Top 100 best museums in France

Originally a railway station, this Beaux-Arts building now houses Musée d'Orsay, one of the largest art museums in Europe. The Musée d'Orsay in Paris is an art museum that covers the history of Western art between 1848 and 1914, with a strong emphasis on 19th-century French art. The museum has a ren

L’ Atelier des Lumières, located at 38 rue Saint-Maur in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, is a digital art center that opened its doors on April 13, 2018. This unique venue offers immersive digital exhibitions, where thousands of digitized works of art are displayed in high resolution and set in motion to the rhythm of music.

The Louvre Museum in Paris is the largest art museum in the world. The museum is located inside the Louvre Palace which was once the residence of the French kings. It began its existence as a 12th-century fortress and its parts can still be seen in today’s Louvre. The palace was turned into a public

Many impressionist artworks of mainly French artists are exhibited in the Musee de l'Orangerie museum near the Tuileries gardens in Paris. Paintings from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century are on display in the museum, including works of art by Renoir, Picasso, Cézanne and man

La Halle de La Machine is a unique venue situated in the Montaudran district of Toulouse. It is home to the Nantes company, La Machine, which stores a collection of small and giant animated machines. These machines are often inspired by various themes such as nature, the world of aeronautics, and human or technological epics. This makes it a fascinating place for visitors interested in these themes.

Visit the former workshop of the founder of modern sculpting - Auguste Rodin. Opened in 1919, the Musée Rodin museum houses a great collection of his works. The exhibition includes more than 6000 of Rodin's sculptures, as well as his drawings and photographs. Be sure to explore the adjacent garden a

The Musée de l'Armée (the Army Museum) in paris is located in the Cathédrale de Saint-Louis-des-Invalides, which is part of the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. Its historical military collection comprises more than 500,000 objects from the Middle Ages to modern times, including pieces like photos, pai

The Musée Marmottan Monet museum is one of the museums of fine arts in Paris. Art historian Paul Marmottan donated his city palace and art collection to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1932. In addition to the collection of Jules and Paul Marmottan, the museum has the largest collection in the world

Dalí Paris, previously known as Espace Dalí, is a museum situated in Paris, France. It is conveniently located near the renowned Place du Tertre, in the Montmartre area. This location is not only famous for its artistic history but also for its vibrant and bohemian atmosphere, making it an interesting area to explore before or after your visit to the museum.

The Musée Yves-Saint-Laurent Paris is a museum dedicated to the renowned fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. It is situated at 5, avenue Marceau, in the very building where the fashion house was once located. This location adds a layer of authenticity and historical significance to the museum, making it a unique destination for those interested in fashion and the life and work of Yves Saint Laurent.

The Jacquemart-André Museum (Musee Jacquemart-André) is a museum in a former private hotel (city palace) in Paris. Its collection is brought together by a private collector; Édouard André in 1875. He mainly collected works by old Italian masters, which he bought with his wife Nélie Jacquemart. His w

Musée Miniature et Cinéma (the Miniature and Cinema Museum), formerly a museum of miniatures and film sets is a private museum in Lyon. The musuem is founded by the miniaturist artist Dan Ohlmann and is housed in the historic listed building of the 'Maison des avocats'. The museum holds two permanen

The Musée du quai Branly museum is a large ethnographic museum in Paris. With four buildings, the museum, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, covers an area of ​​40,600 m², with one wall of 200 meters long and 12 meters high covered with plants on the outside, designed by the French botanist Patrick

Built on the site of a former bowling alley, this overwhelming building opened in 2014. It was designed by the famous visionary architect Frank O. Gehry from Los Angeles in close cooperation with Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company. The design was

The City of Paris Fine Art Museum is housed in the Petit Palais in Paris, which was built for the 1900 World's Fair (the 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition")) by the architect Charles Girault. The museum holds and exhibits a large collection of ancient and modern art, including paint

Musée national Marc Chagall (The Marc-Chagall Museum, national museum of the Marc-Chagall biblical message) is a national museum in Nice that is dedicated to the work of the painter Marc Chagall. Chagnall was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. He was an early modernist and was ass

