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We've compiled the best of the best in France - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Two blocks south of the Cathédrale St-André, this excellent museum takes you on a trip through Bordeaux's history, with emphasis on Roman, medieval, Renaissance, colonial, and 20th-century daily life. The detailed prehistoric section almost saves you a trip to Lascaux II, which is reproduced here in part.
Nîmes's oldest museum, inaugurated in 1895 in a listed 17th-century chapel, contemplates the natural and human sciences via a vast collection of stuffed beasts, menhirs, and other wonders. The setting has barely changed since the 1930s, when France was a still a vast colonial power. There's a planetarium, too.
Across the street from the Théâtre Antique, this small museum displays artifacts unearthed around Orange, including fragments of three detailed marble cadastres (land survey maps) dating from the first century AD. Upstairs, a vivid series of 18th-century canvases shows local mills producing Provençal fabrics, each aspect illustrated in careful detail. There are also personal objects from local aristocrats and a collection of faience pharmacy jars.
The vaulted, colonnaded galleries of the Palais des Nobles Douzes house the Musée de Bastia, home to a large collection of medieval artwork, as well as rooms that detail the history of the city. The building itself has been undergoing modifications since the 18th century when it was used as the meeting place for rural commune leaders.
Designed by superstar architect Christian de Portzamparc, this museum occupies a vast three-part space that it shares with the Rennes municipal library and Espaces des Sciences. Portzamparc's layout harmonizes nicely with the organization of the museum's extensive ethnographic and archaeological collection, which depicts the everyday life of Bretons from prehistoric times to the present. There's also a space devoted to the famous Dreyfus Affair; Alfred Dreyfus, an army captain who was wrongly accused of espionage and whose case was championed by Émile Zola, was tried a second time in Rennes in 1899.
Place de Lavalette—on the south side of the river, where most of Grenoble is concentrated—is where you'll find the Musée de Grenoble. Founded in 1796, it's one of France's oldest museums and was the first to concentrate on modern art (Picasso donated his Femme Lisant in 1921). An addition incorporates the medieval Tour de l'Isle (Island Tower), a Grenoble landmark. The collection includes 4,000 paintings and 5,500 drawings, among them works by Impressionists such as Renoir and Monet, and 20th-century masters like Matisse, Signac, Derain, Vlaminck, Magritte, Ernst, Miró, and Dubuffet. Artists from the Italian Renaissance and Flemish School are also represented.
Exhibits at the Musée de la Bataille de Normandie trace the story of the struggle from June 7 to August 29, 1944. Located near the moving British War Cemetery, it contains some impressive war paraphernalia.
Between Arles in the north and Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the south, this former sheep ranch is now a museum devoted to the region's history, produce, and people, including the gardians. It's also a good place to pick up information about nature trails.
The city’s rich past is brought to life in this labyrinthine museum of archeology, history, and art. Starting with the remains of Roman baths in the basement, visitors are guided through the vast collection in chronological order. Highlights include superbly preserved Gallo-Roman stone pillars, a remarkable 650-year-old painted wooden ceiling from a local house, and the romanticized landscapes of the 19th-century Metz School. Look out for the 3D model of the city circa 1850, complete with city-wide fortifications.
Another claim to fame for Aubagne: it's the headquarters for the French Foreign Legion. The legion was created in 1831, and accepts recruits from all nations, no questions asked. The discipline and camaraderie instilled among its motley team of adventurers have helped the legion forge a reputation for exceptional valor—a reputation romanticized by songs and films in which sweaty deeds of heroism are performed under the desert sun. The Musée de la Légion Étrangère does its best to polish the image by way of medals, uniforms, weapons, and photographs.
Designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in the late 18th century, this landmark structure was originally built as a customs station for merchandise entering Paris. It's now home to a museum dedicated to the French heroes of the resistance during World War II (including Jean Moulin and General Leclerc) and the liberation of Paris. The museum features a fascinating collection of historic memorabilia, photographs, documents, and video archives.
