Paris, Île-de-France, France
West of the Place de La Concorde in Paris, between the start
of the Champs Elysees and the Seine are two magnificent Belle Epoque buildings
facing each other across a street, the Grand Palais and Petit Palais,
originally built for a major exposition. The hostel I stayed in was a few
minute walk from them, so I passed them several times before entering. When I
was in Paris back in 2003 the two buildings were somewhat of a mystery to me. I
had a pass for all the museums, but these two were closed despite being so
prominent.
The Grand Palais is still used for temporary expositions and
appeared closed this time too between installations. From the outside, though,
the halls look like they must be enormous, like gigantic greenhouses. The Petit Palace now houses part of the City
of Paris municipal art collection, essentially much of it from classical
antiquity on through the 19th century including some impressionist
paintings. The city’s modern stuff in another museum devoted to modern art. If
I understand correctly, the city consolidated its museum collections in a few
places in the early 2000s (around when I was here) and repurposed the Petit
Palais for it.
The art collections of the city of Paris are, of course,
fairly minor compared to those of the French state. Nevertheless, if the Petit
Palais compares favorably with art museums in midsize American cities that have
a little of this and a little of that depending largely on what was donated to
them. Because it’s relatively new, the
Petit Palais is also one of the few museums our Paris expert Aviva hadn’t been
to yet either so was interested in seeing.
The Louvre it is not (and also not as crowded), but definitely worth a
stop on a long trip to Paris or repeat visit after you’ve hit the more famous
ones.
2025-05-22