Musée des Arts Décoratifs

Paris


Privately administered collections of applied arts and design, advertising and graphic design, and fashion and textiles are displayed in the Rohan Wing of the vast Palais du Louvre at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (aka MAD). Exhibits are evocatively displayed; its art nouveau and art deco pieces are among its highlights.

For an extra €6, you can scoop up a combo ticket that also includes the Musée Nissim de Camondo in the 8e.

On the 1st floor is the Woodwork Fair, a recreation from the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) designed by decorator Georges Hoentschel. The 2nd floor houses the Jewellery Gallery, with a 1200-piece, chronological collection from the Middle Ages to the present day in two separate spaces linked by a glass walkway.

Spanning the Middle Ages to the art nouveau and art deco periods, the 3rd- and 4th-floor rooms display furniture, such objets d’art as ceramics and glassware, artworks, advertising posters, textiles from silks and tapestries to prints and fashion, with creations by Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, among others.

The uppermost floors are dedicated to modern and contemporary techniques, materials and designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Philippe Starck.

Accessed from the main entrance hall are a research and reference library with some 200,000 volumes, engravings, catalogues and original photographs; a gift shop; and the museum's restaurant, Loulou, with a lovely summer terrace.