Petit Palais

The Petit Palais is the fine arts museum of the City of Paris, and one of the most pleasant places to look at art in the capital. Charles Girault built it for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, facing the Grand Palais across the Avenue Winston Churchill, and the building has kept the festive spirit of that year: a gilded entrance gate, a domed vestibule painted with allegories of Paris, long galleries lit by tall windows, and a semicircular garden courtyard with mosaics, palms and a colonnade where you can sit with a coffee.

The permanent collection is free. It runs from Greek vases and Roman glass through medieval and Renaissance objects to a strong group of Dutch and Flemish paintings, most of them from the bequest of the brothers Dutuit in 1902, and then to the nineteenth century, which is the museum's real heart. Courbet, Monet, Sisley, Cézanne, Carpeaux, Dalou and the great salon portraits of the Belle Époque are here, together with rooms of Art Nouveau furniture and glass and an unexpected collection of Russian and Greek icons.

The ground floor is arranged roughly chronologically from antiquity to 1900 around the garden, while the upper floor holds the nineteenth century galleries and the grand painted salons. Two hours is enough for the highlights, and because entry to the collection is free the museum works well as a relaxed afternoon rather than a marathon.