When we travel to Europe, we often find middle/upper-middle class "house" museums interesting to visit. To see what more "everyday" people lived like and not just the palaces (though we enjoy those too). At times there are even museums dedicated to the middle and lower classes (proletariat, bourgeois, etc.) Reading through the RS book, the only thing he mentions that even sounds close is the Jacquemart-Andre (though it sounds like it is really an art museum that is in a really cool house). Are there ones I'm missing or does Paris really not have anything in this vein? :)
Posted by
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
8293 posts
Yes, you are missing the Nissim du Camondo. Absolutely superb.
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1864 posts
The Jacquemart-Andre is a beautiful house / museum but it certainly isn't "upper-middle class." It is palatial and full of valuable art; the family who once lived there were very wealthy.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
1068 posts
I don't know of a museum dedicated to the lower classes, but I do love the Carnavalet. http://carnavalet.paris.fr/en/museum-carnavalet It is a FREE museum dedicated to the history of Paris, so there are all kinds of wonderful, odd things stuffed into it, including old advertising signage and racy political cartoons and a reproduction of the Bastille, and sets of china and silverware and a mastadon tooth and a Napolean death mask and a Neolithic canoe and goodness knows what all else! It's housed in an old mansion (the site calls it a town house), and contains a number of rooms that are furnished completely as they would have been in the 18th century and earlier... wonderful little windows onto the past, and so gorgeous! All upper crust living, but still worth a look.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10633 posts
The Victor Hugo Museum is in his former apartment on the Place des Vosges. It shows the upper-middle class life style. There used to be a national museum showing rural life from different areas of France.. It was dismantled about twelve years ago and is supposed to have been partially resurrected in Marseille now.
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11507 posts
Further to what Cynthia suggested, the Nissim du Camondo Museum was in fact the home of a wealthy bourgeois family,, who unfortunately for them happened to be Jewish,, not sure how the house and its contents have remained intact, but the family perished in the concentration camps. I have not been there yet, but it is apparently a wonderful museum to visit and may fit your bill nicely.