Two adjoining Marais mansions house a museum devoted to Paris itself. Renaissance courtyards, historic interiors brought from other addresses, and objects spanning prehistory to the present make the buildings part of the city story.
Quick facts
The Hôtel des Ligneris, now the older part of Musée Carnavalet, was built for Jacques des Ligneris between 1548 and 1560.
Musée Carnavalet opened to the public on 25 February 1880.
The neighboring Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau was annexed to the museum in 1989.
Get directions to Musée Carnavalet. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
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Guide
At Musée Carnavalet, the buildings are part of the collection. Two adjoining mansions in the Marais hold objects from Paris’s long history, but their courtyards, façades, and rooms tell another story: how a private neighborhood residence became a public attempt to preserve a city being remade. Here, the architecture is not a neutral frame around Parisian history. It is evidence of the changes that history records.
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