Musee Carnavalet
The Carnavalet, in the heart of the Marais, occupies two grand 16th- and 17th-century houses. The exhibits are a resume of the city and its history. I suggest starting with the splendid 1762 wood paneling from the Café Militaire, a famous long-gone meeting place designed by Ledoux. Upstairs, several fully furnished rooms taken from now-demolished mansions bring the 17th and 18th centuries alive.
Some 1,000 objects relate the events of the French Revolution, including such epochal moments as the storming of the Bastille. Even the bed and other furnishings from Marie Antoinette’s prison room in the Temple, a medieval tower, are here.
The Paris of the 19th century is not forgotten either. Paintings show Baron Haussmann’s new boulevards, and the world’s fairs of 1889 and 1990. Marcel Proust’s bedroom with its cork-lined walls and sparse furniture, has been placed next to an Art Nouveau jewelry shop designed by Alphonse Mucha. An Art Deco ballroom in white gold with a fresco ceiling by Jose Maria Sert reminds us that in the 1920’s, still, the grand life went on. 25 Rue de Sevigne; 33-1/42-72-21-13.
Visual source: guidex
