The history of the French National Library began in the 1660s, when Louis XIV moved manuscripts that couldn't be housed in the Louvre to this lavish Louis XIII townhouse,...

Philippe Starck has created a neo-rococo wonderland in the former mansion of the Vicomtesse de Noailles. From the red carpet entrance with a chandelier in a fish tank to the...

Airport-style security checks mean queues, but don't let that put you off: the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu is an impressively presented and moving memorial to the...

Topped by its gilded dome - a glorious sight when illuminated after dusk - the Hôtel des Invalides was (and in part still is) a hospital. Commissioned by Louis XIV for wounded...

In the ground-floor gallery, well thought out exhibitions specially conceived by top artists and designers introduce children to aspects of modern art, design and architecture,...

Designed by Le Corbusier in 1923 for a Swiss art collector, this house shows the architect's ideas in practice, with its stilts, strip windows, roof terraces and balconies,...

WhenYves Saint Laurent bowed out of designing in 2002, he reopened his fashion house as this foundation, exhibiting Picasso and Warhol paintings with the dresses they closely...

This kitsch version of Madame Tussauds is a hit with kids who can have their photo taken alongside waxwork doppelgangers of showbiz stars and personalities like Naomi Campbell,...

For centuries the main source of drinking water in Paris was the Seine, which was also the main sewer. Construction of an underground sewerage system began at the time of...

Housed in a collection of Eiffel-era, iron-framed wine warehouses is a fantastical collection of 19th- and early 20th-century fairground attractions. The venue is hired out for...

Here the Confrères Bacchiques defend French wines from imports and advertising laws. In the cellars of an old wine-producing monastery are displays on the history of...

The Musée National du Moyen Age is best known for the beautiful, allegorical Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle, but it also has important collections of medieval sculpture...