Carnavalet Museum - Paris    Share

One of my favorite Parisian museums. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve visited it. They have everything from antique Parisian shop signs, Voltaire chair, Proust bedroom, to a spectacular collection of paintings depicting Parisian life. One of the highlights was the store room designed by Alphonse Mucha. The building and the gardens are extraordinary- former residence of marquise de Sevigne. I hope they don’t ruin it with the renovation, as they’ve done with other museums.

Undergoing extensive renovation. Perhaps the most interesting museum in Paris as it really provides extensive information and exhibits on the history of Paris over the last 2500 years. Extensive history on the Revolution and early Roman settlement. Beautiful interior examples and piece of furniture.

Location: Exiting Metro #1, "St. Paul". This is one of the museums in the area. Admission: FREE Love the entrance, nice garden, I bet during spring/summer it will be very beautiful with all the flowers blooming. Really enjoy all the french decoration inside the museum. Small museum, no big crowd. If you are in this area, definitely include this museum on your to-go places.

Sadly it is closed for renovation and repairs for my time in Paris, August 2019.

Musee Carnavalet is one of fourteen city of Paris museums and is located in The Marais. Permanent exhibitions are free to visit in this museum, which comprises of two former mansions, the Hotel le Peleteier de Saint Fargeau and the Hotel Carnavalet, for which the museum finds it name. This museum originally opened in 1880 and was most recently expanded in 1989. It features a chronologically arranged series of rooms displaying excellent French paintings, sculptures, engravings and furniture. The museum begins with Prehistoric and Gallo-Roman Paris periods and passing through the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th century, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Revolutionary, 19th and 20th century Paris eras. While rooms dedicated to a much earlier and younger Paris are fine, it is the rooms highlighting Paris from around the Renaissance period onward which we found most enjoyable. The museum houses over 2600 paintings from the 16th century, offering you hours of works to examine and enjoy. The museum also features some remarkable furniture and decorative rooms. We very much enjoyed the decorative 20th century Ballroom of the Hotel de Wendel, the exquisite Art Nouveau decor of the Fouquet Jewelry Boutique display and Louis XV's Room. Overall, this is a wonderful collection that is well worth visiting while in Paris. The Museum can be visited comfortably in around 2-2.5 hours. However, enthusiasts can easily pass much more time here, our visit was slightly over 3 hours and we moved at a fair speed through the various collections. Hint: You can also visit the Musee Cognacy-Jay, which is just around the corner. This museum concentrates on 18th century art and furniture and makes a nice complementary attraction to the Musee Carnavalet collection.