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.