The best museums in France in 2026 are the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Louvre-Lens and Centre Pompidou-Metz in the north and east, the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar for the Isenheim Altarpiece, the Fondation Maeght near Nice, the Musée Matisse in Nice, the MuCEM in Marseille and the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi.
France's great collections are not all in Paris. The Louvre and the Pompidou opened regional branches in Lens and Metz, Colmar holds one of the masterpieces of European painting, and the Riviera has museums built around the artists who lived there — Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, Léger. Many French museums close on Mondays or Tuesdays, and municipal museums are often free on the first Sunday of the month. Note that the Centre Pompidou in Paris is closed for renovation, with reopening planned for 2030. For Paris in depth, see our best museums in Paris.
The world's most visited museum, from the Mona Lisa to Egyptian antiquities.
The Louvre holds one of the greatest collections in the world, from antiquities to 19th-century painting, in the former royal palace on the Seine.
Plan your visit around a few departments and book a timed ticket.
Good to know: Book online and arrive at opening; closed on Tuesdays.
Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
The world's great Impressionist collection, in a former railway station.
The Musée d'Orsay holds French art from 1848 to 1914, with masterpieces by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh and Cézanne, under the glass roof of a Beaux-Arts station.
The fifth-floor Impressionist galleries and the clock window are highlights.
Good to know: Closed on Mondays; Thursday evenings are quieter.
1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris
The Louvre's northern branch, with a free gallery spanning 5,000 years.
The Louvre-Lens, in a luminous glass-and-aluminum building on a former mining site, displays works lent from the Louvre in its Galerie du Temps, a single vast room tracing art history chronologically. The gallery is free.
It is an hour from Paris by TGV, and pairs with Lille.
Good to know: The Galerie du Temps is free; temporary exhibitions are ticketed.
99 Rue Paul Bert, 62300 Lens
Modern and contemporary art under a dramatic woven roof.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz, under Shigeru Ban's woven timber roof, stages major exhibitions drawing on France's national modern-art collection.
With the Paris Pompidou closed for renovation until 2030, it is the best place to see the collection.
Good to know: Metz is about 90 minutes from Paris by TGV.
1 Parvis des Droits de l'Homme, 57000 Metz
Home of Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, a masterpiece of European art.
The Musée Unterlinden in Colmar occupies a medieval convent and a modern extension, and its centerpiece is the Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald and Nikolaus of Haguenau, one of the most powerful works of the late Middle Ages.
Combine it with Colmar's old town and the Alsace wine villages.
Good to know: Visit in December alongside the Colmar Christmas markets.
Place Unterlinden, 68000 Colmar
A modern-art foundation in a pine wood, with Miró, Giacometti and Chagall.
The Fondation Maeght, opened in 1964 above Saint-Paul-de-Vence, was designed by Josep Lluís Sert with artworks built into its gardens and walls: Miró's labyrinth, Giacometti's courtyard, Chagall's and Braque's mosaics.
It describes itself as France's first independent art foundation.
Good to know: Combine with the village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence below.
623 Chemin des Gardettes, 06570 Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Matisse's paintings and cut-outs in a Genoese villa in Cimiez.
The Musée Matisse in Nice holds one of the largest collections of Matisse's work, from early paintings to late cut-outs, in a 17th-century villa among olive trees on the Cimiez hill.
The artist is buried in the cemetery nearby.
Good to know: Closed on Tuesdays; combine with the Chagall museum.
164 Avenue des Arènes de Cimiez, 06000 Nice
The museum of Mediterranean civilizations, in a lace-concrete cube.
The MuCEM, opened in 2013 at the entrance to Marseille's Vieux-Port, explores the cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean. A footbridge links it to the medieval Fort Saint-Jean.
The rooftop and fort are free to walk and among the best views in Marseille.
Good to know: Come at sunset for the rooftop and fort.
7 Promenade Robert Laffont, 13002 Marseille
Science and world cultures in a futuristic building at the rivers' meeting.
The Musée des Confluences in Lyon, designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au, covers natural history, anthropology and science in a crystal-like building where the Rhône and Saône meet.
It is especially good with children.
Good to know: Walk to the garden at the tip of the confluence.
86 Quai Perrache, 69002 Lyon
The largest collection of Toulouse-Lautrec, in the bishops' palace of Albi.
Albi's Palais de la Berbie, a fortified bishops' palace beside the brick cathedral of Sainte-Cécile, houses the world's largest collection of works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born in the town.
The palace's terraced gardens look over the Tarn river.
Good to know: Visit Sainte-Cécile Cathedral next door, a UNESCO site.
Palais de la Berbie, Place Sainte-Cécile, 81000 Albi
An art museum in a spectacular Art Deco swimming pool.
La Piscine in Roubaix is an art and industry museum in a former Art Deco municipal swimming pool, with sculptures lining the water and a stained-glass sun window.
It is 20 minutes from Lille by Métro or tram.
Good to know: Combine with a day in Lille.
23 Rue de l'Espérance, 59100 Roubaix
A museum of Pierre Soulages's black paintings in rusted steel boxes.
The Musée Soulages in Rodez, designed by RCR Arquitectes in weathered steel, is devoted to Pierre Soulages, the painter of 'outrenoir', whose black canvases play with light.
Combine with Conques and the Aveyron's villages.
Good to know: Pair with a visit to Conques, about an hour away.
Jardin du Foirail, Avenue Victor Hugo, 12000 Rodez
The Louvre in Paris, which is also the most visited museum in the world.
The Paris building closed in 2025 for a major renovation, with reopening planned for 2030. Its sister museum, the Centre Pompidou-Metz, is open and shows works from the national collection.
The permanent collection of the Louvre-Lens (the Galerie du Temps) is free, as are many municipal museums on the first Sunday of the month. Under-26 EU residents get free entry to national museums.
The Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Musée Matisse and the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice, and the Musée Picasso in Antibes.
Many are closed on Mondays or Tuesdays — the Louvre on Tuesdays, Orsay on Mondays. Check each museum's site.