The Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau turned his family townhouse in the 9th into a museum of his own work before he died, and the result is one of the most singular small museums in Paris. Two soaring studio floors, connected by an extravagant spiral staircase, are hung frame-to-frame with his dreamlike mythological canvases, while the lower floors preserve his cramped private apartments exactly as he kept them.
The sheer density of paintings — thousands of works, including unfinished pieces and drawers of drawings you can pull open — is overwhelming in the best way, and the house feels intensely personal. A favourite of those who find the grand museums exhausting. Closed Tuesdays.