1176 Best Sights in France

Behind an opulent columned facade, the Musée de Picardie, built 1855–67, looks like a pompous offering from the Second Empire. Initial impressions are hardly challenged by the grand staircase lined with marouflaged murals by local-born Puvis de Chavannes, or the Grand Salon hung with huge canvases like Gérôme's 1855 Siècle d'Auguste and Maignan's 1892 La Mort de Carpeaux. One step beyond, though, and you're in a rotunda painted top to bottom in modern minimalist fashion by Sol LeWitt. The basement, notable for its masterly brick vaulting, is filled with subtly lighted archaeological finds and Egyptian artifacts. The ground floor houses 18th- and 19th-century paintings by artists such as Fragonard and Boucher. 

During the digging for the foundation of a building in 1966, the shovels uncovered the remains of a temporary settlement once used by elephant hunters thousands of years ago. Now the site is a museum with models and other displays—including one with an actual human footprint, calcified in the sand—that reconstruct the ancient beach-camp known as Terra Amata (Beloved Land). Films explain the lifestyle of what are among the oldest known inhabitants of Europe. Recorded commentaries and the museum's app are available in English.

The final home of artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) contains just a small collection of his sketches, drawings, and photography, but you can see the lovely studio he had built in the large garden out back to work on frescoes he created for St-Sulpice Church, where they remain on display today. The museum regularly hosts temporary exhibitions that highlight different aspects of Delacroix's work. France's foremost Romantic painter had the good luck to live on Place Furstemberg, one of the smallest, most romantic squares in Paris; seeing it is reason enough to come.

Although it's a hike from the center, this state-of-the-art museum is a good place to start your exploration of Arles. You can learn all about the city in its Roman heyday, from the development of its monuments to details of daily life. The bold, modern triangular structure (designed by Henri Ciriani) lies on the site of an enormous Roman cirque (chariot-racing stadium).

The permanent collection includes jewelry, mosaics, town plans, and carved 4th-century sarcophagi. One wing of the museum features a rare intact barge dating from AD 50, as well as a fascinating display illustrating how the boat was meticulously dredged from the nearby Rhône. Seven superb floor mosaics can be viewed from an elevated platform, and you exit via a hall packed with magnificently detailed paleo-Christian sarcophagi. As you leave you will see the belt of St-Césaire, the last bishop of Arles, who died in AD 542 when the countryside was overwhelmed by the Franks and the Roman era met its end. Ask for an English-language guidebook.

Local furniture, ceramics, and folklore top the bill at the Musée Départemental Breton.

Corot and company would often repair to the Auberge Ganne after painting to brush up on their social life; the inn is now the Musée de Peintres de Barbizon. Here you can find documents detailing village life in the 19th century, as well as a few original works. The Barbizon artists painted on every available surface, and even now you can see some of their creations on the upstairs walls. Two of the ground-floor rooms have been reconstituted as they were in Ganne's time—note the trompe l'oeil paintings on the buffet doors. There's also a video about the Barbizon School.

The city's leading showcase of French design, Les Arts Décoratifs was rechristened the Musée des Arts Décoratifs—or MAD—in 2018 in an effort to better carve out a niche for itself. Sharing a wing of the Musée du Louvre, but with a separate entrance and admission charge, MAD is actually three museums in one spread over nine floors. The stellar collection of decorative arts, fashion, and graphics includes altarpieces from the Middle Ages and furnishings from the Italian Renaissance to the present day. There are period rooms reflecting different eras, such as the early 1820s salon of the Duchesse de Berry (who actually lived in the building), plus several rooms reproduced from designer Jeanne Lanvin's 1920s apartment. Don't miss the gilt-and-green-velvet bed of the Parisian courtesan who inspired the boudoir in Émile Zola's novel Nana; you can hear Zola's description of it on the free English audio guide, which is highly recommended. The second-floor jewelry gallery is another must-see.

MAD is also home to an exceptional collection of textiles, advertising posters, films, and related objects that are shown in rotating exhibitions. Before leaving, take a break at the restaurant Le Loulou, where an outdoor terrace is an ideal spot for lunch or afternoon tea (be sure to reserve—spots fill up quickly!). Shoppers should browse through the on-site boutique as well. Stocked with an interesting selection of books, paper products, toys, tableware, accessories, and jewelry, it's one of the city's best museum shops. If you're combining a visit here with the Musée du Louvre, note that the two close on different days, so don't come on Monday or Tuesday. If you’re pairing it with the exquisite Nissim de Camondo, joint tickets are available at a reduced cost.

