France, also known as the French Republic, is a country situated in Western Europe. As you might already know France is the place where all the romance happen and because of that it is one of the favorite destinations for a vacation in two. Because you are already in this place and you already tried all the types of croissants, you might want to start visiting the historical part of the country and to travel on more streets than the Love Lane. So take your lovers hand and go see these places:
Musée du Louvre
Statistics say that Louvre is the favorite museum in the world, having the most visitors annually. The first piece of art that you see when you firstly arrive is the building itself. It has a beautiful French architecture and design that was conceived in the 12th century. Louvre contains almost 300.000 paintings but the most famous, by far, are “Mona Lisa” and “Venus de Milo” but this is not the only thing that you can find on this museum. Here are exhibited pieces of art from all the corners of the world, just like Islamic art or Egyptian arts. Even though Louvre started as a small museum with only 537 paintings, now is the crème a la crème of the museums that can entertain you for many hours.
Centre Pompidou
Even though the name is not that spectacular, the nickname can make it up for it: most avant-garde building in the world”. Here you can see the outline of the ultimate high-tech architecture. The first thing that catches your eye is the obvious skeleton of the building that is made of colored pipes. After that, you can admire the fountain with sixteen moving sculptures that is located just outside the building. As you get in, you can notice that the inside of the museum is even more entertaining than the outside. The museum is the home of almost 40.000 artworks but this is not just it; you can also visit the library, the bookshop or you can go to see a movie or to drink some cold lemonade on the panoramic terrace while some mimes or streets portraitists will amuse you.
Musée d’Orsay
Now we will talk about the museum that has the most prizes in all France. It was once a railway but now holds French art pieces that dates back to 1848. Here you can find sculptures, photography, paintings or even some worldwide pieces of furniture that will give you an image about the French art. The most popular exhibit in this museum is the spectacular collection of impressionist art and post-impressionist art with some heavy names just like Van Gogh, Monet, Sisley and many others. It is well known that these two movements changed the way the colors, movement and lines were interpreted in the European art having a great, long-lasting impact.
Palais de Tokyo
If you are tired to see exhibits made only by people that already passed away and you want a breath of fresh air you should totally visit this location. Palais de Tokyo is consider being an art mall with many contemporary artworks. The museum is the home for all kinds of art that appeared recently even though some of them are considered to be radical or under the standards of art. All the exhibitions are somehow unique and the museum implies the idea that nothing is perfect or worthless and that encourages creativity and the freedom of the mind. This museum breaks tradition even more when they implied a peculiar schedule for the tourists. If you want to visit this museum you will only find it open from noon until midnight.
Musée National du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny
You might think that is hard to put 1.000 years of culture in just one building but the French people did it when they built Musée National du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny. This museum can be called “home” by so many stunning medieval arts that were preserved for so much time. Here, tourists can admire a lot of Middle Age castle crafts and some amazing church art. Cluny also has an impressive collection of tapestries, including the famous Lady and the Unicorn, a much appreciated artwork from the middle Ages. In addition you can see the 7th and 8th century sculptures and some very old manuscripts.
Musée Rodin
Musée Rodin is a special kind of museum because compared to other museums it focuses only one artist, Auguste Rodin. In fact, this location is an 18th century mansion that was used by Rodin as his art studio. Here were created some important sculptures that influenced the art and techniques of 20th century. Rodin implied an innovating technique to his sculptures giving them a new sense of reality by portraying a new variety of emotions, from passion to weakness. Some famous artworks of his are: Eve, The Thinker, Gates of Hell and many others.
Musée Ingres
The last, but not the least is Musée Ingres, which is also a museum that represents the artwork of just one person, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, but there are some exception because here are exhibit a few of Antoine Bourdelle’s artworks. The museum was firstly opened to celebrate Ingres’s work, housing 4.000 paintings and a lot more drawings. Another interesting piece of history of this house is that it sheltered Mona Lisa during WWII. The museum is a tourist attraction and it dates back to 1867.
So now, after you read all this amazing locations that you can visit during your escapade in the Land of Romance are you still going to stay all day long in a small cafeteria or are you going to put your comfortable, flat shoes and start walking around? If that convinced you and gave you the adrenaline rush I will just give you a last piece of advice. Don’t limit to just visit the popular places. Open your eyes at every corner of street because you might find a very interesting, small museum that is not registered in your tourist guide but it can show you some new things that you never knew.
