The history of the Louvre museum starts with Philippe-Auguste, as he built the Louvre in the late 12th century as a fortress on the edge of the city to protect Paris from Anglo-Norman invaders. The Louvre was retrofitted into a residence for Louis XIV in the 16th century, and remained a palace for several centuries, but also began to showcase the works that France had been collecting. The history of the Louvre museum took a dramatic turn in the late 18th century when the art collection took over entirely, and thus the modern Louvre was born. Different rulers build different sections as part of the palace expansion. King Henri IV built the Grande Galerie, which is over a quarter of a mile long, and at the time was the longest building in the world. Louis XIII completed the Denon Wing during his rein. Even Napoleon had a hand in the history of the Louvre museum, adding a wing in the 1850s.

A Louvre tour seeing every piece of work in the collection would take weeks. The Louvre is divided into eight collections. Visitors would be wise to pick a few collections and dedicate their time during a Louvre tour to immersing themselves in just a few collections. An obligatory stop on the Louvre tour is at the Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, also known as the Mona Lisa. It is on display (First Floor/denon/room 13), behind a glass case, roped stanchions, and a throng of museum goers. Stop by for a look, then head off to another section to become more engulfed in the works. Other famous works include the ancient Greek statue Venus de Milo, dating to around 130 B.C., and the Virgin and Child with St. Anne by da Vinci. The painting depicts St. Anne, her daughter the Virgin, and the child Jesus.

Other Paris Museums include the Musee d’Orsay, housed in a former railway station, with displays of French art nouveau, Impressionist, and Postimpressionist works. Visitors will find works by Renoir, Monet, van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec. The Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou is home to an extensive modern art collection. The building, a fascinating piece of architecture, has all the guts on the outside, including exposed beams, water pipes, and air ducts. Inside the modern art collection spans multiple floors, and includes performances and movies. It’s one of the most exciting of Paris museums. The National Museum of the Middle Ages, also known as the Musee de Cluny, contains an impressive collection of works from the middle ages. Statues, tapestries, and manuscripts make up the collection, the most famous being Dame a la Licorne (Lady and the Unicorn). In addition, the building is a fine example of medieval architecture and houses a Roman bath house dating back to around 200 AD. Those are only a sprinkling of Paris museums, in a city with some of the best art and culture in the world.

The Louvre museum is a great destination during a Paris vacation. The former palace is a historic building, with varied architecture, and one of the most expansive collections of art in the world.

The British Museum

The British Museum in London, England is a museum of human history and culture, which holds in trust for the nation and the world a collection of art and antiquities from ancient and living cultures. Housed in one of Britain’s architectural landmarks, the collection is one of the finest in existence, spanning two million years of human history. Its collections, which number more than 13 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. Access to the collections is free.

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane, to promote universal understanding through the arts, natural history and science in a public museum. Since its foundation, the British Museum has been guided by three important principles: that the collections are held in perpetuity in their entirety; that they are widely available to all who seek to enjoy and learn from them and that they are curated by full-time specialists. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington in 1887. Until 1997, when the current British Library building opened to the public, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of antiquities and a national library in the same building. Since 2001 the director of the Museum has been Neil MacGregor. 

As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions.

The British Museum’s international standing and its key role in the display of the world’s and nation’s heritage make it one of the most-visited public buildings in London, contributing to its cultural and economic life. London’s largest covered public square, the Great Court has changed the face of Bloomsbury as a cultural quarter.