Vesunna was the Gallo-Roman name for Périgueux, and this museum sits directly on top of one of its largest townhouses — a courtyard mansion with surviving mosaic floors, painted plaster walls, an underground heating system and a private bathhouse. Jean Nouvel designed the glass-and-steel canopy that floats above the ruins, allowing you to walk the original streets and rooms on raised wooden walkways.
The collection upstairs traces the city from its founding in the first century BC, with steles, glassware, everyday objects and a particularly fine display of mosaics. Allow at least 90 minutes. The Tower of Vesunna, the tall cylindrical remains of a Gallo-Roman temple to the city's tutelary goddess, stands in the park just outside the museum and is free to visit.