Museums and Neighbourhoods of Paris, a Guide to Taking It Slowly

Paris has more museums than one could visit in a lifetime, and the temptation is to want to see them all in a week. It is a kindly mistake. The city is better understood when you choose: one great museum in the morning, a walk in the afternoon, a neighbourhood gallery on the way home. Culture here is not only behind the ticket desks; it is in the façades, in the passages, in the windows of the bookshops.

This guide crosses three neighbourhoods in the heart of Paris: the 2nd, the Upper Marais and Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

The Marais, a neighbourhood turned museum

The Upper Marais has kept its seventeenth-century mansions, and many have become museums. The Musée Picasso occupies the Hôtel Salé; the Musée Carnavalet tells the history of Paris in two neighbouring mansions; the Musée des Arts et Métiers keeps inventions, machines and Foucault's pendulum in a former church.

Between one museum and the next, contemporary art galleries occupy courtyards and former workshops. You walk in without an appointment, look, and move on.

The 2nd, culture under glass

The 2nd wears its culture discreetly. The Galerie Vivienne, a covered passage from 1823, has kept its mosaic, its rotunda and a second-hand bookshop. Next door, the Bibliothèque nationale, Richelieu site, has reopened after a long restoration: the Salle Ovale, under its glass roof, is one of the calmest places in central Paris.

From the 2nd, the Louvre is very close, through the Palais-Royal gardens. That is the advantage of staying in the centre: you can return to a museum twice, one afternoon for a gallery, another for a single work.

Saint-Germain, between publishers and galleries

On the Left Bank, culture is part of daily life: publishing houses, bookshops, art galleries and cafés where a good part of the twentieth century was written, such as the Café de Flore. From Saint-Germain, you walk to the Luxembourg garden and, following the river, to the Musée d'Orsay, with its great nave of a former railway station. The Monnaie de Paris, facing the Seine, completes the walk.

How to visit without the crush

Three simple habits change a visit:

• · Book tickets for the great museums in advance and arrive first thing.
• · Choose a few rooms rather than trying to see everything.
• · Leave the afternoon free for the neighbourhood: a gallery, a bookshop, a café.

Evenings count too: the Louvre is open until 9 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and is free for everyone on the first Friday of each month from 6 pm, except in July and August. It is wise to check opening hours on each museum's website before you go.

A home for the city

After a day of museums, what you appreciate most is a quiet living room, a kitchen for a simple dinner and a silent bedroom. Our apartments, with two to four bedrooms and all air-conditioned, are designed for exactly that. An intimate relationship with Paris, one neighbourhood at a time.

Discover the collection, our neighbourhood guides and our guide to the art of living in Paris.

The ACT 3 Team