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Musée Matisse

Konstantin Gushcha/Shutterstock

Nice, France. Facade of the red building of the Matisse museum.

This museum, 3km north of the city center in the leafy Cimiez quarter, houses a fascinating assortment of works by Matisse, including oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries and Matisse’s famous paper cutouts. The permanent collection is displayed in a red-ocher 17th-century Genoese villa in an olive grove. Temporary exhibitions are in the futuristic basement of the building.

Matisse is buried in the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez cemetery, across the park from the museum, and the grounds here are nearly as big a highlight as the museum.

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