Palais de Tokyo
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Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Tokyo houses the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Tues–Fri 10am–5.45pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6.45pm; closed Mon & public hols; free; M° Iéna/Alma-Marceau). The museum's collection can't rival that of the Pompidou Centre, but the environment is perhaps more contemplative – and architecturally more fitting when it comes to works by early-twentieth-century artists, of which there's a major collection. In general, the lower floors are dedicated to the museum's permanent collection; the upper floors given over to temporary exhibitions.

The museum has two enormous and marvellous centrepieces. Facing the stairs as you descend, the chapel-like salle Matisse is devoted to Matisse's La Danse de Paris, beginning with an incomplete early version and progressing through to the finished work, displayed high on the wall, its sinuous figures seemingly leaping through colour. Further on, Dufy's enormous mural La Fée Électricité ("The Electricity Fairy") fills an entire, curved room with 250 lyrical, colourful panels recounting the story of electricity from Aristotle to the then-modern power station – a reminder of the building's beginnings as the Electricity Pavilion in the 1937 Exposition Universelle.

The main collection is chronologically themed, starting with Fauvism and Cubism, and progressing through to Dada and the École de Paris, and beyond. Most artists working in France – Braque, Chagall, Delaunay, Derain, Dufy, Léger, Modigliani, Picasso and many others – are represented and there is a strong Parisian theme to many of the works. The collection is kept up to the minute by an active buying policy, and some bold acquisitions of sculpture, painting and video by contemporary artists are displayed in the final suite of rooms.

Squatting – with official approval – in the semi-derelict western wing of the palace, the Site de Création Contemporaine (Tues–Sun noon–midnight; cost of entry depends on exhibitions; www.palaisdetokyo.com) has staged a number of avant-garde exhibitions and events since it opened in 2002, including a show of works by Paris-born Louise Bourgeois, a temporary occupation by squatter-artists and a skateboarding demo. The constant flow of young French artists installing, working on or taking down their works, and hanging out in the bar-restaurant, bookshop and library further adds to the arty ambiance.

Just beyond the Palais de Tokyo, in place de l'Alma, the replica of the flame from the Statue of Liberty was given to France in 1987 as a symbol of Franco-American relations; it's now an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana, whose car crashed in the adjacent underpass, with the odd bunch of flowers and graffiti messages along the lines of "Mexico love you Diana". From here, if you head back downstream, you can reach the Eiffel Tower via the Passerelle Debilly footbridge (in front of the Palais de Tokyo).