Officially the largest museum on Earth, the Louvre is a cultural treasure trove that’s home to some of the world’s best-known artworks, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and ancient Greek marvels from the Venus de Milo to the Nike of Samothrace. While the Louvre attracts crowds that match its scale, it’s worth booking a tour with reserved entry to make exploring easier—or upgrading for a private experience for the most personal way to view its collections.

Housed within a historic beaux-arts train station—and home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist art—the Musée d’Orsay is another top-rated museum. It’s also considered an essential complement to the Louvre (while the Louvre’s collection spans antiquity to the mid-19th century, the Musée d’Orsay picks up where it leaves off, focusing on the period between 1848 and 1914).

Art galleries in Paris certainly boast some special accolades. Take the Centre Pompidou: Opened in 1977, the landmark cultural institution is home to the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in all of Europe. It’s also nearly as notable for its building as for what’s inside it: The 6-story industrial creation by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers features all its ducts and piping on the outside, and has become a Paris icon (it also offers panoramic city views from its upper level).

Pablo Picasso may have been born in Malaga, but he spent the majority of his life in France. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that Paris’ Picasso Museum (Musée National Picasso-Paris) houses the largest public collection of Picasso’s art in the world, featuring more than 5,000 artworks, many of which came from his personal collection. Housed in a 17th-century hôtel particulier in Le Marais, it’s a must for any modern art lovers—book a collection tour to really learn about the artist and his artwork.

Paris’ Army Museum (Musée de l’Armée) is really a two-in-one attraction. Housed in the Hôtel National des Invalides—a former home for war veterans commissioned by Louis XIV—it’s an architectural and historic marvel. And once you head inside, you’ll be rewarded with one of the largest and richest military history collections anywhere, which encompasses weapons and armor dating to the 13th century, as well as Napoleonic artifacts and objects from the World Wars.

Founded in 2002, Palais de Tokyo is housed in a building that was built for the 1937 International Exposition but was later stripped back to raw concrete to give it a stark, eye-catching appeal. Inside, the institution continues to captivate, with a series of rotating temporary exhibitions that range from installations and other interactive museum experiences to two-dimensional pieces and multimedia art, all representing the cutting edge of international contemporary art.

Gone on an Eiffel Tower tour, and ready for your next sightseeing stop? Then head to the Quai Branly Museum (Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac), an anthropology museum located just steps from the monument. Opened in 2006, this innovative building designed by Jean Nouvel features a collection of more than 300,000 artifacts representing Indigenous cultures from the Americas and Oceania to Africa and beyond, which span the Neolithic period to the 20th century.

Home to one of the largest collections of art from the Middle Ages, the Cluny Museum (Musée de Cluny) stands on the site of ancient Roman-era baths and partly occupies a medieval abbot’s residence. Today, flanked by an ultra-modern extension that expands its square footage, the museum’s collection offers visitors a journey across 1,500 years of art history, from antiquity to the beginnings of the Renaissance, and encompasses everything from stained glass and carvings to illuminated manuscripts.

On the list of top-rated Paris museum attractions, it’s hard to get more recognizable than The Thinker. But while it’s the best-known sculpture by Auguste Rodin, it’s also just one of many highlights at the Rodin Museum (Musée Rodin). Located within a grand building that was once the sculptor’s workshop and showroom—and is now accompanied by a sculpture garden, which displays a number of his works in a peaceful setting—the museum is really a two-in-one experience.