônes de l’art moderne Fondation Louis Vuitton
- until 15 March 2027 L’eau primordiale. Leçons de Mésopotamie Musée du Louvre
- until 4 April 2027 Look ! 40 ans de mode au musée Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD)
- until 18 April 2027 L’art romain du Louvre. Un monde d’images Musée du Louvre
- until 18 April 2027 Delacroix, chevaux et autres animaux Musée national Eugène-Delacroix
- until 2 May 2027 Rafael Pavarotti, photographe Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD)
- until 1 August 2027 Lady Liberté. De la sueur, de l’audace, du génie Musée des Arts et Métiers