Musée du Romantisme ( Museum of Romantic Life)

Unusual Paris Museums and Galleries

Le Musée du Romantisme, the Museum of Romantic Life, in a rather romantic garden off the street, recreates the atmosphere of the times of the famous novelist Georges Sand and her circle.

Aurore Dupin, baronne Dudevant (1804-1876), was a pioneer feminist who chose George Sand as a “nom de plume” and who loved to dress in men’s clothing. In her own time she was renowned for her talent as a writer and her powerful commentaries on French society. The poet Alfred de Musset was her lover in the real sense of the word while Chopin, who was very ill, quickly became more like a brother she learned to take care of.

This museum is located at the bottom of Montmartre (not far from the Moulin Rouge) in the Scheffer-Renan mansion, an artist’s home and studio built more than 150 years ago for court painter Ary Scheffer, who once taught the children of King Louis Philippe.

The museum’s main room is devoted entirely to Sand and exhibits a selection of the novelist’s personal belongings, including a collection of watercolours, lockets and jewellery (there’s a cast of Chopin’s hand!). On the other side of the courtyard is Ary Scheffer’s workshop where, from 1830 to 1858, he worked and received Chopin, Liszt, Lamartine, Turgenev, Delacroix, and other luminaries of the contemporary cultural scene.

Tip: If it’s fine, take some refreshment in the atmospheric tea salon in the garden area outside the museum and pretend you’re a 19th century romantic…

More pictures and description of 2005 visit by an American expat

Musée du Romantisme ( Museum of Romantic Life)