If you’ve been to some of Paris’s iconic museums — Le Louvre, the Cluny, or my favorite, the d’Orsay — you know that an unhurried perambulation through those marbled halls is almost impossible.
The swarms that surround the Mona Lisa and the other treasures obscure any art-induced reverie you may want to slip into, which is why Emma Jacob’s new illustrated guide to “The Littler Museums of Paris” is just the thing.
Jacobs, a journalist and artist who has filed stories from Europe for NPR and “The World,” moved to Paris in 2015 and decided she would seek out the hidden exhibits that most travelers — and indeed, many Parisians — miss.
The result is a chic, beautifully illustrated book that I’ll tuck in my suitcase next time I’m headed overseas. Here are two collections I don't want to miss: Emma drew a lovely series of wooden carousel horses to illuminate the charms of the Musee des Art Forains, and she describes it like this: “Vines twine around mermaids and chandeliers hang in a courtyard. Inside, carousels, arcade games and other finds are artfully arranged and recombined.”
I'm also excited to see the Musee Curie, a reconstructed laboratory with one of Madame Marie Curie’s lab coats and a handwritten note from both the Curies about their scientific work on radium.
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