Musée de Cluny

This museum is built on top of Roman Paris, and you can literally walk through both time periods. The building incorporates the remains of the Thermes de Cluny, massive Gallo-Roman baths dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD — their frigidarium (cold bath hall) is the best-preserved Roman structure in Paris, with vaulted ceilings still standing after nearly 2,000 years.

The medieval collection upstairs is anchored by one masterpiece: "The Lady and the Unicorn," a series of six tapestries woven around 1500 that are considered the Mona Lisa of the Middle Ages. Five represent the senses — sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch — while the sixth, labeled "À Mon Seul Désir" (To My Only Desire), remains mysterious. Scholars have argued for centuries about what it means: love? Free will? The renunciation of earthly pleasures? Nobody knows.

The tapestries were "discovered" in 1841 by the writer Prosper Mérimée (yes, the Carmen author) in the Château de Boussac, where they were being used to cover walls in a damp room, slowly rotting. George Sand wrote about them, public interest surged, and they were acquired by the museum and painstakingly restored.

The Hôtel de Cluny itself, built in the late 15th century as the Paris residence of the Abbots of Cluny, is one of the finest surviving examples of medieval domestic architecture in France. After a recent renovation completed in 2022, the museum has been beautifully modernized while preserving the layers of history that make this place unique: Roman walls, medieval mansion, and world-class art collection, all in one building.