Cinémathèque Française
A Feast of Film Treasures
The Cinémathèque Française is a treasure that is sorely underused by visitors to Paris. This great institution is frequented mainly by French cinephiles, who are legion, but it also provides a valuable service to the world of international cinema: for … Read More
Lafayette Anticipations
New Marais Cultural Space
A major French luxury group is not a major French luxury group without its starchitect-designed foundation building. The Louis Vuitton Foundation scored big with Frank Gehry in the Bois de Boulogne, and the Pinault Foundation by Tadao Ando is set … Read More
Monnaie de Paris–11 Conti Museum
Newly Minted Museum and an Architectural Treasure
If you have ever wondered where the coins you spend come from and how they are made, fear not. At the just-opened Musée du 11 Conti, located in the renovated Monnaie de Paris, the world’s oldest continually operating mint (founded … Read More
Musée Rodin
Musée Rodin Redone: Less Bohemian, More Elegant
It is strangely quiet now in the newly renovated Rodin Museum, located in the 18th-century Hôtel Biron. The handsome Versailles parquet, now shored up to support the weight of the master’s heavy statues, makes nary a squeak (it used to … Read More
Musée de Minéralogie
Crown Jewels or Fancy Minerals
The best of what’s left of the French Crown Jewels – most of which were sold off by the Third Republic in the late 19th century to mark the end of empire – can be seen in the Louvre, but … Read More
Maison Jean Cocteau
Dandy-Dilettante or Multifaceted Genius ?
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) is a slippery character. It’s hard to get a grip on who he was and what he did, partly because he did so many different things – he was a poet, artist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, screenwriter, set … Read More
Museum Miscellany
Picasso may be lording it over the Paris art world right now with “Picasso et les Maîtres,” a mega-exhibition at the Grand Palais and two smaller ones at the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, but there are plenty of other rewarding … Read More
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
Monumental Success
Just outside the tall windows of the splendid new Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine stands one of France’s most famous monuments, the Eiffel Tower, while inside visitors inspect detailed casts and scale models of many of the country’s other … Read More
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Redecorated Home for Decorative Arts
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, located in the Louvre’s 19th-century Marsan Wing, has finally reopened after a 10-year closure, during which both the building and its collection were extensively renovated and restored. The immediate impression is spectacular. Visitors enter the … Read More
Musée du Quai Branly
New Parisian Monument Opens
The rest of the collection more than lives up to this highly promising beginning. France’s wealth of magnificent pieces from various cultures of Oceania, Africa, Asia and the Americas – formerly hidden away in the still-existing Musée de l’Homme and … Read More