I
started adding museums on to the page on Tourist Stuff, but it was
getting too long, hence this separate page. These are some of my
favorite museums in Paris, and I've listed below some of the ones you
may not think of or hear much about.
You're going to the Louvre,
of course (metro Palais-Royal or Louvre). That's not just an
assumption, it's an order. Six million
other people will be going this year, so you don't want to be left out.
Even if it's only to see the
Mona Lisa (La Joconde, as she is known to Pierre and Mireille), you go
to the Louvre and you'll be stunned. The way to do the Louvre is to
avoid the cattle-like crowds who shuffle along as though marching
dutifully to their deaths. So, don't
follow the signs cheerfully directing you to Mona (we're on a
first-name basis). Note that there are several entrances to the Louvre,
not just the main one inside the pyramid (although I have to admit I
love going down the inside of the pyramid). Those other entrances will
be far less crowded, and they are at the Place de la Concorde, the rue
de Rivoli, the Quai des Tuileries, the avenue du
Général
Lemonnier, and the Passerelle Solférino. Thing is, they're
more
or less randomly closed, and the Louvre is huge, so you might end up
walking around the thing a lot. But at least you won't have to wait in
line. (Go here
for an illustration of the secret entrances.) It costs 8 euros 50 to
get in, but you can go for free on the first Sunday of each month (and
everyone else has the same idea, so be forewarned). The Louvre is
closed on
Tuesday. The trick with the Louvre is to go to the areas in which
people are not
going. You'll
find all sorts of interesting things, and you'll end up working your
way around to the "must sees" anyway, so just do what I say. I like the
underground parts that show you the history of the structure; the Greek
pottery; and the room that has a sixteenth-century portrait of an
Italian gentleman who looks like, well, me. Consider
having lunch at La
Frégate, which is sort of across the street, where
the Quai Anatole France meets the Quai Voltaire.
OK, that one was a
given: everyone
has to go to the Louvre. But here are a couple of places you might not
think of that are either off the beaten path (I hate that expression)
or interesting, or weird, or scary, or something I can't identify.
The first one is one you probably know about, and
it's not really off any path, beaten or otherwise, but I felt
like mentioning it because I like it and because I took these photos
there that I like. It's the Musée d'Orsay,
and it's pretty remarkable (metro
Assemblée Nationale, Solférino, or Concorde in a
pinch).
Like most state museums, this one's closed on Tuesday and free the
first
Sunday of the month. Otherwise it's 7 euros 50 to get in. (Read the back of your tiket.
The part in English says something like "Closing time 4:00. Or 6:00." I
love that.) The
most popular part of the Musée d'Orsay is probably the
section
dedicated to impressionism (yes, they have "Starry Night"), but you
should also check out the salle
des fêtes--the
museum is a former train station, you realize (see the clocks?), and
the salle
was--and still is--an incredibly ornate reception hall. This is on the
second floor, and it's remarkably fussy and elegant and cool, and it's
got a number of interesting bits of art in it as well. You an even rent
this space out for your own events (you'll want to book early, and
start saving up now). Don't miss going up to the very top of the
museum, where there's a restaurant and a snack bar. If it's nice out,
you can go out on the terrace and get a simply stunning view of the
city. You can also stand behind the giant clock that faces outwards
onto the street
from the station, and kiss a complete stranger (as at right, although I
suspect these two already knew each other).
You say you like impressionism?
and especially Monet? Then you should lay tracks over to 2 rue Louis
Boilly in the 16th to the Musée
Marmottan
(metro La Muette). This museum has the largest holdings of Monet in the
world, and it also contains significant works by the other major French
impressionists. This isn't a state museum, so it's open every day. It's
worth a visit just to check out the beautiful surroundings, since it's
located very near to the Bois de Boulogne. The building is also worth a
visit in and of itself.
You might not expect it to be as fabulous as it is, but the Musée Rodin
will calm you and excite you at the same time. It's at 79, rue de
Varenne, and you can reach it via metro Varenne or Invalides in a
pinch). It's open every day except Monday, and admission is 7 euros
(free first Sunday of the month). Entrance to the exceptionally cool
garden only--that is, no museum visit--is 1
euro. One of the things that makes this museum so appealing is in fact
the lovely garden, complete with its amazing Rodin statues. The house
is majestic and stately, and you haven't seen a work of sculpture until
you've seen Rodin's rotund Balzac. You got your Gates of Hell, also (at
left), and oh, yeah, there's that Thinker guy, too.
The Musée National des Arts et
Traditions Populairs et Centre d'Ethnologie
Française
(and that web site is pretty appalling) is way the heck out in
the 16th
arrondissement at 6, avenue du Mahatma-Gandhi. The closest metro is Les
Sablons--exit the metro and head south on the rue d'Orléans,
and
hang a right on the avenue du Mahatma-Gandhi. It's a bit of a hike, but
if it's nice out, you're right near the Bois de Boulogne (actually,
you're kind of in it), so that can be part of your trip. The museum
itself is strange and odd, but weirdly appealing. They have all these
exhibits and dioramas that are supposed to represent life in France
from the year 1000 forward, and once you get into it the whole thing
becomes pretty compelling. You're walking around in these darkened
rooms and it's all very theatrical and cool. Kids will probably
especially like this, since you get to see how the "peasants" lived and
what a blacksmith did and whatnot. Lots of crafts and things. I can't
remember how much it costs to get in, and that web site is so crappy
that they still list the cost of admission in francs!
FWIW, it was 22 francs back in the day (3 or so euros, but that's
certainly changed by now). Maybe someone can go and tell them to fix
their web site.
As I mentioned elsewhere, one of my very favorite museums in Paris is
the Musée
Carnavalet,
which bills itself as "the most Parisian of all the capital's museums."
That's because this is the museum of the history of Paris, and before
you make any cracks about how dry that sounds, just wait a second and
think about all the really cool things that might be in there. Like a
letter that Robespierre was writing when he was arrested, like all
these really amazing colorful wooden signs designating commercial
establishments that date back to the sixteenth century when folks
couldn't read and had to rely on pictures, like the big grotesque heads
that used to adorn the Pont Neuf, like all kinds of stuff, so just
admit you were wrong, eat some crow, and go to this museum. It's at 23
rue de
Sévigné in the lovely Marais (metro Saint-Paul or
Chemin
Vert). If it happens to be the 13th of July, you can hang out here and
go to the bal des pompiers
(fireman's ball) later. Situated in a fantastic, elegant, and very
large private mansion
that Mme de Sévigné once inhabited, this museum
is also
an architectural curiosity. The 5 euros 50 to get in will be money well
spent. Go on a Sunday afternoon, and then walk around the Marais
afterwards. Eat falafel. While you're in the
Marais, make absolutely certain to go to the Musée Picasso.
Situated in the Hotel Salé (yep, that's it at right), at 5
rue
de Thorigny in the 3rd arrondissement, the museum is open every day
except Tuesday, and the price of admission is 7 euros 70. (Closest
metros are Saint-Sebastien-Froissart, Chemin Vert, or Saint-Paul.) The
museum is situated in this fantastic elaborate seventeenth-century
mansion, and it contains something like 3000 works by Picasso, in all
the
media he worked in. It also houses his own collection of other artists'
works (including works by Cézanne, de Chirico, and
Dégas). The museum is especially well designed, and if
you're
someone who gets easily museumed out (you know, that stunned stupor you
can sometimes find yourself falling into from looking at too many works
of art for too long), you'll find that the arrangement of the works and
the layout of the exhibition somehow keeps everything looking
fresh. Even if you're not a museum person you'll very likely like this
one.
Surprisingly more interesting than you'd expect is the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs,
which also houses exhibitions on fashion and textiles, as well as on
advertising. Located behind a very forbidding looking wall at 107 rue
de Rivoli (metro Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre or Tuileries),
the
museum is open Tuesday through Saturday and it costs 8 euros to get in.
This thing has examples of pretty much anything anyone ever put in a
cave, hut, house, mansion, or hovel to decorate the place and call it
home. There's also an exhibit of advertising posters and paraphernalia
that's quite captivating, and even if you don't care a whit for the
fashion world or clothes you'll find these exhibits--if only in small
doses--oddly attention grabbing.
Weirdly, even tough I lived within a stone's throw for a while, I've
never been to the Musée
Grévin--a wax museum--which is at 10, boulevard
Montmartre in the 9th (metro Grands Boulevards). Someone go here and report
back, OK?
Perhaps the coolest thing--and it's pretty cool--about the Musée de Montmartre
is that it's right next to the last operating vineyard in Paris.
Really. If you don't believe me that there is such a thing, look here,
where I told you about the Fête des vendanges de Montmartre.
Now
do you believe me? This museum is located at 12, rue Cortot in the 18th
(of course) and your closest metro is probably Abbesses (which ain't
that close, really, but you'll have a lovely stroll. If you're not in
great shape, take the Funiculaire up the hill). At 7 euros a pop,
they'll let you in any day except Monday and Tuesday, and the
collection holds some terrific stuff on historic Montmartre and the
artists who made it famous (again) in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. This place is somewhat small, but if you're interested in
Montmartre, you'll find the collections here quite absorbing. If you're
just so-so on Montmartre, you can pass this one up.
