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...

The history of medicine is the subject of the medical faculty collection. There are ancient Egyptian embalming tools, a 1960s electrocardiograph and a gruesome array of saws...

The history of Paris hospitals, from the days when they were receptacles for abandoned babies to the dawn of modern medicine, is shown through paintings, prints, and a mock...

Seven floors of erotic art and artefacts amassed by collectors Alain Plumey and Joseph Khalif. The first three run from first-century Peruvian phallic pottery through Etruscan...

Anne Hoguet keeps the tradition of her ancestors alive in this arcane museum in a 19th-century apartment, a fan-maker's atelier since 1805. One room houses the tools of the...

This museum was set up by the French anti-counterfeiting association with the aim of deterring forgers - but playing spot-the-fake with brands such as Reebok, Lacoste and...

Tucked away at the back of the French Masonic Great Lodge, this museum opened in 1973. It traces the history of French freemasonry, from stonemasons' guilds to prints of masons...

Small kids love the distorting mirrors and putting their hands in the lion's mouth at this museum of magic and curiosities, housed in vaulted cellars. A short magic show is...

Housed in the handsome neo-classical mint built in the 1770s, this high-tech museum tells the tale of global and local coinage from its pre-Roman origins, using sophisticated...

From among the uniforms, pistols, carriages, official decrees and fumigation tongs emerge snippets of history: during the 1871 Siege of Paris, hot-air balloons and carrier...

This small, all-in-one private museum and doll hospital enchants little girls with some 400 dolls (mostly of French origin) their accompanying accessories and pets, arranged in...

The police museum is housed in a working commisariat, which makes for a slightly intimidating entry procedure. You need to walk boldly past the police officer standing guard...

The upstairs element of the trio of museums in the Louvre west wing, the advertising museum has a distressed interior by Jean Nouvel. Only a fraction of the vast collection of...