On the trail of the French masters Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe in the newly renovated Impressionist wing at Musee d'Orsay, Paris. The Cocteau Museum on the French Riviera. Picture: Lisa Ricciotti Source: Supplied THE most thrilling new artistic experience in Paris starts with something very old. Edouard Manet's Le dejeuner sur l'herbe and its depiction of a nude woman reclining with male friends at a picnic scandalised Parisians when it was first displayed almost 150 years ago. But it has been given a new lease of life. It is the first image to be seen upon entering the Impressionist gallery in the Musee d'Orsay after a recent $27 million renovation. In the revamped setting, Manet's image seems as fresh and startling as it must have been upon its unveiling in 1863. Since it opened 25 years ago in the converted beaux-arts Orsay railway station, the museum has been renowned for its unrivalled collection of French masters. The redesign of the Impressionist gallery tries to re-create the viewing experience of a 19th-century Parisian home. New lighting techniques have been developed to suggest gentle sunlight and the colour of the walls changed from a bland white to a rich, slate grey, which allows the Impressionist brushwork and clarity of light to really pop. The revamped Orsay is part of an exciting wave of expansion in the French art world. A string of bold museums has opened, while old favourites have been given a new lease of life. While in Paris, continue in a belle epoque vein by visiting the Baccarat Museum, where a glittering antique crystal collection is housed in a mansion redesigned by Philippe Starck. Nearby, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, the sumptuous 1896 residence of French imperial prince Roland Bonaparte, grand-nephew of the emperor Napoleon, has been declared a monument historique and reopened as the Shangri-La Paris. Step back in time with high tea in the hotel's grand salon, surrounded by enormous oil paintings and shimmering marble. The south of France has long attracted artists with its gentle climate and its piercingly clear light. No sooner had the first train lines been built from Paris to the Mediterranean in 1865 than Monet and Cezanne were packing their easels and heading for the sunshine. In the late 1940s, Picasso, Braque and Cocteau followed, creating an artistic party scene dubbed les annees folles, or "the mad years." The Riviera's most prestigious new addition is the Bonnard Museum in Le Cannet. Until his death in 1947, Pierre Bonnard lived in this quaint, dreamy village overlooking Cannes with Marthe, his wife and favourite model, surrounded by palm trees and pet dogs. Although Bonnard was overshadowed during his lifetime by fellow Post-Impressionists, the new museum gives him his due with a range of fine paintings and about 10,000 drawings. A few kilometres away, the intimate Picasso Museum in Antibes is housed in a castle that hangs over the sparkling Mediterranean, a memorable aesthetic experience in itself. In 1946, Picasso was strolling along the beach with his lover-muse Francoise Gilot when he met the owner of the medieval Grimaldi castle, who invited him to work there. Postwar shortages meant that Picasso could not paint directly on to the walls as he had planned; so instead he turned the enormous space into his workshop for three months, painting on wood and concrete, using oils left over by fishermen, and creating hundreds of ceramics. A series of photos by his friend Michel Sima adds to the feeling of peeping in on Picasso's summer holiday. Ten kilometres inland, the hilltop village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence is home to a little-known artistic treat, Fondation Maeght. Here in this leafy enclave of serenity lies work by a who's who of postwar art -- Modigliani, Kandinksy, Braque and Leger. The highlight is an outdoor labyrinth created by Joan Miro, a ravishing blend of nature and art in which giant metal statues overlook spectacular hills. The museum cafe comes a close second, with furniture designed by Giacometti. Perhaps the most original new artistic offering lies in the quiet seaside village of Menton, home to the recently opened Cocteau Museum, in an especially designed beachfront building with sleek white porticoes that evoke the ripples of the sea. While Jean Cocteau achieved international fame as a film director -- thanks to works such as Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1950) -- he was already well known in France as an avant-garde poet, visual artist and theatre director. The new museum owns 1600 works on paper, with a surreal air inspired by his foray into opium use. "Cocteau was a genius," a guide tells me with admiration, "but he was also completely crazy." It's a short stroll to the Menton Marriage Hall, which Cocteau decorated with frescos about the Orpheus myth. A few minutes' drive away is his seaside villa, Santo Sospir (Holy Breath), on Cap Ferrat, the dramatic promontory east of Nice. Its ramshackle rooms have been left all but untouched since Cocteau died in 1963, allowing visitors to feel as if they are slipping into the past. Cocteau decorated the walls and ceilings with hallucinogenic mythological scenes, and even scribbled on the lampshades. Photographs of the artist with friend Coco Chanel rest casually on tables, and drawings by another friend, Picasso, are casually tacked on doors. As you wander the villa, odd visions of gods and satyrs appear, intermingling with views to the shimmering ocean. If there were ever a site that could justify the artistic obsession with the south of France, Santo Sospir is it. musee-orsay.fr baccarat.com shangri-la.com museebonnard.fr fondation-maeght.com menton.fr le-sud-jean-cocteau.org