Best Museums in Paris: Louvre, Orsay & Beyond

Paris has more great museums per square kilometre than almost any city on earth — a reflection of centuries of royal collecting, Revolutionary confiscation, and Napoleon's systematic looting of conquered Europe. The Louvre is the world's largest art museum and the world's most visited — 35,000 objects across three wings of a former royal palace, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Book timed-entry tickets months in advance and arrive at opening. The Musée d'Orsay in a converted Belle Époque railway station holds the world's greatest Impressionist collection — Monet's Water Lilies series, Renoir's Moulin de la Galette, Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. The Centre Pompidou in Beaubourg is the world's second-largest modern art museum — its inside-out architecture is itself a statement. The Musée de l'Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens houses Monet's immersive Nymphéas panels in two oval rooms that feel like sacred spaces. The Musée Picasso in the Marais holds the artist's personal collection, kept by his family. The Petit Palais and Grand Palais are both free to enter for permanent collections.