Science buffs should not miss this fascinating place, Europe's oldest museum dedicated to invention and technology. It's a treasure trove of wonkiness with 80,000 instruments, machines, and gadgets—including 16th-century astrolabes, Pascal's first mechanical calculator, and film-camera prototypes by the Lumière Brothers, fathers of modern cinema. You can watch video simulations of groundbreaking architectural achievements, like the cast-iron dome, or see how Jacquard's mechanical loom revolutionized clothmaking. Kids will love the flying machines (among them the first plane to cross the English Channel) and the impressive display of old automobiles in the high-ceilinged chapel of St-Martin-des-Champs. Also in the chapel is a copy of Foucault's Pendulum, which proved to the world in 1851 that the Earth rotated (demonstrations are staged daily at noon and 5). The building, erected between the 11th and 13th centuries, was a church and priory that was confiscated during the Revolution, and, after incarnations as a school and a weapons factory, became a museum in 1799. Most displays have information in English, but renting an English audioguide (€5) helps. If you're arriving via the métro, check out the platform of Line 11 in the Arts et Métiers station—one of the city's most elaborate—which is made to look like the inside of a Jules Verne–style machine, complete with copper-color metal walls, giant bolts, and faux gears.

This unique museum in the historic Pavillons de Bercy in the Bercy Village shopping district chronicles Paris’s Belle Époque heyday of carnivals and the fairground arts. Visitors discover a world of colorful, fantastical objects that conveyed all the romance and whimsy of 19th- and early 20th-century funfairs, culminating in a ride on a vintage carousel. The museum is open by reservation only.

More than 400 works by such masters as Rubens, Corot, and Picasso mingle with pretty landscapes from the local Gauguin-inspired Pont-Aven school in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, next to the cathedral. Of particular note is a fascinating series of paintings depicting traditional life in Breton villages. The museum is currently undergoing renovations and will reopen in late 2026. In the meantime, several venues around Quimper will host exhibitions featuring the museum's major works and pieces on loan.

In the elegant 17th-century Palais St-Pierre, formerly a Benedictine abbey, this museum houses one of France's largest art collections after that of the Louvre. Byzantine ivories, Etruscan statues, Egyptian artifacts, and top-notch sculptures (most notably Rodin's Walker) are all on display; however, paintings remain the highlight. Amid Old Master, Impressionist, and modern paintings are works by the tight-knit Lyon School, characterized by exquisitely rendered flowers and overbearing religious sentimentality. Note Louis Janmot's Poem of the Soul, immaculately painted visions that are by turns heavenly, hellish, and downright spooky. A newer trove of treasures includes works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Bacon, Braque, and Picasso.

Within the castle's walls, the Musée des Beaux-Arts is a heavyweight among France's provincial fine arts museums. Its collection includes works by Monet, Poussin, Rubens, Brueghel, Tintoretto, and Veronese; there's also a wide range of 20th-century art on view.

Just behind the famed cathedral, the town art museum is housed in a handsome 18th-century building that once served as the bishop's palace. Its varied collection includes Renaissance enamels, a portrait of Erasmus by Holbein, tapestries, armor, and some fine (mainly French) paintings from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. There's also a room devoted to the forceful 20th-century landscapes of Maurice de Vlaminck, who lived in the region.

Take the elevator to the top of this five-story building across from the cathedral, then make your way down to see works by such artists as Tintoretto, Velázquez, Watteau, Boucher, Rodin, and Gauguin. The museum's richest collection is its 17th-century French paintings, prints, and drawings, reputedly second only to the Louvre.

The town’s art museum captures some of the history of the Pont-Aven School, whose adherents painted Breton landscapes in a bold yet dreamy style called Synthétisme. In addition to works by “member” artists—Paul Gauguin, Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, and Émile Bernard among them—the Musée de Beaux-Arts has a photography exhibit documenting the Pont-Aven School.

Designed by Clément-Marie Josso, this noted museum was opened in 1900. Inside, skylights cast their glow over a fine array of paintings, from the Renaissance period onward, including works by Jacopo Tintoretto, Georges de La Tour, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and Gustave Courbet. To go from the sublime to the ridiculous, look for the famous late-19th-century painting of a gorilla running amok with a maiden.

Containing works by Georges de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Camille Corot, Paul Gauguin, and Maurice Utrillo, to name a few, this museum is particularly strong on French 17th-century paintings and drawings, and has an interesting collection of works by modern French artists.

In what was once the archbishop's palace (built into an ancient Roman wall), this museum features an eclectic selection of furniture, sculpture, and wrought-iron work, plus art by Rubens, Rembrandt, Boucher, Degas, and Calder. A favorite is Fritz the Elephant, stuffed in 1902.

In a splendid building that now spills over into a spectacular modern wing, a broad and varied collection of art treasures lives up to the noble white facade designed by Emmanuel Héré. The showpiece is Rubens's massive Transfiguration, and among the most striking works are the freeze-the-moment realist tableaux painted by native son Émile Friant at the turn of the 20th century. A sizable collection of Lipchitz sculptures includes portrait busts of Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, and Coco Chanel. You'll also find 19th- and 20th-century paintings by Monet, Manet, Utrillo, and Modigliani; a Caravaggio Annunciation; and a wealth of other old masters from the Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French schools; and impressive glassworks by Nancy native Antonin Daum. A free smartphone app can be downloaded in English and can help you navigate the museum.

