Musée Carnavalet: A History

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Musée Carnavalet: Kinda Like History Hoarders

Ever clean out your closet and think, I can't get rid of that, it has too much meaning? Or when you're remodeling and you don't know what to do with all the old stuff? Well in the late 1800s, Paris went through a similar problem, and instead of throwing everything in the trash, they made a museum out of it: the Carnavalet Museum.

Once a Mansion

The Hotel Carnavalet was once a private residence. These types of buildings, called Hotel Particulier, were basically grand town houses, the size of mansions, that popped up around Paris. They were meant for private residences by upper class families. These types of buildings would have a large door on the road that would open up to a courtyard, and then the actual house portion would come. Hotel Carnavalet is one of many built, but today it is one of the more famous.

Part of the Mansion

Haussman Influences

Baron Haussman, the man known for designing Paris in the 1800s, had planned for the Hotel Carnavalet to become a museum. Much of Paris was being rebuilt by being demolished first. Haussmann wanted to preserve some of that Parisian history, so he ordered the Hotel Carnavalet be turned into a museum to showcase that history.

The Story of Paris

While walking around the museum, you may think that it is an art museum with the amount of paintings, sculptures, and furniture, but it is actually a history museum, intended to educate people on what Paris used to be like. They have a collection in the tens of thousands, which kind of makes the house look like a very neat and tidy rendition of hoarders. If you want to see what Paris was like before Haussman's rebuilding of the city, this museum is great for that.