The Grevin Museum (Musée Grévin) in Paris was established in 1882 and is one of Europe's oldest wax museums. The Grevin Museum has around 450 waxworks of French and internationally renowned people such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Elton John, Vladimir Putin, Louis de Funès, Stromae, Nolwenn Leroy a

The Musée National du Moyen Âge museum, also known as Musée de Cluny, holds six spectacular tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn. The building itself combines both Gothic and Renaissance elements. It was built around 1485 and converted into a museum after the death of Alexandre du Sommerard, a

Cité de l'espace is a theme park focused on space and the conquest of space in Toulouse in France. It features full-scale models of the Ariane 5 rocket, Mir space station, and Soyuz modules and a planetarium where shows are presented. Furthermore there are (interactive) exhibits in the Cité de l'Esp

The Musée Carnavalet is the museum in Paris for the history of the city with a very wide collection. The museum consists of the Hôtel de Carnavalet and the Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, together accounting for around a hundred rooms. The Hôtel Carnavalet was built in 1548 by Count Jacques des

Le Jardin des Plantes is a botanical garden in Paris that also houses a zoo, the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes. The garden is located on the left bank of the Seine, and has been part of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle since 1793. The site covers around 28 hectares and next to the zoo and

Musée des Confluences is a science centre and anthropology museum in Lyon. It hold a collection of natural science, anthropology, and Earth Sciences and exhibits related to arts and crafts. The museum features 4 main exhibitions called 'Origins - Stories of the World', 'Species - the Web of life', '

The Center Georges Pompidou, or just Centre Pompidou is a leading center for modern art in Paris. It was opened in February 1977, by former French President Pompidou, who wanted a large public center in Paris where all forms of modern art and cultural expressions could find a home. This inside-out b

The Musée des arts et métiers (Museum of arts and professions) is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, which was founded in 1794. The museum has a collection of more than 80,000 objects, of which 40,000 are exhibited in the museum, including

The Picasso Museum in Paris (Musée Picasso Paris) is housed in the Hotel Salé, where it gives an overview of the work of Pablo Picasso. The collection by Picasso is the largest collection in the world of works by Picasso, who spent a large part of his life in France and is organized thematically. In

The Musée Nissim de Camondo is a museum that is located on the edge of the Parc Monceau in Paris. The museum is housed in the 20th-century residence of the Camondo family. The former private collection of this family is exhibited here, which mainly consists of 18th-century French furniture. This col

The MuCEM - Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations) is a national museum in Marseille that is dedicated to European and Mediterranean civilisations. The museum is located at the entrance of the harbour, next to the 17th-centu

The Grand Palais is a Beaux-Arts building that was erected for the 1900 World Exposition. Nowadays it houses many exhibitions beneath its huge Art Nouveau glass roof. The complex comprises of several separate galeries nationales (individual exhibition rooms) and also of the Palace de la Découverte,

The Musée de La Poste is a unique museum dedicated to the postal history and philately of France. Operated by the French postal operator La Poste, the museum offers a deep dive into the evolution of postal services in France. From the early days of mail delivery to the modern era of philately, the museum showcases a wide range of exhibits that tell the story of France's postal history.

Musee des Beaux-Arts (The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in Lyon and is one of the largest art museums in France. The museum is housed in a former Benedictine convent of the 17th and 18th century. The Musee des Beaux-Arts holds diverse collections consisting of objec

Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière (The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière) is a museum on the Gallo-Roman civilisation in Lyon. The museum is located near the city's Roman theatre on the Fourvière hill. Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière holds a collection of Roman, Celtic and pre-Roman material, inclu

The Musée des Arts Forains - Collection Jean-Paul Favand is a private museum in Paris that is dedicated to funfair objects. The museum holds and exhibits a collection of objects from 1850 and 1950, including 14 amusement rides, 16 fair stalls and restored attractions, 18 sets of historical works, a

The Museum of Modern Art City of Paris or MAM (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris) is a modern art museum in the French capital of Paris. It is located in the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo, while the west wing is intended for contemporary art activities and exhibitions related to painting a

The Grande Galerie de l'Évolution (Great Gallery of Evolution) is part of the French Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, located in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. This museum focuses on the evolution of the animal and plant world. The first floor focuses on marine animal species. Land life is t

