Musée Le Secq des Tournelles

A museum of wrought ironwork inside the deconsecrated 16th-century church of Saint-Laurent, immediately next to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The pieces — keys, locks, shop signs, balconies, kitchen utensils, surgical instruments — are hung on the walls and from the soaring stone vaults of the church in tier upon tier.

It sounds dry and is, in fact, magical: a forest of black iron silhouettes against the white stone. Combine with the Beaux-Arts in a single visit; both share an entrance. Small, weird, free on the first Sunday of the month.

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A story
Henri Le Secq des Tournelles spent his life collecting wrought iron — locks, keys, signs, gates, balconies — and his son donated the 12,000-piece collection to the city of Rouen. The result is the only museum in the world devoted entirely to ironwork, and one of the most genuinely odd small museums in France.

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