The Petit Palais was built for Paris’ 1900 Exposition (World’s Fair). Charles Girault designed four wings around a colonnade that surrounds a courtyard. Today it contains the Paris Museum of Fine Arts.. The museum contains over 1,300 works of art mostly early 20th-century decorative art along with a smaller number of earlier pieces starting from the Antiquities.

The Petit Palais Building

The building is as much a reason to visit the museum as the art. While it was never a palace, it is as beautiful as a palace. It has splendid stained glass windows and mosaic floors.

The wrought iron circular staircase that takes you to the downstairs galleries is particularly delightful.

Art is dispersed in charming rooms.

And don’t forget to look up. It has some beautifully painted ceilings.

Petit Palais Collection

The museum contains art works from ancient and medieval collections, the French and Italian Renaissance, Flemish and Dutch paintings, icons, 18th-century work, French paintings and sculptures from the 19th century, and Art Nouveau creations.

• Roman works from the 4th to 1st century BC as well as precious artifacts from ancient Greece and the Etruscan empire.

• Renaissance works from Franch, Northern Europe, Italy, and Islam dating from the 15th to 17th century.

• Western and European art from the 17th through the 19th centuries and Paris 1900.

It is definitely worth a stop if you have the time.