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Entrance off rue des Francs-Bourgeois at 23 rue de Sevigne. Tues-Sun 10am-5.40pm; ?4.12, ?5.34 with special exhibitions. Mº St-Paul . The Musee Carnavalet traces the history of Paris from its origins until the belle epoque. The museum's extensive and beautifully presented collection fills two adjoining converted Renaissance mansions. Paris's history is presented as viewed and lived by its people: working class, bourgeoisie, aristocrats and royalty. Note that not all the rooms are open at the same time: the Second Empire to the twentieth century section is only open from 10 to 11.50am, and the section on the sixteenth to the eighteenth century from 1.10 to 5.40pm, so to see everything you should arrive early. The ticket lasts all day so you can take a break and return later. After a trawl of the collection, you can rest in the peaceful, formally laid-out garden courtyards. The collection begins with finely detailed nineteenth- and early twentieth-century shop and inn signs and fascinating models of Paris through the ages, along with maps and plans. Decorative arts feature strongly, with numerous re-created salons and boudoirs dating from the reigns of Louis XII to Louis XVI and salvaged from buildings destroyed to make way for Haussmann's boulevards. The second floor hosts mementos of the French Revolution: models of the Bastille, original Declarations of the Rights of Man and the Citizen , tricolours and liberty caps, sculpted allegories of Reason, crockery with Revolutionary slogans, models of the guillotine and execution orders to make you shed a tear for the royalists as well. In addition, selections from the museum's impressive collection of photographs by Brassai, Atget and Doisneau are periodically exhibited.
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