Originally built for a member of Nice's Old Russian community, the Princess Kotschoubey, this Italianate mansion is a Belle Époque wedding cake, replete with one of the grandest staircases on the coast. After the richissime American James Thompson took over and the last glittering ball was held here, the villa was bought by the municipality as a museum in the 1920s. Unfortunately, many of the period features were sold, but in their place are paintings by Degas, Boudin, Monet, Sisley, Dufy, and Jules Chéret, whose posters of winking damselles distill all the joie of the Belle Époque. From the Hôtel Negresco area, the museum is about a 15-minute walk up a gentle hill; guided tours in English can be arranged.

Two blocks southwest of Reims's massive cathedral, this noted museum has an outstanding collection of paintings, which includes no fewer than 27 Corots, as well as Jacques-Louis David's unforgettable Death of Marat (the portrait shows the revolutionary polemicist Jean-Paul Marat stabbed to death in his bath—a deed committed by Charlotte Corday in 1793). It also houses a significant collection of 20th-century art featuring Art Deco, surrealist, and post-1945 abstract pieces. Due to major restorations, the museum will be closed to the public until 2026.

Set within the 15th-century Logis Barrault, the Musée des Beaux-Arts has an art collection spanning the 14th to the 21st century, as well as a section depicting the history of Angers through archaeological and artistic works from the Neolithic period to the present. The vast museum complex combines historic architecture with contemporary lighting and signage to optimize the experience.

One of Rouen's cultural mainstays, this museum is famed for its stellar collection of paintings and sculptures from the 16th to the 20th century, including works by native son Géricault as well as by David, Rubens, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Poussin, Delacroix, Degas, and Modigliani. Most popular of all, however, is the impressive Impressionist gallery, with Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, plus the Postimpressionist School of Rouen headed by Albert Lebourg and Gustave Loiseau.

The real draw in the Ville Basse (newer, lower portion of Carcassonne), this museum houses a nice collection of porcelain, 17th- and 18th-century Flemish paintings, and works by local artists—including some stirring battle scenes by Jacques Gamelin (1738–1803).

Bordeaux was one of 15 French cities chosen by Napoléon to showcase his war-acquired works (most notably from Italy) along with bits of existing royal art, so this museum has a fetching collection. Expanded to include pieces from the 15th century to the present, it now displays important paintings by Paolo Veronese (St-Dorothy), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (Bath of Diana), and Odilon Redon (Apollo's Chariot), plus sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Located near the Cathédrale St-André and ornate Hôtel de Ville, the Museé des Beaux-Arts is flanked by tidy gardens.

For some man-made splendors, head to the Musée des Beaux-Arts and ogle works by El Greco, Degas, Sorolla, and Rodin.

St-Lô has the perfect French provincial art museum. Its halls are airy, seldom busy, and not too big, yet full of varied exhibits—including an unexpected masterpiece: Gombault et Macée, a set of nine silk-and-wool tapestries woven in Bruges around 1600 relating a tale about a shepherd couple, exquisitely showcased in a special circular room. Other highlights include brash modern tapestries by Jean Lurçat; paintings by Corot, Boudin, and Géricault; and court miniatures by Daniel Saint. Photographs, models, and documents evoke St-Lô's wartime devastation, as does a Fernand Léger watercolor, given to the museum by his wife in memory of his work on the town's postwar reconstruction.

In 1943, Germans destroyed the neighborhood along the Quai du Port—some 2,000 houses—displacing 20,000 citizens, but this act of brutal urban renewal, ironically and literally, laid the ground open for new discoveries. When Marseille began to rebuild in 1947, workers dug up the remains of a Roman shipping warehouse full of the terra-cotta jars and amphorae that once lay in the bellies of low-slung ships. The Musée des Docks Romains was created around the finds and demonstrates the scale of Massalia's shipping prowess.

Housed in an 11th-century château atop a hill, this museum has a wonderful collection of weaponry, artifacts, art, and antiques. There are also temporary exhibitions here. The imposing four-sided Tour du Suquet (Suquet Tower) and its 109 steps were built in 1385 as a lookout against Saracen-led invasions.

Set in a contemporary building a block from the beach, this museum is an essential stop to learn about the long and fascinating history of this seaside town and the Camargue in general. More than 500 exhibits cover the area’s maritime and land-faring past—from the Etruscans and Greeks to the gardians—through archeological finds, marine artifacts, and the mid-20th century collections of the Marquis de Baroncelli, a local icon and one of the first protectors of the Camargue and its unique culture.