This complex is famous for reputedly being the prison of the Man in the Iron Mask. Inside, you can see his cell and hear his story. The truth of his captivity is not certain; however, it is true that many Huguenots were confined here during Louis XIV's religious scourges. You'll also find a Roman boat dating from the 1st century BC and a collection of amphorae and pottery recovered from ancient shipwrecks.
Also known as the Salle du 8-Mai-1945 or the "little red school house," this museum is a well-preserved map-covered room used by General Eisenhower as Allied headquarters at the end of World War II. It was here that General Alfred Jodl signed the German surrender at 2:41 am on May 7, 1945. Fighting officially ceased at midnight the next day. The museum also presents a collection of local photos, documents, uniforms, and artifacts recounting the fighting, occupation, and liberation of Reims. Guided tours begin with a short film in English and French. The museum is closed for renovations until spring 2026.
When President Jacques Chirac’s legacy project (the Musée du Quai Branly, dedicated to the world’s indigenous arts and cultures) pilfered half of this museum's pieces, few thought the rest of Paris’s storied anthropology museum would survive, but it has come roaring back to life. Focused on “science and human societies,” the Musée de l’Homme has 33,368 square feet of sparkling exhibition space in the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot, where it displays more than 700,000 prehistoric artifacts and art objects. It now uses the most modern museum tricks—including interactive displays, 3D projections, and educational games—to help visitors understand the history of the human species. While you’re admiring the 25,000-year-old Venus of Lespugue or comparing the skull of Cro-Magnon man with that of René Descartes, don’t forget to look out the window: the view from the upper floors across to the Eiffel Tower and southern Paris is spectacular.
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.
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.
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.
Housed in the cloisters of the 13th-century church of St-Julien, this collection honors the Compagnonnage, a sort of apprenticeship-cum-trade-union system. On display you'll see virtuoso 19th-century works produced by candidates for guild membership, some of them eccentric (an Eiffel Tower made of slate, for instance, and a château constructed of varnished noodles).
The first museum built to commemorate D-Day opened in 1954, but after 70 years, it was showing its age. In 2023, after a three-year construction program, a brand-new museum opened on a site next to the original building on Arromanches beach, where the Allied forces sited the legendary "mulberry" floating harbors to offload tanks, trucks, artillery, fuel, and supplies. The new museum features a scale model of this remarkable feat of construction, along with displays of original weapons, uniforms, and military vehicles.
You'll find an eclectic assortment of local treasures inside the Hôtel Estienne de Saint-Jean, a 17th-century mansion. The collection ranges from faience to santons (terra-cotta figurines) to ornately painted furniture. The building is lovely, too.
Housed in the 17th-century bishop's palace opposite the cathedral, this museum shows off garments embroidered in the exotic and vibrant style for which Nîmes was once famous. Look for the 18th-century jacket made of blue serge de Nîmes, the renowned fabric—now simply called denim—from which Levi Strauss first fashioned blue jeans.
This museum is worthwhile for the building itself as much as for its collection of Toulouse memorabilia, paintings, sculptures, and documents. Be sure to note the ground-floor fireplace and wooden ceiling.
There's no better way to learn about the local wine production than to spend an hour at the Musée du Vin Maison Brotte, a private collection of wine-making equipment displayed in the caveau (wine cellar) of the Brotte family.
Inside a former prison, the Musée Historique traces the 1,000-year history of the Mont.
This interactive museum of Strasbourg history, housed in a step-gabled former slaughterhouse dating from 1588, contains a collection of maps, armor, arms, bells, uniforms, traditional outfits, printing paraphernalia, and two huge relief models of the city. The newer collection on the first floor covers civic history from the Napoleonic era to the present day.
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A must for military-history buffs, the National Museum of the Legion of Honor is dedicated to French and foreign military leaders. Housed in an elegant mansion just across from the Musée d'Orsay, it features a broad collection of military decorations dating from as early as the First Crusade in the 11th century, themed paintings, and video tributes to various luminaries—including U.S. general Dwight Eisenhower, a Légion member who led the Allied liberation of France in 1944. The palatial complex was completed in 1788 and acquired by the Legion of Honor in 1804.
