Musée d'Orsay

The Gare d'Orsay opened in 1900 as the terminus for the Paris-Orléans railway and closed 39 years later when its platforms proved too short for the new long-distance trains. It sat empty for decades — Orson Welles filmed part of The Trial in its abandoned halls — until president Giscard d'Estaing had the idea of turning it into a museum of French art from 1848 to 1914. It opened in December 1986.

The collection picks up where the Louvre stops. Ground floor and upper level, with a linear route through the movements: Realism (Courbet, Millet, and Manet's Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe scandalising the Second Empire salons); then the extraordinary Impressionist rooms with Monet's Poppies at Argenteuil and Rouen Cathedral series, Renoir's Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Degas' ballet dancers, Berthe Morisot, Sisley, Pissarro. Then Post-Impressionism: Van Gogh's self-portrait, his Church at Auvers-sur-Oise painted weeks before his death, Cézanne's apples, Gauguin's Tahitian paintings. Then Art Nouveau in the mezzanine and a well-curated sculpture hall in the former station nave.

The clock windows on the upper floor overlooking the Seine to the Louvre are the museum's Instagram-famous spot. There's a queue for them; the best photograph is actually from just behind the queue, showing the crowd waiting.

Free first Sunday of every month. Closed Mondays. Combined ticket with L'Orangerie next door is worthwhile if you like Impressionism and have half a day.