Musee Picasso

The Musée Picasso is situated in the heart of historic Paris, and has a collection of several thousand works of Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in 1881 and he began to study art in 1895. During his life he created diverse works: painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, engraving, and even poetry. After his death in 1973, many of Picasso's works went to the French state, which decided to form a museum with the collection.

To house the collection, they chose to use a seventeenth-century hotel, situated in the Marais. This is the Hôtel Salé that was built in 1656 for the general Aubert de Fontenay. Before housing the musée Picasso, the hotel was already well-known. It was leased to the ambassador of Venice, and it became the Central School of Art and Manufacture (and then the School of "métiers d'art"), and finally it was leased to the state in 1975.

The restoration of the museum was completed in 1985. Today, there are 203 paintings, 191 sculptures, 85 ceramics, and over 3000 drawings, engravings, and manuscripts in the museum. Besides the personal collection of Picasso, the museum also has some works of Cézanne and Matisse.

Dali Museum

The Espace Dali-Montmartre was set up by the Stratton Foundation, a non profit-making association operating from Lichtenstein whose main aim is to promote Art. The Stratton Foundation owns and holds on deposit the largest collection of sculptures by Salvador Dali. After displaying the works in museums throughout the world, the Foundation decided, in 1991, to open a permanent exhibition in honour of Salvador Dali and it selected Paris as its location.

This is the first museum in France to be devoted to works by the great Catalan artist. The 1000 sqm of Surrealist exhibition space are situated behind the famous, picturesque Place du Tertre in Montmartre. The museum is entirely devoted to one of the 20th century's most fascinating artists, and is yet another jewel in the capital's crown of museums.

Louvre

The Louvre is one of the most important museums. Here you find a short list of the best things to see in the Louvre if you only have a day on your hands. If you have more than a day, you can see all of the museum.

Not only the contents of the museum are worthwhile, the buildings are quite impressive themselves. They are a fine mixture of classical architecture with a few modern elements.

Cité des Sciences

This is one of the most visited museums of Paris. It is a bit outside of the center, in the North East, but easy to reach with the subway/metro system. It has many shows on Natural Sciences, a big Planetarium and interesting things for kids as well.

Media library and Science actualités newspaper room (at the entrance to the media library) open from 12 noon to 8 pm.

Cité des métiers/Cité's vocational guidance centre: from Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday, 12 noon to 6 pm, closed on Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays.