Fine Art lovers should Hurry up and book Paris breaks this spring if you want to see this impressive masterpiece. From May 11 to June 23, the artist Anish Kapoor is the guest of the 4th edition of the Monumenta exhibition. His enormous piece of work, entitled Leviathan, has been created specifically for the Grand Palais near the Champs Elysees, a popular desination for Paris breaks in any case. I’ll be there the week after next with more photos of this amazing art work by the creator of The Orbit Tower in London.

There are 31 national museums, including the Georges Pompidou Centre, and the Musée d’Orsay, known for its collection of Impressionist art. The Rodin Museum and Versailles are also well known in France and abroad, with much of the palace open to visitors.

Most of the Louvre is also open.

Conservationists at the Pompidou Center are concerned over government plans to replace any two civil servants who retire with only one new hire. The rule applies to all government departments, an effort to reduce a massive state work force that largely has guaranteed jobs for life and handsome state pensions. It is supposed to go into effect for museums and similar institutions in January. The state pays for a large portion of the budget of the Pompidou Center, as much as 75 or 80 percent, depending on other annual revenue.

Workers at the Pompidou Centre say that 44 percent of the personnel there will retire in the next 10 years, meaning the disappearance of more than 200 jobs, which they say would make their task of art conservation impossible.

Last year, some 8.5 million people visited the Louvre and 5.5 million visited the Pompidou Center.

Paris 7th Arrondissement – Eiffel Tower and also the Musée D’Orsay

Apart from the greatest tourist attraction of all, the 7th arrondissement on the Left Bank dis largely a district of smart residences and dull offices. The Eiffel Tower of course is one of the most recognisable landmarks in the world, but many Parisians especially in the immediate neighbourhood hated it when it was unveiled in 1889 as a temporary exhibition for the World Fair. There are many other Parisian monuments in the 7th too, such as the Hôtel des Invalides, which contains Napoleon’s Tomb, the Musée de l’Armée, and the fantastic Musée d’Orsay, the world’s premier showcase of 19th-century French art and culture, housed in the old station termial building – the Gare d’Orsay. There’s much hidden charm here in the 7th as well, such as the Rue du Bac, which was once home to the real Three Musketeers and to James McNeill Whistler, who moved to no. 110 after selling Mother. Auguste Rodin the father of modern sculpture lived at what’s now the Musée Rodin, 77 rue de Varenne, until his death in 1917.

Both the Rodin museum and the Musee d’Orsay are essential visits for art lovers on Paris Breaks in the 7th arrondissement, and did you know you can also walk all the back to the latin quarter just by following the Boulevard St Germain which starts in the 7th, or take the batobus which stops just outside the Musee d’Orsay.

As well as the most famous Paris landmarks such as Tour Eiffel there is some great footage of parts of the Latin quarter so try and watch the whole video and see how many Parisian arrondissments you can recognise.

When the Picasso museum in Paris first opened it was launched as a “museum for Picasso’s Picassos,” and that’s exactly what it is. The French state acquired the world’s greatest Picasso collection in lieu of his family’s paying enormous inheritance taxes. So now 203 paintings, 158 sculptures, 16 collages, 19 bas-reliefs, 88 ceramics, and more than 1,500 sketches and 1,600 engravings, along with 30 notebooks – works spanning about 75 years of the artist’s life and ever-changing styles, are all on show to the public in a magnificent old setting.

The building – Hotel Sale houses the French Picasso collection

The beautifully restored Hôtel Salé means literally the “Salt Mansion” because it was built by a man who made his fortune by controlling salt distribution and taxes in 17th century France.

Picasso often lived in old houses, such as the Boisgeloup and Vauvenargues chateaux, and his workshop on the rue des Grands Augustins, Notre-Dame de Vie. So he would probably have have The Hotel Sale, one of the most beautiful in the Marais district, being the painter who once told Gertrude Stein: “I want an old house.” The building is named after its sponsor, Pierre Aubert, Lord of Fontenay, responsible for levying a tax on salt. The hotel, typical of the Marais, overlooks courtyard, surrounded by public passages, and a garden, was built between 1656 and 1659 by the architect Jean de Bouiller. The carved decorations, including the sumptuous staircase, were entrusted to the brothers Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy and Martin Desjardins.

By the end of the seventeenth century, the hotel was used by a variety of agencies. Embassy of the Republic of Venice, an institution for young people, and as a Central School of Arts and design. The latter purpose considerably changed the layout inside the building. In 1964, the City of Paris bought the Hotel Sale, which is now classified as a historic monument. From 1974 to 1984, the hotel has been refurbished and restored to much of its original condition. ( Pic by Daquella manera )

Picasso Museum Opening Times

From April to September : All days 9:30am-6pm except Tuesday when closed.

From October to March : All days 9:30am-5pm except Tuesday when closed.
( also closed on Dec 25 and Jan 1 )

Address of the Hotel Sale

5 rue de Thorigny, 3rd arrondissment

Nearest Metro station

St-Paul, Filles du Calvaire, or Chemin Vert

Addmission Prices

Admission 9.50€ adults, 7.50€ seniors and ages 18-25, free for children younger than 18

The paintings and exhibition

(Picture by jane vc. )
Many people go to Spain to see Picasso’s paintings but the range of paintings on show in the Picasso museum in Paris includes a remarkable 1901 self-portrait, The Crucifixion and Nude in a Red Armchair, Le Baiser (The Kiss), Reclining Nude, and Man with a Guitar, all painted at Mougins on the Riviera in 1969 and 1970. Also the wicked Jeune Garçon à la Langouste (Young Man with a Lobster), painted in Paris in 1941. Several intriguing studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which shocked the establishment and launched cubism in 1907, are also on display. Because the collection is so vast, temporary exhibits featuring items such as his Studies of the Minotaur are held twice per year. Also here is Picasso’s own treasure trove of art, with works by Cézanne, Rousseau, Braque, Derain, and Miró. Picasso was fascinated with African masks, many of which are on view. So a tour of the museum will lead the visitor to understand the man and his art by putting the different phases into context. Cubism didn’t come from nowhere, you can see how Picasso and his peers where fasciniated by primitivist art and how those imported artifacts influenced his own revolutionary artistic style.