La Vie Romantique

Beautiful, artistic Paris in the heyday of the Romantic era. You’ll find it best preserved at the Musée de la Vie Romantique, a short walk from the metro, in a quiet corner of the ancient quartier called Nouvelle Athènes.

Entering this quaintly green-shuttered home, you wander amid the portraits and memorabilia of French novelist George Sand, with the music of Chopin, lilting, at your heels. On both floors, a cluster of objets d’art and Romantic paintings set the tone, and outside, a flowering courtyard — where Chopin, Delacroix, Liszt and Turgenev once stalked — seems just as it would have been a century and a half ago.

It’s a heady, elusive atmosphère in this hidden gem of a museum. See it some still afternoon when you’ve been reading poetry. Admission to the permanent collection is free.