Visit the Maison de Victor Hugo where the famous writer who is one of the most famous representatives of Romanticism spent 16 years of his life, and enjoy its unique atmosphere. Each room in the apartment of Victor Hugo describes a certain period of his life in detail - before, during and after exil

The Palais de la découverte is a science museum in Paris that is housed in the west wing of the 19th-century Grand Palais. The museum was founded in the run-up to the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, which took place in Paris in 1937. There are permanent exhibits

The Mémorial de la Shoah (Center de documentation juive contemporaine, CDJC) is the central memorial to the Holocaust in France, located in Paris. Focus is the persecution of the Jews in occupied France and under the Vichy regime from 1940-1944. The Mémorial de la Shoah is also a museum where visito

The Musée des Augustins is a fine arts museum in Toulouse. The museum holds a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings find their origin throughout France, the sculptures represent the Occitan culture of the region with many Romanesque sculp

Palais de Tokyo in Paris is the largest centre in Europe dedicated to contemporary art exhibitions. Having no permanent exhibitions, the place is very dynamic and always offers something new with alternative forms of art, with its main focus on the emerging French and international art scene. Apart

The Musée du Luxembourg is a museum in Paris. It was the first European museum to exhibit art in public for the first time, and the first museum for contemporary art. Nowadays it is mainly used for temporary exhibitions with works by both classical as well as modern artists.

The Musée de la musique in Paris (Music Museum Paris) has a collection of hundreds of musical instruments collected by the Conservatoire de Paris. The museum collection includes instruments that were used in classical and folk music from the 15th century to the present. The collection of this Music

Musée National des Arts Asiatiques - Musée Guimet is a French museum of Asian art in Paris. Although the museum now covers almost all of East Asia, focus is on archaeological pieces and classical oriental art, with few to no contemporary or ethnological pieces. There is however an extensive textile

Musée Bourdelle is a museum in Paris that is located in the former residence and studio of the French sculptor Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). The museum exhibits an important art collection of his work. It was founded in 1949. Like Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle wanted to leave a museum at t

The Musée d'archéologie méditerranéenne (Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology) is a museum in Marseille that is dedicated to the art of civilizations around the Mediterranean. The museum holds a collection of objects related to Egypt that is the largest in France after the Louvre in Paris. Besides th

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, MAMAC) is a museum in Nice in France that is dedicated to modern art and contemporary art. The museum holds and displays a collection of works of art that are considered as avant-garde, from the late 1950s to the p

Musée Lumière is a museum in Lyon that is devoted to Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors of the cinématographe and fathers of the cinema. The museum is founded especially to honour their contribution to filmmaking. The musuem is housed in the house of the Lumière family. Visitors can discover the i

Established in the 1930s, the Aquarium de la Porte Dorée is located on the bottom floor of the impressive Palais de la Porte Dorée. Visitors to the aquarium can see various species of fish, reptiles, turtles and discover more about marine life. The living collection includes more than 15,000 animals

The Aquarium de Lyon is a privately owned aquarium situated in the city of La Mulatière, within the metropolis of Lyon. It was inaugurated in 2002, following two years of construction. The aquarium was established by Maurice Chichportiche, who also owns the Aquarium d'Intra Muros in Saint-Servan/Saint-Malo and is the founder of the Grand aquarium Saint-Malo.

The Musée Cernuschi is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to Asian arts with a collection that focuses on the Far East: China, Japan, Korea. The Italian-French politician and economist Henri Cernuschi had left his collections in 1896 to the city of Paris, after which the Musée Cernuschi was opened

The Musée de Montmartre museum in Paris maps the bohemian history of Montmartre (a large hill in Paris). It is located in a building that dates back to the 17th century where painters such as Renoir lived and worked. The collection consists of a series of paintings, posters, photographs and various

The Musée de la vie romantique museum is one of the three literary museums in Paris together with Maison de Balzac and Maison de Victor Hugo. It displays works of romantic authors - e.g. sculptures by Bartholdi, paintings by Ary Scheffer and also many items connected to the persona of George Sand.

