Musée de la Vie Romantique

In early March, we continued our quest to visit every free museum in the city by checking out the Musée de la Vie Romantique (16, rue Chaptal, 9th arr.). The museum houses a limited collection in a quaint cottage hidden behind some typical 9th-arrondissement buildings.

There are about 8 rooms total in the permanent collection, many of which are lavishly appointed in Romantic period décor. That's Romantic with a capital R, the 19th-century historical era, not romantic aka lovey-dovey mushy-pushy flowers-and-kisses stuff.


Most of the art, sculpture, and objets d'art in the museum come from the private collection of painter Ary Scheffer - a close friend of Georges Sand - and Sheffer's descendants. This includes his nephew-by-marriage, Ernest Renan, whose bust you can see below, center, and who was one of the first theorists of nationality and nationalism. (Louis hearts Renan.) There are also lots of fun 19th-century fabrics and thus lots of terrible patterns, which you also see below.


After seeing the museum's entire collection in about 20-30 minutes, we headed to the adjacent greenhouse-café, which was empty, unserviced, and slightly chilly when we visited in March, but which will be perfect during slightly warmer times of the year.

The Musée de la Vie Romantique is currently running a temporary exhibition on Chopin, in honor of the 200th anniversary of his birth year, called The Blue Note. It runs through July 11th and we'll probably check it out when we go back to the Musée to see what the café is like in nicer weather.