PARISIAN TREASURES

A trio of niche museums in the French capital

- ELAINE SCIOLINO

Paris is a city of museums, nearly 150 by my unofficial count. Beyond the state-owned grandes dames — the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and Versailles (if you define a palace as a museum) — there are free city museums (the Petit Palais and the Carnavalet, among them), and museums dedicated to one artist (Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso), one writer (Honoré de Balzac, George Sand), one subject (perfume, playing cards), even one activity (counterfeiting, smoking).

But some of the most intriguing collections may be ones you've never heard of, sequestered in hidden spaces. Here are three museum spaces that even many Parisians have never heard of.

CONSULTATION ROOM FOR PRINTS AND DRAWINGS AT THE LOUVRE