The Cité de la musique designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc, was inaugurated in 1955, at the heart of the Parc de la Villette. This venue is entirely devoted to music with 250 concerts each year, a multimedia library, a wide variety of music resources for adults and children, and rare collections at the Musée de la musique. Recently reorganised, 5 areas are to be discovered at the Musée de la musique: 4 areas are devoted to Western music (17th century to 20th century), the other area is devoted to world music.

With a surface area of about 3,000 m², the museum presents 1,000 instruments and art objects as rare and unusual as the turtle guitar, the octobass or the crystal flute. Some of these once belonged to famous artists, such as Django Reinhardt, Frederic Chopin or Frank Zappa. The tour of the museum is organized in a chronological order from the 17th century to the present day for Western music, and in a geographical order for world musics.

Music accompanies the tour. Everyday, free concerts are programmed in the museum. The encounter with a musician is a unique moment for visitors to listen and to exchange ideas about world music. Instruments from the collection or facsimiles are often used for these events. The museum regularly features around 150 artists from different musical backgrounds. The visitor also benefits from an audioguide to deepen his or her knowledge of music history: for adults and children, the comments are enriched with numerous recordings of collection instruments.

The Musée de la musique is a "must" for music lovers and the simply curious.