5 alternative Paris museums to avoid the crowds at the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay

The Louvre and the D’Orsay Museum are the two most popular museums in Paris, drawing record numbers of visitors in recent years. If you don’t want to deal with the crowds or have already been to the Louvre and the D’Orsay and want an alternative, there are over 100 other museums in Paris to choose from.

Here’s a list of five off-the-beaten-path museums we recommend.

Musée Carnavalet

16 Rue des Francs Bourgeois, Paris 75003

An historic mansion from 1548, once lived in by Madame Sevigne, the celebrated letter writer, was converted into the Carnavalet Museum in 1880, under the order of Eugene Haussmann. The Musée Carnavalet is actually a conglomeration of two former mansions and takes up almost an entire block in the center of the Marais district.

Musée Carnavalet focuses on the history of the city of Paris and contains an immense and rich collection of thousands of paintings, sculptures, photos, engravings, drawings, pieces of…