Musée de la Vie Romantique

The Musée de la Vie Romantique stands at the end of a quiet cobbled lane, in a hidden courtyard with a garden, in the Nouvelle Athènes district at the foot of Montmartre, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. It occupies a house built in 1830, which the Dutch-born painter Ary Scheffer bought in 1830 and made his home, adding two studios in the garden. Scheffer was a successful and fashionable artist of the Romantic period, and his house became one of the best-known salons in Paris, where he held gatherings every Friday evening for the leading writers, painters and musicians of the day. Among his guests were the composers Chopin, Liszt and Rossini, the painters Delacroix and Ingres, and the writers George Sand, Turgenev and Dickens, so the little courtyard once hummed with the cultural life of the age.

The museum was opened in 1987 by the City of Paris, and it is now part of the group of museums run by the Musée Carnavalet, which is the history museum of the city. Its theme is the Romantic period, from the 1820s to the 1840s, a time of strong emotions, rebellion against old rules, and love of nature, history and the imagination, and the collection is devoted to the lives and works of the artists who gathered here. The house shows period interiors, with furniture, paintings and objects, and the ground floor holds a collection linked to George Sand, who lived nearby, with portraits, jewellery and furniture from her house at Nohant. Upstairs, galleries show paintings and sculpture by Scheffer and his contemporaries, and temporary exhibitions deal with the arts of the era.

The house was later the home of the historian Ernest Renan, who married Scheffer's niece, and the double name Scheffer-Renan is sometimes used. The garden, planted with roses and shaded by trees, has a small tea room that is a charming place to rest in good weather, and it is one of the most peaceful corners of the city. The setting gives a sense of how artists lived in a village-like corner of the capital, among small courtyards and low houses.

The museum reopened on 14 February 2026 after a 17-month refurbishment that restored the house and Ary Scheffer's studios and renewed the displays, so check the official website for current opening times before you go. Nearby, the district offers other sights. The slopes of Montmartre and the Sacré-Cœur, the Place Pigalle and the Musée Gustave Moreau lie a short walk away, and the Canal Saint-Martin and Centre Pompidou are a short ride.

It suits lovers of art, literature and music, and it makes a quiet break from the crowds. Allow an hour.