Opened in 1986, this gorgeous, renovated Belle Epoque train station has a world-famous collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings. The museum is arranged on three floors; to visit the exhibits in a roughly chronologic manner, start on the first floor, take the escalators to the third, and end on the second.

On the ground floor, Salle 7 has Courbet's masterpieces L'Enterrement à Ornans and Un Atelier du Peintre. His realist painting influenced the Impressionists, whose work is upstairs. There are also works by lesser-known academic painters here, showing the prevailing artistic atmosphere of the period. More experimental visions, including Gustave Moreau's myth-laden decadence and Puvis de Chavanne's surprisingly modern lines, make the leap into Impressionism easier to understand. In Salle 14 is Edouard Manet's Olympia. The artist is poking fun at the fashion for all things Greek and Roman; this young lady is a 19th-century courtesan, not a classical goddess. Photography exhibits are also on the ground floor.

On the top floor Impressionism really gets going, with works by Degas, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley, and Renoir. Postimpressionist galleries include work by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and Odilon Redon. The second floor houses an exquisite collection of sculpture as well as Art Nouveau furniture and decorative objects is housed here. There are rare surviving works by Hector Guimard (designer of the swooping green Paris métro entrances), as well as Lalique and Tiffany glassware.

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