Tourists who visit Paris for the first time usually see the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro, the Cathedral Notre Dame, Le Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay for the Impressionists, and spend a day in Versailles to see the Palace and its park. But once you have seen all the “must see” places and visited all the “must visit” monuments in Paris, what else? For the travellers who have the pleasure to come back in Paris, I would suggest a few visits that I made a few weeks ago: the Castle of Vincennes, the Petit Palais, the Musée de la Marine (the Navy Museum), a commemorative promenade along the banks of the River Seine, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts). You may find some inspiration for your next trip to Paris in the photo album below, that you can download freely. And you will find more ideas of visits at the bottom on this article, that I already tested personally. Enjoy!

More than twenty years ago I visited the Musée de Cluny in the heart of the Latin Quarter in Paris to see the famous series of tapestries featuring ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’ dating back to the 1500s. Now, much enlarged and entirely renovated in 2022, the Musée de Cluny – National Museum of the Middle Ages invites you to go on a journey through 1,000 years of artistic creation within a unique architectural setting. Internet website: https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/en/home.

For the lovers of Impressionist paintings who want to avoid the crowds at the Musée d’Orsay, I would recommend the lovely Musée de l’Orangerie: https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en, where you can admire the series of Water Lilies paintings by Claude Monet in a dedicated oval room: awesome!

Just reopened this year, the Musée de la Vie Romantique (literally, the Museum of Romantic Life) offers its visitors an immersion in the life of a 19^th-century painter, Ary Sheffer, and of his circle of friends, who embodied the spirit of romantic Paris and the brotherhood of the arts. In his house, Sheffer welcomed renowned painters such as Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. His passion for music and literature led him to form friendships with composers Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Charles Gounod, as well as with the writer George Sand and the poet Alphonse de Lamartine. Internet website: https://museevieromantique.paris.fr/. I visited this charming museum nestled in one of the busiest districts in Paris in 2021, and had a relaxing break in its little coffee shop, in its quiet garden.

Reopened in 2021 after four years of renovation, the Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris is the oldest museum in the City of Paris. Internet website: https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en. I had the pleasure to visit it in June 2021, just after the Covid lockdown. It was the first time in my life that I had the opportunity to visit a Parisian museum without feeling squeezed by the usual crowds of tourists. I enjoyed even more this visit, admiring the various collections set in this beautiful building. Note that its permanent collections are free of charge and can be accessed without booking!

That year, I also visited the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, a museum of French architecture located into the Palais de Chaillot, the grand Art-Deco monument on the Trocadéro. I would highly recommend it, from lovers of medieval architecture to young students of contemporary design. More information on: https://www.citedelarchitecture.fr/en

Illustration at the top of this article : Cupola in the Petit Palais (own photo).