Art, Art, Baby: Paris Art Museums with Teens
When you bring teens to Paris, you are pretty much obligated to expose them to “Great Art”. The options are endless and overwhelming: modern art at The Pompidou, Impressionists at the Musee d’Orsay, medieval art at the Musee de Cluny, sculptures at the Musee Rodin, and, of course, the magnificent Louvre. The biggest challenge in planning how to see the Paris art museums with teens is how to choose experiences that your teens are going to enjoy without overloading them to the point of revolt (actually a good idea to stop some time before that point).
The Louvre
The original plan was to only take the kids to the Louvre. My mother-in-law booked a phenomenal guide, and, after experiencing a private tour, I think it’s a perfect choice for engaging somewhat reluctant and skeptical teenagers. In a place the size of the Louvre, it was so great to have someone to take charge and make sure we saw the so-called “must-sees” (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory . . .). It was also great to eliminate the guilt over not pausing over every painting or sculpture and the worry that we might have missed something. In addition, the guide was not only an expert on art, but an expert on experiencing Paris art museums with teens — she kept our four interested and frequently amused. Bonus was that she had pre-arranged our admission, so we just walked right in. Score!
Highlights from the tour:
- The medieval Louvre, where you can see the foundations and other remnants of the original medieval fortress;
- The Mona Lisa, where we all marveled at how small it was;
- The Wedding at Cana, which we discussed at length (Emma initially thought this was The Last Supper, and was kind of disappointed to find out that, no, it was just supper); and
- The sculpture hall, which, yeah, yeah, gave us context for appreciating Venus de Milo and Winged Victory, but most importantly had an Ancient Greek sculpture of Apollo that looks like he’s taking a selfie.
We all left the tour on a high, feeling like we really had an incredible experience. For my niece and nephew, this checked the art box for the trip, but my kids and I, on our last morning in Paris, decided to check out the Musee National d’Art Moderne (the National Museum of Modern Art) at the Centre Pompidou.
Modern Art at The Pompidou
Unlike the Louvre, we chose to go self-guided, which basically meant that we wandered around, stopping at anything and everything that caught our attention. The second largest collection of modern art in the world (after MoMA in NYC), The Pompidou has “modern art” from 1905-1960 and “contemporary art” from 1960 on. We spent about three hours there, mostly in the modern art galleries, since the kids knew a little about some of these artists from school, and I remembered enough snippets from college art history classes to give them some context and insight. But we also did a few of the contemporary art galleries, and these are just cool — a ton of “this is art?” reactions from the kids, which led to some great discussions.
On a side note, both the Louvre and the Pompidou, in addition to being incredible museums, are incredible buildings. The architecture of both (while on opposite ends of the spectrum) was mesmerizing and worth a visit for that reason alone.
I really felt like the art museum experiences on this trip were pretty perfect. My kids seemed interested and engaged rather than bored and overwhelmed. Of course, I’m still waiting for them to suggest a trip to one of the Boston art museums. That’s going to happen any day now.
Our trip itinerary has links to the sights we saw and our other blog posts for this trip.
Trip Date: July 2015
Kids’ Ages: Jonny 15 & Emma 13 (plus cousins ages 16 & 14)