• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Paris Travel

  • Paris Home
  • Paris Blog Home
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Map
  • Weather
  • Site Map
  • Destinations
  • Shopping
  • Food
  • Sightseeing
  • Getting around
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Sightseeing / Musée de la Musique

Musée de la Musique

By Tony Page 2 Comments

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Unusual Paris Museums and Galleries

Musée de la MusiqueThe Musée de la Musique is the "jewel in the crown" of the Cité de la Musique, in the Parc de la Villette; it houses one of the richest collections of musical instruments in the world – over 4500 pieces from the 200 year old National Conservatory on five floors of 2800 square metres, although only 900 are on display at a time.

There are a some early instruments from other times (a flute made of vulture bone from around 2,500 B.C.) and other regions (delicate harplike instruments from Africa and a complete Gamelan from Java). But really the museum recounts the history of European music from the French point of view.

A museum that is not silent

What makes the museum special is that it is not silent. You may come across musicians from the nearby Conservatory of Music playing early instruments and explaining how different they are from their more familiar successors.

Basically, the museum takes you through the history of music and instrument-making in Europe from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century, ending with a representative overview of music and instruments outside Europe.

Musical instruments from the Music MuseumNine chapters have been defined to illustrate the main periods. To show you how a famous piece of music was played in its period, rooms have been set up as they were at the time. You can see the instruments which were used as well as a large model of the location in which the chosen work was composed, along with background information, and paintings and engravings which complement the exhibit.

As you move between different displays of instruments, headphones provided at no extra charge offer commentaries in English or French as well as recordings of relevant music.

The Contemporary exhibits are especially interesting. They include a Selmer guitar which belonged to Django Reinhardt and Frank Zappa’s modular E-Mu synthesizer.

There is also a wide choice of guided tours with the added benefit of the presence of musicians or storytellers, but they’re of limited interest if you don’t speak French. These tours, aimed at adults or young people are often combined with practical music or instrument-making workshops, so they’re worthwhile if you’re bilingual and have some time.

An unhurried visit to the museum will probably take two hours, especially if you want to hear the complete pieces of music playing through your headphones!

Tip: The Café de la Musique in the Cité is an OK place for a meal or a snack, and for a complete change of pace, the Museum of Science and Technology is a brief stroll away across the Parc de la Villette.

Musée de la Musique
Cité de la musique
221 Avenue Jean-Jaures, 75019 Paris
tel: 01 44 84 45 45 00)
Website: Music Museum

Metro: Porte de Pantin, line 5
Bus: 75, 151 and PC2 and PC3
Car: underground car park at the Cité de la musique
Open: Tuesday to Saturday from 12 pm to 6 pm,
Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm,
temporary exhibitions are open until 8 pm when there are concerts.
ticket sales end 45 mins before the museum closes
guided tour: individual information on +33 (0)1 44 84 46 46
Entry: Adults full price: €8 – Concession: €6.40. If you need a guided tour, the fee is €10 for a tour of 1hr 30 mins.

Next page : Musée de la Poupée (Dolls Museum)

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Sightseeing Tagged With: Cité de la musique, Django Reinhardt, France, Frank Zappa, Musée de la Musique, museums, Music Museum, musical instruments, noteworthy, Paris, unusual

Things to do in Paris

avatar

About Tony Page

Tony Page is a professional writer and photographer and runs Travelsignposts with his wife Helen.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • Paris New Year Concerts and Operas
  • My Paris Haircut by the Hair Cowboy of Hollywood
  • VAT Refund Made Easier with Pablo
  • One Nation Paris – The Latest Luxury and Fashion Outlet
  • Gare de Lyon – France’s Third Busiest Railway Station

Plan and Book Your Trip


eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2023 ·Lifestyle Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address