Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

What makes it special

La Fée Électricité, Raoul Dufy's mural, runs round every wall of a horseshoe-shaped room, painted on hundreds of panels. Read it from right to left, the way the composition runs, and find the centre, where the Olympian gods stand beside the generators of the Ivry-sur-Seine power station, joined by Zeus's thunderbolt. Along its length run portraits of the scientists and inventors who helped bring electricity into being.

Dufy painted it for the curved entrance wall of the Pavilion of Light and Electricity at the 1937 International Exposition, the same fair this building went up for. Stand well back first to take in the whole curve, then walk its length.

Matisse's La Danse is the other reason to come, and two of its three versions hang together in the room devoted to Matisse. Look too for the Eiffel Tower painting hung by a window, so you can set its rainbow colours against the view outside.

On the way in, look up at the carved Art Deco panels and the bronze doors on the façade.

Visiting

Leave your coat and bag at the free cloakroom first; the collection needs no ticket, only the exhibitions do. Download the museum's free bilingual app if you want commentary, since no audio guides are sold.

Start upstairs. The stairs beside the cloakroom and toilets take you up a flight to the Dufy room.

Then come back down past the main entrance and take the next flight down to the Matisse room, which sits near the exit. Take in the rest of the collection as you go, and leave La Danse until last, on your way out.

Tips

Check your bag before you set out: anything larger than 55 x 35 x 20 cm is refused, so travel light. If you use a wheelchair or cannot manage stairs, ask staff at the door for the staff entrance.

The contemporary art galleries in the other wing of the Palais de Tokyo are a separate museum with a separate ticket. Pair the two and you can spend a whole day in the one building.