Top Five Underrated Museums in Paris You Can’t Miss (Ranked)
Whether you’re a lover of art, history, or architecture (or all three!), you’ll know that amongst the world’s most famous museums, Paris is home to some of the best. And while the mere mention of the City of Lights conjures up images of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile and the glassy halls of the Musée d’Orsay, there are dozens of smaller, yet no less fascinating museums tucked away in the cobbled arrondissements that are worth as much of your attention as the Louvre.
What’s even better is, with these museums being extremely underrated, they’re far less crowded, meaning you’ll really get to admire a painting with your nose practically touching the canvas.
And that’s why I’ve created this (personal) ranked list of the Top Five Underrated Museums in Paris that you just can’t miss (and two of them are free to enter!)
#5 | Hôtel de Soubise – National Archives Museum
Simple yet elegant, the Neoclassical-style staircase is the centerpiece of the National Archives Museum
Taking the fifth spot on the list is the Hôtel de Soubise, part of the National Archives Museum. With its impressive entrance courtyard and Neoclassical pillars, it’s definitely worth a quick stop, and what’s more — it’s free!
The upper floors are normally reserved for special exhibitions (also free), and as you continue through the halls you’ll come across the Princess’s Bedchamber, a lovely Rococo-style room with gilt trimmings and glittering chandeliers, as well as a stunning library lined with ancient, leather-bound tomes.
As it’s a smaller museum, a visit to the Hôtel de Soubise can easily be done in an hour or two, and combined with other museums in the area — like the Musée Carnavalet, which is next on the list.
Musée des Archives Nationales, 60 Rue des Francs Bourgeois
Nearest Metro | Rambuteau (5 minutes’ walk)
#4 | Musée Carnavalet – The History of Paris Museum
The grand staircase of the Musée Carnavalet, featuring a stunning life-size trompe l’oeil fresco
Opening to the public in 1880, the Museé Carnavalet occupies a renovated Renaissance mansion in the Marais district and is dedicated to preserving the history of Paris, from its Roman origins to the French Revolution and its development into the modern era.
The Salon Demarteau with paintings by François Boucher, dating to 1765
There’s something for everyone here — art lovers can marvel at the large collection of Baroque and Impressionist paintings along with fully furnished rooms, some containing their original décor; history buffs are sure to enjoy the timeline exhibits denoting each era of the city’s history (starting with excavated Roman artifacts from Lutetia, the Neolithic settlement that would eventually become Paris); and architecture fiends will find that the building itself is a work of art, adorned on all sides with detailed bas-reliefs and sculptures.
You could easily spend all day here — the museum comprises of around 600,000 items in its collection, from a prehistoric wooden canoe and Roman surgical instruments to Marcel Proust’s original bed and stylish fur coat. And best of all, it’s free to enter!
If you don’t fancy spending an entire day in just one museum, then worry not — one of the many delightful charms of Paris is the countless number of interesting attractions that are within walking distance of each other. The Carnavalet Museum is a mere seven minutes by foot from the National Archives Museum, and only five minutes’s walk from the Musée National Picasso — and in such a historic city with as breathtaking architecture as Paris, walking is a pleasure rather than a chore.
Musée Carnavalet, 23 rue de Sévigné
Nearest Metro | Saint-Paul or Chemin Vert (5 minutes’ walk)
#3 | Musée Jacquemart-André
The opulent “Salon des Tapisseries”, or tapestry room, at the Musée Jacquemart-André
This elegant mansion-turned-museum, built in the 1860s on the Boulevard Haussmann, was once the home of Madame Nélie Jacquemart, a wealthy society painter who married Edouard André, a banker, politician, and former National Guard soldier.
A glimpse of Madame Jacquemart’s private bedroom on the ground floor of the museum
As you tour this museum — I recommend paying a few extra euros for the audioguide — you’ll not only get a glimpse into the elegantly furnished salons and sophisticated apartments in which Madame Jacquemart and Monsieur André made their home, but also the incredible paintings, sculptures, and tapestries they collected throughout their marriage. Madame Jacquemart had a particular fondness for Renaissance Italian paintings, which are exhibited in the Italian Museum on the first floor.
Other great masters whose works are displayed here include Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Canaletto, and Rembrandt, and as the museum often holds special temporary exhibitions — their current showing is called Masterpieces of the Borghese Gallery — it’s best to check their website for latest events.
Entry tickets are 18 euros which also includes access to any special exhibits, and can be reserved online in advance.