The Pompidou Center is officially known as the Musée
National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges-Pompidou,
but it's also often referred to simply as Beaubourg (and their web site
is especially good--check it out). When the Center opened in 1977 it
was all the rage and the hot controversy was that it had all of its
guts (heating, exhaust systems, plumping, etc.) on the outside (see
left). It seems much less controversial and avant garde now, but that
shouldn't stop you from visiting this marvelous place. The Pompidou
Center is the national museum of modern art (as the name implies), and
the collection is housed on the 4th and 5th floors. Taking the
escalator up is part of the fun, because the escalator is in a glass
tube on the side of the building, and as you rise up above the
rooftoops you get a simply splendid view first of the Center's
neighborhood, and then of the entire city. The view up to Montmartre
and Sacré Cœur is especially good. The collection
is quite fine, actually, and there are so many featured exhibitions
that you can
go here very often and see something new each time. There's also a
fabulous library here, materials for sharpening your foreign language
skills, and IRCAM, the Institut de Recherche et Coordination
Acoustique/Musique. You'll also get a major kick out of the street
performers who do their shows in the great and vast plaza in the front
of the museum--you'll find anything from mimes to Tuvan throat singers
here (and this place is especially active on Sunday afternoons). The
Center is
at 19, rue Beaubourg, and the metro is Rambuteau (Châtelet or
Hôtel de Ville in
a pinch), and it's open every day except Tuesday.
The oldest buildings in Paris--they're actually Roman baths--are part
of the Musée
de Cluny
which you'll walk by a dozen times in the Latin Quarter before it
occurs to you, if it ever does, to go in. This would be your national
museum of the middle ages (and don't you just love that someone has a
national museum for that?), and I promise you'll find it oddly
compelling. Heck, just looking at the cats through the iron grating
that faces the boulevard St. Michel is fun, but go around back to the
entrance at 6 place Paul Painlevé,
pony up your 7 euros 50 (but don't go on Tuesday), and check out the
stunning collection of gothic sculpture, medieval jewelry, and
tapistries. The main building is a late fifteenth-century building,
built to house the Cluny monks, and one of my favorite things here are
a few of the giant heads that were decapitated from figures adorning
the western facade of Notre Dame. During the French Revolution, the 28
kings of Judea all lined up above the three entrances at the front of
the cathedral were thought to be the kings of France, and in the spirit
of revolution, the crowds beheaded them. It wasn't until 1977 that the
heads were unearthed (and I want to say they were found in the 9th
arrondissement, but I'm not sure about that), and you'll be surprised
to see how huge they are.
If you are as obsessed with Notre Dame as I am, you'll like--but
perhaps not love--the Musée
Notre Dame.
This museum, which admittedly isn't for everybody, is at 10 rue du
Cloître Notre Dame (just around the left side of the
cathedral as you face it),
and
it has information about the history of the cathedral, the organ, and
other things related to the middle ages and the construction of the
edifice. It's only open at odd times and on strange days--something
like Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday--and you could easily be alone in
the place. I find it weirdly charming and boring at the same time, but,
again, I'm wildly interested in the history of Notre Dame. (And here's
something I bet you didn't know about the cathedral: a portion of the
Crown of Thorns is displayed the first Friday of every month, but you
have to know when--and if you ask nice, I might tell you. It no longer
has any thorns, though.) Not really a museum, but something you should
check out anyway is the crypt of Notre Dame. If you look at the ground
in the huge square in front of the cathedral you'll see these outlines
in brass. Those indicate the placement of medieval buildings that were
once situated here that were torn down to provide a panoramic view of
the cathedral. Underneath this giant plaza is a dig dating back to
pre-Roman times. The entrance is at the far end of the square, and you
have to look for it. Do it--the creepy, ancient space will freak you
out and fascinate you.
Dedicated to the art and culture of Arab and Islamic civilizations, the
Institut du Monde Arabe
is simultaneously museum, library, and
médiathèque. Its
further mission is to enhance understanding of cultural and scientific
exchange between France and the Arab world. A relative newcomer to the
Paris museum scene--it was opened in 1987--it presents you with
stunning architecture right from the get-go. As you can see in this
photo by Patrick Giraud the building's southern facade is composed of
hundreds of ornate diaphragms resembling the iris of your eye that
adjust the size of their openings depending on how much light strikes
them. These are called moucharabiehs,
and they adorn many windows in classical Arab architecture; their goal
was to permit people inside the building--presumably women--to look out
without being seen. The northern facade of the building follows the
curve of the Seine and opens out toward the Jussieu campus of the
University of Paris. You'll find the Institute at 1, rue des
Fossés Saint Bernard in the 5th arrondissement (metro Sully
Morland, Maubert-Mutualité, or Jussieu). It's closed on
Monday.
