Museums & Art Galleries

Musée d'Orsay

A superb example of a successful reconversion, the musée d'Orsay was redeveloped in the old Gare d'Orsay, built by Victor Laloux and inaugurated in 1900 for the Universal Exhibition. After having received the first electric trains, the station was closed in 1939, the victim of progress. It was registered as a listed building in 1978. The museum was opened in December 1986 and was dedicated to all artistic production from 1848 to 1914. Paintings, pastels, sculptures, furniture and objets d'art, photography and documentary objects reflect the richness and diversity of this era.

Musée du Louvre

The biggest museum in the world! Western art from the Middle ages to 1848 (paintings, sculptures, objets d'art and Prints and drawings), and art from antique civilizations (Oriental, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities). It was constructed around 1200 as a fortress and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal palace.

François I began a new collection of art with 12 paintings from Italy. These included works by Titian, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous being the Joconde - or Mona Lisa. The royal collection grew and by the reign of Louis XIII, numbered roughly 200 pieces. Until the Revolution, this collection was strictly for the private pleasure of the Court. Finally, the idea of a museum (originating with Louis XVI) was realized on 10 August 1793, when the Musée de la République opened to the public.

Napoléon greatly increased the collections by exacting tribute from the countries he conquored, but most of these were returned in 1815 after his defeat at Waterloo. Under Louis XVIII the Venus de Milo was aquired (for 6000F) shortly after it was rediscovered on the Island of Melos in 1820.

In 1848 the museum became the property of the State. With an annual budget devoted to aquiring new art, the collections continued to grow. Private donations also augmented the Museum's holdings. Today, the catalogue lists nearly 300,000 works, only a fraction of which are on display at any one time.

La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

One of the world's largest and most visited science museums, La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is on an impressive modern site in northeastern Paris. The Parc de la Villette is a unique area of culture and leisure in Paris. Offering a wide variety of exhibitions and shows, this cultural crossroads is also a lovely park, with gardens surrounding the Ourcq canal. La cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is located at the top of the park, and is a masterwork of modern architecture. Nearby, you will find play-grounds for children, la grande halle - a giant hall for exhibitions and shows, the national conservatory of music and dance, and the "folies" - small red buildings housing mini-exhibits and snack bars. Among its several features are the Explora where you can pilot an airplane, step inside of a camera, travel throughout the human body, visit the Ariane rocket, and much much more. The Argonaute an attack submarine open to visitors. The Géode, one of the world's largest geodesic domes, and Franc's first Omnimax movie theatre equipped with a 1000 square metre screen. The planetarium. The cinaxe - a simulator outfitted with with the same equipment used to train airplane pilots and train engineers.

Musée Picasso

The Musée Picasso is situated in the heart of historic Paris, and has a collection of several thousand works of Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in 1881 and he began to study art in 1895. During his life he created diverse works: painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, engraving, and even poetry. After his death in 1973, many of Picasso's works went to the French state, which decided to form a museum with the collection. To house the collection, they chose to use a seventeenth-century hotel, situated in the Marais. This is the Hôtel Salé that was built in 1656 for the general Aubert de Fontenay. Before housing the musée Picasso, the hotel was already well-known. It was leased to the ambassador of Venice, and it became the Central School of Art and Manufacture (and then the School of "métiers d'art"), and finally it was leased to the state in 1975. The restoration of the museum was completed in 1985.

Today, there are 203 paintings, 191 sculptures, 85 ceramics, and over 3000 drawings, engravings, and manuscripts in the museum. Besides the personal collection of Picasso, the museum also has some works of Cézanne and Matisse.

Musée Rodin

Museum building and garden may be visited seperately. The building contains various works as well as the personal collection of Rodin. The garden is dotted with sculptures including the "Burghers of Calais" and "The Gates of Hell". Rooms on two floors display extraordinarily vital bronze and marble sculptures by Rodin and Camille Claudel, including casts of some of Rodin's most celebrated works: The Hand of God, The Burghers of Calais, The Kiss, Cathedral and, of course, that crowd-pleaser The Thinker.

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