I am going to say something rather shocking: the next time you are in Paris, skip the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou. Don't get me wrong: I love Paris' big museums. However, as the focus of every guidebook-wielding tourist, these museums, despite their colossal halls of masterpieces, can feel as packed as a métro car at rush hour. And there is more to Paris' museum scene than elbowing your way through the masses to glimpse the inscrutable La Joconde.
Paris is filled with bite-sized art treasures. These are the museums that Parisians love to visit - smaller collections where you can spend an afternoon among 12th-century Khmer Buddhas or Impressionist water lilies; intimate places where you can sip a café crème under a Tiepolo fresco or examine the brass bed where Marcel Proust wrote his masterpieces.
These museums entice visitors to a more human-scaled art scene in the posh western arrondissements (8th and 16th) and in the hip, historic Marais (3rd and 4th), just east of the centre. The Louvre may be the sun of the Paris art universe, but there are countless stars out there as well. To find them, all you need is a map, a métro ticket and a penchant for art and beauty.
Asia in Paris
For many Parisians, one of their favourite museums has nothing to do with French art. And from my first moments in the superbly designed Musée Guimet, I understood why. I was surrounded by Hindu sculpture, Tibetan paintings, Thai bronzes and Chinese ceramics of unparallelled elegance, all set out with Zen-like simplicity in polished slate and silver rooms.
Dedicated to the arts of Asia, the museum was founded by industrialist and collector Emile Guimet in 1889 and now has more than 45,000 objects from Neolithic times onward. However, to the visitor's benefit, the curators have chosen only the best pieces for display over five floors. The layout, arranged by country, is easy to follow, and with the help of a free (English) audio guide, visitors can learn about the basics of Buddhism, Hinduism and various aspects of art production and history. In one visit, I learned about Greek influence on first-century Afghani Buddhist art, the influence of 18th-century Japanese prints on the French Impressionists and that women played polo in Tang Dynasty (seventh-10th centuries) China (an entire team of ceramics figures is on display). The museum also offers a series of lectures and workshops (in French) on everything from No theatre to Cambodian shadow puppets, and the museum café offers delicate teas and an Asian-themed lunch menu. The whole experience is a taste of Asia served up with French flair.
Far from the Monet crowds
Visitors to the Musée de l'Orangerie near the Place de la Concorde often stand in long lines to see Claude Monet's celebrated water lilies. Luckily, Paris has even more of Monet's Nymphéas at the Musée Marmottan-Monet, which offers an appropriately tranquil setting near the Bois de Boulogne for the world's largest private collection of paintings by the legendary Impressionist. The museum, housed in a 19th-century hunting lodge, was originally dedicated to the First Empire collections of Paul Marmottan, but thanks to many generous donations, it now houses an eclectic mix of modern art (not only Monet masterpieces but also works by Manet, Renoir, Morisot and others), a spectacular collection of medieval illuminations and an entire floor of Empire-style rooms straight out of a Napoleonic film. But the star attraction is the stunning collection of Monets donated by his son, Michel. He had inherited some of his father's most iconic works, from the 1874 seascape Impression, Sunrise, which gave the Impressionist movement its name (and which was famously stolen at gunpoint in 1985 and recovered five years later) to huge canvases of shimmering water lilies completed by an elderly Monet at Giverny in the 1910s.
La belle époque
While Monet was exploring the simplicity of light and colour, others of his generation indulged in the lavish style of the belle époque, nowhere better represented than at the Musée Jacquemart-André. Like a step back into the late 19th-century, every corner of this lush Beaux-arts mansion is draped in velvets, silks and crystal chandeliers; you almost expect Baudelaire or Haussmann to appear at any moment from behind a brocade curtain. But it is the art collection that really amazes: antiquities from ancient Egypt, masterworks of the Italian Renaissance, paintings by Rembrandt, Boucher and Fragonard - all of them collected by the unconventional couple Edouard André and his wife, painter Nélie Jacquemart. He was a banking heir and ladies' man, she a self-made painter from a working-class background. They shared a love of art and beautiful things and spent their lives using his fortune to amass a huge collection. Today the museum remains a favourite with those in the know, in particular for its plush café, complete with a Tiepolo ceiling fresco.
Cozy, too
Jacquemart and André had a taste for luxury, but not all collecting couples took the same approach, as evidenced by the charmingly modest Musée Cognacq-Jay. This cozy collection of 18th-century objets d'art and paintings, including works by Reynolds, Ruysdael and Caneletto, is the work of Ernst Cognacq, founder of the Samaritan department store, and his wife, Marie-Louise Jay. Located in a 16th-century mansion on a narrow street in the Marias, the Cognacq-Jay is but one of several museum gems in this historic neighbourhood, which has gone from being aristocratic in the 17th century to a slum in the 19th and the sought-after address of the Parisian boho set today. The results are cobblestone streets of designer boutiques, trendy restaurants and museums all housed in superb hôtels particuliers, the loveliest of them all being the Musée Carnavalet.
For Paris lovers
No one who has ever wandered through Paris and wondered about how this magnificent city came into being should miss this museum. Located in the 16th-century mansion that was once the home of Madame de Sévigné, the Musée Carnavalet recounts more than 2,000 years of Parisian history. Every era is brought to life with period décor, artworks and artifacts. There are Roman jewels and Egyptian gods from first-century Lutèce (Roman Paris); a painting of 17th-century Paris in which Montmartre is covered with windmills and St-Germaine-des-Près is a field; revolutionary tableware painted with political slogans ("Off with their heads" and such); and even the cork-lined bedroom of beloved novelist/hypochondriac Proust. It is every Parisophile's dream museum.
*****
Pack your bags
GETTING THERE
Air France flies direct to Paris from Toronto and Montreal daily. 1-800-375-8723; http://www.airfrance.ca.
THE MUSEUMS
Musée Guimet: 6, place d'Iéna (16th); 33 01 56 52 53 00; http://www.guimet.fr. Admission: $9.
Musée Marmottan Monet: 2, rue Louis Boilly (16th), 33 01 44 96 50 33; http://www.marmottan.com. Admission: $12.
Musée Jacquemart-André: 158, boulevard Haussmann (8th); 33 01 45 62 11 59; http://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com. Admission: $14.50.
Musée Cognacq-Jay: 8, rue Elzévir (3rd); 33 01 40 27 07 21; http://www.paris.fr/musees/cagnacq_jay. Admission: free.
Musée Carnavalet - Musée de l'histoire de Paris: 23, rue de Sévigné (3rd), 33 01 44 59 58 58; http://www.paris.fr/musees/musee_carnavalet. Admission: free.