The National Marine Museum is the national navy museum in Paris that was founded in 1827. The museum is currently located in the Palais de Chaillot where a collection is exhibited that has the collection of Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau from 1748 at its core, who was a French physician, naval engin

Cité des Sciences et de L'Industrie is Europe's largest science museum, located in Paris. Cité des Sciences tries to promote science and uses interactive ways of spreading knowledge. Here visitors can explore some of the permanent exhibitions such as Light Games or The Great Story of the Universe. P

Musée Galliera, or Palais Galliera, The City of Paris Fashion Museum is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to fashion. The museum has only 550 m² of exhibition space available in five rooms in the relatively small Palais Galliera. The collection includes 30,000 garments of the last three centuries,

The Bemberg Foundation (Fondation Bemberg) is a major art gallery in Toulouse that is housed in Hôtel d'Assézat, a Renaissance hôtel particulier. The Fondation Bemberg is one of the major private collections of art in Europe. It is the private collection of Georges Bemberg (1915 - 2011) that include

The Musée de l'Homme is an anthropology museum in Paris that is one of the seven departments of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The Musée de l'Homme occupies most of the Passy wing of the Palais de Chaillot.

The Musée Cognacq-Jay is an art museum in Paris that was founded by Marie-Louise Jaÿ (1838-1925) and her husband Ernest Cognacq (1839-1928). The founders and owners of the La Samaritaine department store built a large collection of valuable furniture and works of art from between 1900 and 1925. The

The Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes is located in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It is a zoo that is part of the organization of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The Ménagerie was opened in 1794, making it the oldest in the world after Tiergarten Schönbrunn, which is located in Vienna. Ma

The Musée de la Cinémathèque is a museum of cinema history in Paris that illustrates the living history of moving pictures and pre-cinema, from their origins to the present day all over the world. The collection the museum holds and exhibits comprises more that 5,000 objects related to movies, inclu

The Muséum de Toulouse is a museum of natural history in Toulouse that holds a collection of over 2.5 million pieces that the museum partly displays in its 3,000 square metres of exhibition space. The permanent exhibition of Muséum de Toulouse is categorised in five different themes, namely: the nat

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is a museum for applied art and design in Paris. The museum was opened in 1905 in the west wing of the Louvre and now holds a collection of around 150,000 objects, of which 6,000 are presented to the public in its exhibitions. It is subdivided into chronological departm

The Panthéon Bouddhique in Paris is related to Musée Guimet. It is the part of the Guimet Museum that aims to put the original plan of Emile Guimet into practice to increase the knowledge of Eastern religions - in this case of Buddhism from China and Japan - with interesting objects in the field of

The Zadkine Museum (Musée Zadkine) is a small museum in Paris with works by Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), a Russian-born artist who lived in France. The museum is located in the house and studio where he lived and worked from 1928 until his death. There are around 400 sculptures, gouaches, works on pap

The institut du monde arabe (Institute of the Arab World) is a building and an organization in Paris. The building houses, among other things, the Museum of the Arab World and a library. It is part of the Grands Travaux which is the legacy of the presidency of François Mitterrand. The building was d

The Musée des Monuments Français is a museum in Paris that is housed in the Palais de Chaillot, an Art Deco palace that was built on the same spot where a similar palace already stood before. The original palace was built for the World's Fair 1878 while the present-day one was built for the EXPO 193

The Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology in paris is part of the French National Museum of Natural History, in the Jardin des plantes. The museum/gallery holds and exhibits a collection of old and important crystals, gemstones and minerals. The permanent exhibition of the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geol

The Musée d'Histoire de Marseille (Marseille History Museum) is the local historical and archaeological museum of Marseille. The museum holds a collection of archaeological finds discovered when the site it is located on was excavated and other archaeological objects related to the history of Marsei

Musée du Général Leclerc de Hauteclocque et de la Libération de Paris - Musée Jean Moulin is a museum that is located on the roof garden of Gare Montparnasse in Paris. Exhibits in the museum include underground newspapers, propaganda posters of the Vichy regime, uniforms of the Marshal of Africa and

The Maison de Balzac is a writer's museum in paris that is dedicated to the person of Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), who lived and wrote here for a long time. The house with its large garden is the only Parisian residence of Balzac that has been preserved. Balzac wrote La Comédie humaine (The Human C

