13 must-visit museums in France for art, history & culture lovers

France is home to some of the world’s most famous museums, bringing centuries of history, art and culture to life. From the capital's iconic Louvre, with its legendary art treasures (including the notorious Mona Lisa) to architecturally bold modern museums such as the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France's top museums are worth planning a trip around.

Some French museums focus on the nation's rich regional culture. Others will teach you about France's national heritage and its global influence. Then there are the many fascinating niche museums scattered in cities and villages across the country. Whether you're interested in cheese, chocolate or the history of Concord, there is going to be something to captivate your attention.

Here are some of the best museums to visit in France, but this is just a small selection from a country famed for its history, art, culture and innovation.

1. Musée du Louvre (Paris)

Best for fine art

The Louvre is undeniably Paris' pièce de résistance, boasting 35,000 works of art on display, including iconic masterpieces, spread across four floors. Glancing at each piece for one minute would take 24 days without sleeping, not to mention the time needed to appreciate the museum's grand surroundings. Therefore, some careful planning is essential to fully experience the world's largest art museum.

Make sure to book your ticket online in advance, as you won’t need to line up at the museum desk and there may be special offers available. Arriving early will give you the opportunity to explore the galleries with fewer crowds. Wear comfortable shoes – you'll be walking through 403 halls and nearly 15km (9.3 miles) of corridors! The museum website is a valuable resource for finding inspiration and planning your visit, with thematic itinerary ideas. 

Local tip: If you're visiting with children, take a break at the Studio in the Richelieu wing, on Level -1, which provides creative materials for kids to enjoy.

2. Musée International de la Parfumerie (Provence)

Best for travelers with a nose for beauty

The Musée International de la Parfumerie in Grasse is one of many must-visits in Provence and the Côte d'Azur, even if you’re not a perfume lover. Housed in an 18th-century mansion, enlarged with a modern glass extension, it retraces three millennia of perfume history through beautifully presented artifacts, including Marie Antoinette's travelling case and vintage bottles and posters, plus olfactory stations, video displays and informative explanatory panels.

The museum offers lots of interesting insights into how the fragrance industry developed in Grasse, which is located in the hills north of Cannes. Kids are well catered for, with dedicated multimedia stations, a fragrant garden, a film testing the sense of smell, and a reconstructed 19th-century perfume shop.

Planning tip: The Jardins du Musée International de la Parfumerie, where the world’s greatest perfume flowers bloom, is particularly spectacular in spring.

3. Carrière Wellington (Arras)

Best for WWI history

In 1916, Allied and German forces were at a stalemate. In an attempt to break the German front line, a plan was concocted to breach the front line from underground, by sending troops in from Arras. Miners from New Zealand were enlisted, and they toiled for six months to create the network of quarry tunnels known as Carrière Wellington.

So as not to alert German forces, the soldiers stayed largely underground, smoking, playing cards and waiting for the right moment to burst out from below the Germans’ feet amid sniper fire, to end the stalemate. We won’t spoil the ending for you, but as the war didn’t end for more than a year after Carrière Wellington was completed, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it wasn’t the roaring success all had hoped for.

Today, you can take a fascinating tour through the old tunnels lasting roughly an hour and 15 minutes, with a guide from the Carrière Wellington center. Also on offer are audio guides, and a short film showing the involvement of the city of Arras pre- and postwar. 

Planning tip: The tunnels are 20m underground, quite damp and extremely chilly so wear warm layers.

4. Musée National de Préhistoire (Dordogne)

Best for bringing prehistory to life

In Les Eyzies, a 30-minute drive southwest of the town of Montignac-Lascaux, the Musée National de Préhistoire is a good place to start your exploration of the Vézère Valley. Set inside a remarkable building – partly a château built into the cliff – this fascinating museum contains artifacts retrieved from the UNESCO World Heritage-listed prehistoric sites around Lascaux, including carvings and prehistoric skeletons.

After touring the museum, visit Lascaux II or IV (or both) – two modern reproductions of the Lascaux Cave, which is now closed to protect its 17,000-year-old cave paintings. You can cycle or drive the 22km (13 miles) from the museum.