Musée Jacquemart-André, 158 Boulevard Haussmann
Nearest Metro | Miromesnil or Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (5 minutes’ walk)
#2 | Musée Nissim de Camondo
Attempting a “candid shot” on the grand staircase of the Musée Nissim-de-Camondo
Another stellar example of an aristocrat’s mansion being transformed into an archive for decorative art history, the Musée Nissim de Camondo is just around the corner from the Musée Jacquemart-André, and comes with a rather tragic backstory.
The mansion was built in 1914 for Count Moïse de Camondo, a wealthy Jewish banker from Constantinople whose family immigrated to Paris during his childhood, and was intended to display his growing collection of 18th-century French furniture and objets d’art — Moïse even went so far as to request exacting dimensions for certain rooms so that every artifact would fit acccordingly. In 1935, upon Moïse’s death, the mansion opened to the public as a museum and was named in honour of his son, Nissim, who was killed in 1917 after his plane was shot down during World War I.
One of the museum’s many elegant salons, this one decorated in the Rococo style
Overlooking a corner of the tranquil Parc Monceau, the cascading marble staircase in the entrance hall transports you back to a gilded age of frilly ball gowns and dinner parties; you can almost hear the orchestra playing as you tour the glittering rooms filled with finely crafted décor, among which includes a silver dinner service commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, delicately painted Sèvres porcelainware, and Savonnerie carpets woven in 1678 for the Louvre Palace.
Further tragedy befell the Camondo family when Moïse’s daughter, Béatrice, was deported to Auschwitz in 1943, along with her Jewish ex-husband, Léon Reinach, who was a prominent man in society, and their two children, Fanny and Bertrand. All four were killed there within the next few years.
Three floors of the mansion are accessible to visitors, and the museum maintains the space as though it were still a private house; the top floor includes a brief history of the Camondo family and displays a letter sent by Béatrice’s ex-husband, urging her to flee Paris after the Nazi occupation, which she ignored. A unique point of interest about this museum is the servant’s domain has also been wonderfully preserved on the ground floor, meaning you can explore the extensive kitchens complete with original coal stoves and burnished copper pots, the servant’s dining hall, and the head chef’s private office, giving a thrilling peek into the demanding labour required to manage such an opulent private home.
You could also combine a visit to this museum with the Musée Jacquemart-André if you’re pressed for time, since there’s just an eight-minute walk between the two, not to mention the delightful Parc Monceau just behind the Musée Nissim de Camondo if you’re craving some fresh air and greenery.
Musée Nissim de Camondo, 63 rue de Monceau
Nearest Metro | Monceau
#1 | Hôtel de la Marine
The stunning seafoam-green bedchamber of the Comte de Ville-d’Avray
And the top spot in this list must be awarded to the Hôtel de la Marine, whose creamy white colonnaded façade stands guard over the Place de la Concorde, and was once the headquarters of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, or the Royal Furniture Repository, the institution in charge of furnishing the various royal palaces of French monarchy during the ancien régime.
The Rococo-style dining room, meticulously staged in the appearance of a dinner party
Its name may be misleading — in French, hôtel certainly can mean a paid accommodation as we know it in English, but it also means a great estate or large edifice. Undergoing extensive restorations from 2015 onwards, the Hôtel de la Marine has preserved its neoclassic architecture, painted decorations, and tapestry furniture, and is a shining testament to the craftsmanship of 18th-century France.
The self-guided tour is led by a bluetooth headset the museum calls the Confident; given to all visitors upon entering, the headset’s narrator assumes the suave identity of the Comte Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d’Avray, the chief officer of the Garde-Meuble who lived at the Hôtel during the 1780s, and whisks you off on an immersive adventure through his private apartments.
A few particularly delightful rooms, brought to life by the first-person narration of the audioguide (and complete with ambient sound effects), are the Rococo-style dining room, where cream floral wallpaper is set off by matching chairs arranged convivially around a table in the course of a sumptuous meal; the magnificent seafoam-green bedchamber trimmed in gold accents; and the ballroom, whose glittering chandeliers and gilded ceiling are reflected in the mirrors above the fireplaces on either end. Meanwhile, the Loggia, with its twelve imposing Corinthian columns, offers not only a breath of fresh air, but a view of the Place de la Concorde and the Eiffel Tower beyond it.
Hôtel de la Marine, 2 Place de la Concorde
Nearest Metro | Madeleine, Concorde, Tuileries, or Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre