Paris is often called the museum city, and walking down its
streets, past centuries-old buildings and statues, through beautifully planned
squares and wonderfully manicured parks and gardens, one sometimes feels that
one is in a very large, open-air museum. But Paris - museum city - also refers
to the myriad museums that are dotted around the French capital, exhibiting
everything from classical to modern art, fashion, military history, science,
celebrations of French industry and innovation, as well as whole museums
devoted to individual artists, who may or may not be intimately woven into the
fabric of Paris’s history. Perhaps the fact that this museum city is the world’s
number one tourist destination also bears witness to the fact that we humans
love to mull over our past, finding in it meaning to our present as well as
inspiration for our future. And with such a breadth and depth of choice, the
main challenge when visiting Paris’s museums is choosing which ones to go for,
to narrow down a selection that is just right for a particular visitor, his or
her particular tastes or particular mood on a given trip or a given day.
the French capital
The following pages contain just a few of many possible
selections, the humble choice of a long-serving Parisian, which attempts to
show the city in just one of the many possible lights that are cast over its
ever-changing skies. This choice reflects both Paris’s grandiose past as well
as its avant-garde present, some of its insularity as well as its openness to
the world. Museums have been chosen both for the wealth of their content as
well as the beauty of the buildings themselves, where in many cases the walls
and exteriors alone are works of art. Many, many more have been left out, in
the hope that the curious visitor will return and decide to visit the city
under their own chosen light.
Note that visiting Paris museums can be an exhausting and
frustrating process, particularly if you have little time and want to cram in a
lot. To make the most of your visits, plan as much as possible in advance and
buy tickets online before you arrive (most museums offer this facility). You
might still end up queuing, but less, and at least you will avoid the
disappointment of not being able to get in at all: some museums have a number
quota and will refuse access once this has been reached.
The Louvre (Le Louvre)
Louvre-Museum-in-Paris-City
Originally a palace for the kings of France, the Louvre is
probably the most famous museum in the world, and houses what is undoubtedly
the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa. A paragraph, a page, an
article, not even a whole book could do it justice, and if Paris is a museum,
the Louvre is a city. One could spend years discovering its treasures (without
counting the years spent queuing to get in), which include, among others, arts
of the Graeco Roman and Mesopotamian Antiquities, European paintings from the
thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, sculptures from the Middle Ages to the
nineteenth century, decorative arts, including jewellery and furniture, mainly
from Europe, and Islamic art from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries.
Inside the Louvre
Museum, Paris
If you want to have time to do anything else during your
visit to Paris, do not be overambitious and visit the Louvre selectively: read
up, decide what you want to see, go in and, (un)like Orpheus leading Eurydice
out of the underworld, whatever you do, do not look back. If you do, the
palace’s riches will engulf you and you will wander for hours, bewitched by its
wonders without ever getting to where you wanted to go.
the terrace of
Café Marly
If making a foray through the crowds and temptations of the
Louvre seems just too much, sip a glass of champagne on the terrace of Café
Marly, on the left-hand side of the main square courtyard, and let yourself be
hypnotised by the light playing on the large Louvre Pyramid that is now the
main entrance to the museum. Built amidst much furore and controversy under
President François Mitterand, few buildings have been the subject of such
passionate debates. Some love it, some hate it, but everyone wants to see it.
Palais Royal - Musée
du Louvre - Paris at Night
Le Louvre
Métro: Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) Open
every day (except Tuesday) 9am to 6pm and until 9.45pm on Wednesdays and
Fridays Entrance: $13.3-18.7; children under 18 free louvre.fr/en