Lascaux II contains replicas of 90% of the original cave paintings. The low-tech tours here last one hour and the cave is only open from April to November (it's not suitable for wheelchairs). Lascaux IV comprises a complete replica of the original cave; expect to spend 2½ to three hours here. It is also wheelchair-friendly and good in all weathers, but the site gets extremely busy in summer.

Planning tip: Book ahead online for combined tickets that include Lascaux II and IV and Park du Thot, a center devoted to Cro-Magnon life and the animals depicted at Lascaux.

5. Musée Narbo Via (Narbonne)

Best for a fresh look at Roman artifacts 

The ancient Roman town of Narbonne lies 65km (40 miles) north of Perpignan, and visitors to its Musée Narbo Via will immediately be struck by the “Stone Wall” – a lofty, wide array of blocks gathered from various temples and ruins around Narbonne.

Visitors can explore the carved deities, floral motifs, ceremonial scenes and funerary rituals depicted on these fragments of ancient masonry using interactive panels, which allow you to select blocks and learn more about their history and provenance.

The best-preserved artifacts are saved for the galleries in the museum beyond, with detailed descriptions in English, French and Spanish. Founded in 118 BCE, Narbonne was once Narbo Martius, a bustling Roman port and a key city along the Via Domitia in Rome’s Gallic empire. Bas relief stone carvings of ships being loaded in the 1st century CE highlight Narbonne’s maritime importance, before the Aude river silted up.

Planning tip: A joint ticket also provides access to L’Horreum, a former Roman granary beneath Narbonne city center, and Amphoralis 15km (9.3 miles) to the north of the city, where clay amphorae were made to transport wine. 

6. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon (Dijon) 

Best for art in a palace

Nestled within the Palais des Ducs – the former home of the Dukes and States of Burgundy – the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon in Dijon is France’s second-largest fine art museum after the Louvre. The museum’s encyclopedic oeuvre spans from antiquity to the 21st century, with a particularly impressive collection of Ancient Egyptian art.

Alongside these ancient treasures, and masterpieces by the likes of Rubens, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse, take time to admire the Tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy, where Philippe the Bold, John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria are laid to rest. 

Planning tip: Open every day except Tuesday, the museum’s permanent collections are free to explore, but there's a fee for visiting its temporary exhibitions.

7. Musée des Confluences (Lyon) 

Best for science and anthropology

This architecturally inspiring museum, designed by the Viennese firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, is located at the southern tip of Presqu'île in central Lyon. Lying at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers (hence the name), this ambitious science and humanities museum is housed in a futuristic-looking steel-and-glass transparent crystal that is almost as impressive as the collections within.

This distorted structure is one of Lyon's most iconic landmarks, and inside, permanent exhibitions are arranged thematically, with temporary exhibitions developing specific themes in more depth. In 2025, the museum is hosting an exhibition on the peoples of the Amazon, produced in conjunction with partners from Brazil. 

8. Musée de l'Histoire de l'Immigration (Paris)

Best for understanding modern France

Originally, the Palais des Colonies was built for the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, but today this art deco jewel houses the Musée de l'Histoire de l'Immigration – a politically timely museum that explores the history of immigration in France, attempting to promote greater cultural understanding.

The permanent collection sheds light on migrants' experiences and their great contributions to French life, both historically and in the present. Thematic journeys through two centuries of immigration present key events and significant periods of human movement in an informative and emotionally engaging way. 

Planning tip: Take one of the guided tours to learn more about the interesting architectural aspects of the building.

9. The Centre Pompidou (Paris and Metz)

Best for modern art

It would be impossible to visit the center of Paris without being awestruck by the audacious architecture of the French Musée National d'Art Moderne, otherwise known as the Centre Pompidou, which boasts one of the world's largest collections of contemporary art. With its exposed metallic structure and weaving pipework in vibrant green, blue, red, and yellow, it gives the impression of being constructed inside out. 

Architects Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini initially aimed to "demolish the image of an intimidating cultural building" and create a space where art and people could coexist freely, allowing creativity to permeate. The resulting building was one of art's great success stories.

Inside, the Centre Pompidou offers a complete cultural ecosystem, with displays of photography, films, paintings and drawings dating from 1905 to the present day. Two floors house modern and contemporary masterpieces, featuring the works of renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns.

Planning tip: The Centre Pompidou in Paris will be closed from summer 2025 for a renovation project that is expected to take five years. However, the smaller but still impressive Centre Pompidou-Metz in the city of Metz is open if art and architecture are on your must-see list. 

10. Musée des Arts et Métiers (Paris)

Best for lovers of inventions and industrial design

The journey to the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts begins at the Arts et Métiers metro station, where visitors are greeted by a steampunk display of copper plaques that cover the entire station, installed in celebration of the conservatory's bicentenary.

As you step out of this gleaming underground vault, you'll enter the remarkable Musée des Arts et Métiers, located in a former royal priory on the edge of Le Marais. Inside, the past and future converge in countless displays of inventions, paying homage to the human pursuit of knowledge. From ancient scientific instruments to groundbreaking technological advancements, the museum explores the profound impact of science and technology on society.

The immersive collection includes scientific instruments, mechanical devices, vehicles, communication equipment, and much more. Look out for iconic inventions such as Blaise Pascal's Pascaline, an early mechanical calculator, and the original model of the Statue of Liberty designed by Bartholdi.

11. Musée Picasso (Antibes)

Best for Picasso fans

Start your Pablo Picasso tour of Antibes at the Musée Picasso, set inside the imposing 14th-century Château Grimaldi, where the artist set up his studio in 1946. The château was this iconic Spanish artist’s primary work space from July to December 1946 and it now houses an excellent collection of his works and fascinating photos of Picasso at work and play.

The sheer variety of artworks – lithographs, paintings, drawings and ceramics – shows how versatile and curious an artist Picasso was. Picasso himself said, “If you want to see the Picassos from Antibes, you have to see them in Antibes.” The museum also has a room dedicated to Nicolas de Staël, another 20th-century painter who adopted Antibes as his home.

Detour: Paris is home to its own celebrated Picasso museum – the Musée National Picasso-Paris – set inside the 17th-century Hôtel Salé in the Marais district. 

12. Musée Dunkerque 1940 (Dunkirk)

Best for WWII history

The Musée Dunkerque 1940 traces the events of Opération Dynamo, providing historical context and insights into how the famous WWII evacuation took place, and stories from many of the people involved. The rescue of thousands of troops from Dunkirk allowed the British Army to regroup ahead of the liberation of France in 1944.

As well as a film which includes footage shot in May and June 1940, during and after the evacuations, the museum showcases military uniforms from both Allied and Nazi forces, original jeeps and vehicles, and plenty of interactive displays. It’s not a large exhibition, but it's well worth spending an hour or two learning about Dunkirk's most famous story.

Detour: The Musée Portuaire, set in an old tobacco warehouse by Dunkirk Harbor, is devoted to a lesser-known part of Dunkirk’s history – its rich heritage as a trading port.

13. Musée Christian Dior (Normandy)

Best for lovers of haute couture

If you love the glamor and sparkle of French haute couture (high fashion), spend an afternoon taking tea in the gorgeous gardens of the childhood home of France's most famed designer at the Musée Christian Dior in Granville, Normandy. These gardens would later inspire Dior's signature floral designs.

Dior's fondness for the Granville house and garden is surmised in this quote: "The house of my childhood... I have the most tender and wonderful memories of it. What am I saying? My life, my style, owe almost everything to its location and its architecture." 

Every year, the museum presents a thematic exhibition featuring Christian Dior creations that is well worth investigating. The Musée Christian Dior is open from April to November; see the museum website for more details.

Planning tip: If a visit to Normandy is not on the cards, you can also get your fashion fill at La Galerie Dior, in a building next to the flagship Dior boutique in Paris.

This article was adapted from Lonely Planet’s France guidebook, published in May 2024.