Two Museums in a City of Contrast : the Louvres and Centre Pompidou

Paris is a city that offers a large variety of museums. We have selected two very different ones that might interest you and suit all artistic tastes.

The LOUVRE is the largest museum in Paris ( 160 106 m²) and it's one of the most famous in the world.

It is located  between the right-bank of the Seine and the Rivoli Street in the 1^st arrondissement.

At first, the Louvre was a castle built by the king Philippe Auguste in 1190 and at the Renaissance, the Palace of the Louvre was unified with the palace of Tuileries, built by Catherine de Medecis. The museum used to be the residence of François Ier, then of Louis XIV. The first historic sign was a statue of Louis XV. Other buildings were added and modified later on.

In our opinion, the Louvre is probably the best place in Paris to enrich your artistic culture because of the extreme variety of its works. This museum is interesting for its architecture and for the masterpieces that are kept there. The French and Italian paintings for instance are worth to be seen and suit all tastes.

The Louvre enables you to have fun with friends and/or family, particulary thanks to the shops, where you can buy some gifts inspired by themasterpieces. Why not take refuge during a cold afternoon between innumerable and funny works ? The entrance is free every first Sunday of the month and it’s also free all year long when you’re under 18 !

The CENTRE GEORGE POMPIDOU also nicknamed Beaubourg by Parisians is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, next to the City Hall. It is such an excentric and modern museum in terms of appearence that it created quite a scandal when it was built in the middle of the very classical « marais » architecture !

This was the result of the idea of President Georges Pompidou to create a new museum of Modern Arts in the French capital city.

The museum is more than a museum : it is a cultural centre equiped with cinemas, a large library, a cutting edge music experimental centre called IRCAM, etc…

There are sometimes some curious pieces exhibited. Once, we even saw an old dilapidated car next to a little sofa! But we still recommand this place which is very lively and rather amusing !

       Emeline & Gwendoline.