If you have only one or two days in Paris, forget about wasting time in long lines to see the Louvre or the Musee d’Orsay.
Musee Carnavalet, located in the Marais district, illustrates the history of Paris in a singular fashion. You can walk from room to room as if walking through a time machine from decade to decade, past sumptuous living rooms and bedrooms decorated with original furniture from each time period. You’ll see more samples of original furnishings here than you’d see going to Versailles, including a painted ceiling by Le Brun, Louis XIV’s chief painter at Versailles. Flemish artists depict the tumultous Protestant and Catholic battling in Paris. Remember the movie, Queen Margot? You’ll see portraits of her nasty brothers as well as an astonishingly life-like bust of Henry IV. City artifacts dating back to Gallo-Roman times, Revolutionary memorabilia, and Napoleon’s cradle give only a hint of this museum’s volumes of ‘great stuff’. It’s easy to spend several hours in this luxurious townhouse complex and still not see everything.
If the lack of crowds and the gorgeous interiors weren’t reason enough to visit, the permanent collection is, amazingly, FREE. When you walk out of the museum you are only a short walk to Place des Vosges, one of the trendiest spots in town.
Musee Carnavalet
23 Rue de Sevigne
Metro: Saint Paul
Tel. 01-44-59-58-58
Open every day except Monday and Holidays
From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Europe Insiders page.
