The Louvre is just the start
With the Louvre’s 30,000 paintings and the Musée d’Orsay’s exhaustive collection, it’s easy to forget about the other museums in the City of Light. From plus-sized to petite and from illustrious and obscure, there are, in fact, nearly 200 museums sprinkled throughout the French capital, displaying everything from Picasso to Edith Piaf, submarines to sewers, eyeglasses to medical implements. Don’t believe us? We’ve mined the French capital for the 10 best hidden gems.
Rachel Kaplan, author of "Little Known Museums in and Around Paris" and owner of the Paris-based tour guide company, French Links, is enamoured with the Jacquemart-André. Founded by the wealthy Edouard Andre and his wife, painter Nélie Jacquemart, the museum exhibits the products of the art-amassing trips they used to take to Italy. By the late 19th century, they had the best collection of Italian art in France, including works by Donatello, Bottecelli, Tieopolo and Perugino. Kaplan suggests having Sunday brunch "under a Tiepolo ceiling after visiting the greatest number of Italian Quatrocentro masterpieces outside the Louvre."
See our slideshow of Hidden Gem Museums of Paris.
Another lesser-known venue for those who have already hit up the Louvre and even the D'Orsay is the Musée de l’Orangerie, which has something you’ll never find at Paris’ largest art museum: rooms loaded with Impressionist and post-Impressionist works that you can sometimes have all to yourself. Or at least you’ll share Monet, Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso with far fewer art gawkers than you would elsewhere. Claude Monet originally chose the former greenhouse near the Tuileries to exhibit his Water Lilies series, and after the artist's death it became an independent museum.
Had your fill of high-brow culture? You could always head to the sewers. The Musée des Égouts de Paris, or the Paris Sewers Museum, takes visitors through the bowels of the city, but you needn't be interested in ancient plumbing to appreciate these formerly sludge-strewn pipelines. Located under the Quai D’Orsay (next to the Musée d’Orsay), the one-hour subterranean tour includes a film and informative displays on how the 19th-century sewers functioned. So, plug your nose (yes, it’s a tad aromatic) and take the plunge.
Ponder less pungent objects at the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais, one of Paris’ most historic neighborhoods. Crammed into two adjoining Renaissance-era mansions, the Carnavalet is dedicated to the history of Paris, starting with the Gallo-Roman period through the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century. Edmund White, who penned several books while living in the neighborhood, including "The Flaneur: a Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris," says this is one of his favorite museums in the city. “There’s so much memorabilia of the history of Paris, everything from the crib of Napoleon III's son to Proust's intact bedroom, with its shabby furniture, the pile of notebooks that were next to his bed, [and] the heavy awkward furniture his parents had bought.” This mishmash of historical objects also includes the last letter French Revolutionary despot Robespierre ever wrote.
Now that there’s a smoking ban in the City of Light, perhaps this museum is more apropos than ever: the Musée du Fumeur. The Museum of Smoking is less kitschy and more interesting than you might think. Located in the 11th arrondissement, this diminutive museum boasts ancient instruments that include antique hookahs and 18th-century carved wooden pipes, illustrations and placards on smoking's history and an intriguing picture gallery of famous smokers. If you’re suddenly inspired to light up, the gift shop sells plenty of smoking-related paraphernalia.
See our slideshow of Hidden Gem Museums of Paris.
If drinking is more your vice, put the Musée du Vin on your agenda. Located near the Eiffel Tower, the Wine Museum is part of a 15th-century stone quarry and displays historic viticulture artifacts. The museum’s frequent wine tasting events and two-hour wine-education classes in English help make this bibulous trip through wine making history a more sensory experience. Temporary exhibitions focus on history of vino producing such as the wine of ancient Egypt. The restaurant, housed in a medieval cellar, serves up classic French fare.
Model-turned-novelist Paulina Porizkova had a childhood dream of being locked in a museum overnight. Given the choice, she’d most certainly choose the Nissim de Camondo, a mansion loaded with 18th-century decorative arts like fragile needlepoint chairs, paintings and antiques. “I've always loved visiting period houses that have been turned into museums; it's like taking a time machine,” says Porizkova, a former Paris resident whose novel "A Model Summer" takes place in the French capital. “I loved going to the Nissim and imagining myself living there.” She liked the museum so much she had a smaller-version of the Nissim kitchen built for her New York townhouse.
Given the popularity of the recent Oscar-winning film "Le Vie en Rose," interest in French singer Edith Piaf has never been greater. The eponymous two-room museum might not be the easiest place to find—it’s housed on the fourth floor of a non-elevator apartment building in the Belleville neighborhood—but fans of the singer won’t regret the trek. Longtime Piaf friend, Bernard Marchois, runs the place and has crammed the two-rooms with many of Piaf’s possessions, including clothes, gold records, photos, and even a life-sized teddy bear. Admission is free, but visitors have to call ahead to get a security code.
Of course, by uncovering Paris' hidden museums we are in no way suggesting that you skip the Louvre. Indeed if it is your first time in Paris, it's a must-see, but if this is your third, ninth or twentieth visit, lift a corner of Paris's rich cultural tapestry and take a peek.