The Musée Carnavalet occupies two Renaissance mansions in the Marais, and its existence is deliciously ironic: Baron Haussmann, the man who demolished much of medieval Paris, persuaded the city to purchase the Hôtel Carnavalet in 1866 to preserve the history he was busily erasing.

The museum's original collection was stored in the Hôtel de Ville until the Paris Commune set fire to it in 1871, destroying everything. The charred door survives as an exhibit. Admission is free.

Among over 600,000 objects, you'll find a lock of Marie Antoinette's hair, Voltaire's armchair where he spent his final hours, Marcel Proust's brass bed, and a Neolithic canoe from 4800 BC pulled from the Seine. Madame de Sévigné, one of France's first female writers, lived here from 1677 until her death.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the building's Renaissance origins, its aristocratic residents, and its connection to the nearby Place des Vosges.