Go behind the scenes of the biggest European movie palace. The interactive audio-guided tour takes you on an imaginary journey behind the scenes of film production and invites you into the secret and captivating world of cinema as you follow the making of a film from various perspectives : the proje

The Monnaie de Paris is the national French mint. The actual production of the coins does however not take place here, but takes places in Pessac, where since 1998 the Euro is also coined. In addition to the head office, the Hôtel de la Monnaie also houses an extensive numismatic collection, the Mus

Aquarium de Paris - CineAqua is a large tropical aquarium located in the centre of Paris. The aquarium is home to a couple of hundred different types of fish and marine invertebrates, housed in tanks that reproduce the aquatic environment of the Seine, the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean, the Me

The Museum of Jewish Art and History (Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme) is a museum in Paris that is housed in the Hôtel de St-Aignan in Le Marais, where it brings together a number of collections that were previously spread throughout Paris. It is dedicated to French-Jewish culture from the Mi

Musée des Arts Asiatiques de Nice is the Asian Arts Museum of Nice in Parc Phœnix, which houses collections of Asian arts. It was inaugurated in 1981 and was designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Its collections are from private and public collections, reflecting the important civilizations in

The Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs is a museum in Lyon that is housed in two 18th century hôtels particuliers and actually consists of two museum: the Museum of Textiles (Musée des Tissus) and the Decorative Arts Museum (Musée des arts décoratifs). The museum holds a very large collection o

The Lascaris Palace, museum of ancient musical instruments (French: Palais Lascaris, musée des instruments de musique anciens) is an old aristocratic palace and musical instrument museum in the old city center of Nice in France. It dates from the first half of the 17th century and houses a collectio

The Musée Gustave-Moreau (Gustave Moreau Museum) is an art museum in Paris that is dedicated to the works of the painter Gustave Moreau (1826-1898). The building that houses the museum was originally Moreau's apartment. In 1895, the artist had it converted into a studio and a museum for his works. T

The Massena Museum (Musée Masséna) is a state museum in Nice. that has since 1921 been displaying art from the Belle Époque, as well as regional art and history of the Côte d'Azur. In the Masséna Museum, painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, Belle Epoque furniture and furnishings are on display on t

The Centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation (the Center for the History of the Resistance and Deportation), also called the Museumm of the Resistance is a museum in Lyon that is situated on the former site of a French military health school. The museum illustrates the French Resistan

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of hunting and nature) in Paris is a private museum that holds the collections of the Fondation de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature. Exhibits focus on the relationships between humans and the natural environment through the traditions and practice

The Nice Observatory (Observatoire de Nice), but also known as the Cote d'Azur Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Nice on the summit of Mount Gros that was founded in 1879. The architect was Charles Garnier, and Gustave Eiffel designed the main dome. It is a working astrophysics and astro

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) is a center for contemporary photographic art in Paris that holds and exhibits a collection dedicated to contemporary creation. It consists of around 20,000 works of art, mostly photographs (silver and digital photography) and videos. The Maison europée

The Matisse Museum (Museé Matisse) is a museum in Nice that is devoted to the French painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor Henri Matisse. This Matisse Museum holds one of the largest collection of Matisse in the world, tracing his artistic beginnings as well as his evolution through his las

Maison des Canuts (The House of the Canuts) is a museum in Lyon that collects and exhibits traces of Lyon's industrial development based on silk produce. The House of Canuts offers guided tours with demonstration of weaving on a loom. During guided tours, the history of Lyon silk from 1536 until tod

Mundolingua is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to language and linguistics. Organized on two levels, the museum features touchscreens, recordings, games and objects that illustrate the various subjects.

Musée Saint-Raymond is an archeological museum in Toulouse situated on a site that once was a necropolis and housed in the former Saint-Raymond university college from the 16th century. The museum holds a collection of objects from protohistory to the early Middle Ages, mainly from the Celtic, Roma

The Paris Zoo (Parc zoologique de Paris, or Paris Zoological Park) is located in the French capital Paris and is part of the organization of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. Parc Zoologique de Paris was opened in 1934 and reopened in 2014 after an extensive renovation. Today, the zoo is div