Worth more than just a quick look, the Musée National des
Arts et Métiers
is over by République, at 60 rue Réaumur (metro
Arts et
Metiers or République). Closed on Monday. This museum houses
100,000 objects and drawings concerning inventions in industry,
photography, technology--especially textiles, and science in general.
Readers' Suggestions
David B. has
this to say about the museum pass: "I debated long and hard about
purchasing a Paris Museum Pass but decided to go ahead and do it. It
did help us skip the lines at the Louvre and the Musée D'Orsay
so I would say it was worth it but the longest line we were in was at
the Sainte Chapelle. That was a security line that everyone has to go
through, pass or not. The same with the Notre Dame Towers. So
people should be forewarned of those downsides to the pass."
Mona Lisa (La Joconde, as she is known to Pierre and Mireille), you go
to the Louvre and you'll be stunned. The way to do the Louvre is to
avoid the cattle-like crowds who shuffle along as though marching
dutifully to their deaths. So, don't
follow the signs cheerfully directing you to Mona (we're on a
first-name basis). Note that there are several entrances to the Louvre,
not just the main one inside the pyramid (although I have to admit I
love going down the inside of the pyramid). Those other entrances will
be far less crowded, and they are at the Place de la Concorde, the rue
de Rivoli, the Quai des Tuileries, the avenue du
Général
Lemonnier, and the Passerelle Solférino. Thing is, they're
more
or less randomly closed, and the Louvre is huge, so you might end up
walking around the thing a lot. But at least you won't have to wait in
line. (Go here
for an illustration of the secret entrances.) It costs 8 euros 50 to
get in, but you can go for free on the first Sunday of each month (and
everyone else has the same idea, so be forewarned). The Louvre is
closed on
Tuesday. The trick with the Louvre is to go to the areas in which
people are not
going. You'll
find all sorts of interesting things, and you'll end up working your
way around to the "must sees" anyway, so just do what I say. I like the
underground parts that show you the history of the structure; the Greek
pottery; and the room that has a sixteenth-century portrait of an
Italian gentleman who looks like, well, me. Consider
having lunch at La
Frégate, which is sort of across the street, where
the Quai Anatole France meets the Quai Voltaire.
The first one is one you probably know about, and
it's not really off any path, 
beaten or otherwise, but I felt
like mentioning it because I like it and because I took these photos
there that I like. It's the Musée d'Orsay,
and it's pretty remarkable (metro
Assemblée Nationale, Solférino, or Concorde in a
pinch).
Like most state museums, this one's closed on Tuesday and free the
first
Sunday of the month. Otherwise it's 7 euros 50 to get in. (Read the back of your tiket.
The part in English says something like "Closing time 4:00. Or 6:00." I
love that.) The
most popular part of the Musée d'Orsay is probably the
section
dedicated to impressionism (yes, they have "Starry Night"), but you
should also check out the salle
des fêtes--the
museum is a former train station, you realize (see the clocks?), and
the salle
was--and still is--an incredibly ornate reception hall. This is on the
second floor, and it's remarkably fussy and elegant and cool, and it's
got a number of interesting bits of art in it as well. You an even rent
this space out for your own events (you'll want to book early, and
start saving up now). Don't miss going up to the very top of the
museum, where there's a restaurant and a snack bar. If it's nice out,
you can go out on the terrace and get a simply stunning view of the
city. You can also stand behind the giant clock that faces outwards
onto the street
from the station, and kiss a complete stranger (as at right, although I
suspect these two already knew each other). 
You say you like impressionism?
and especially Monet? Then you should lay tracks over to 2 rue Louis
Boilly in the 16th to the Musée
Marmottan
(metro La Muette). This museum has the largest holdings of Monet in the
world, and it also contains significant works by the other major French
impressionists. This isn't a state museum, so it's open every day. It's
worth a visit just to check out the beautiful surroundings, since it's
located very near to the Bois de Boulogne. The building is also worth a
visit in and of itself.
in
Montmartre, you'll find the collections here quite absorbing. If you're
just so-so on Montmartre, you can pass this one up.