Musée de Cluny, Paris, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Musée de Cluny, officially the National Museum of the Middle Ages, stands in the Latin Quarter of Paris at 28 Rue du Sommerard. It is built around two layers of the city's past, a Gallo-Roman bath complex and a late medieval townhouse, and it holds The Lady and the Unicorn, the most famous tapestry series of the Middle Ages.

The story behind it

The site began as a Roman bathhouse, and part of the vast cold room of the baths still stands inside the museum. In the late 15th century the abbots of Cluny, in Burgundy, built a town residence on the ruins, the Gothic mansion you see today. It gave them a base in Paris, close to the schools of the Left Bank.

The building became a museum in the 19th century, when the state acquired the collection of Alexandre du Sommerard, who had filled the mansion with medieval objects. Today it shelters sculpture, stained glass, goldwork and tapestry. Among its curiosities is a tombstone linked to Nicolas Flamel, the Parisian scribe later said to have found the philosopher's stone, a legend that reached a new audience through the first Harry Potter book. The six Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, woven in wool and silk in the late 15th century, are the centrepiece. Five are usually read as the senses, and the sixth, bearing the words "À mon seul désir", has inspired many theories. Historians still disagree about what the Lady is doing and what the phrase means.

What to look for

• The six tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn, shown together in a dedicated room, where you can study the lion, the unicorn and the Lady against their red backgrounds.
• The sixth tapestry with the inscription "À mon seul désir", where the Lady stands at the entrance of a tent beside a casket.
• The Gallo-Roman frigidarium, the tall vaulted bath hall that survives from the Roman baths beneath and beside the museum.
• The Gothic facade of the abbots' mansion on the courtyard side, with its turret, carved windows and decorative stonework.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about 90 minutes to two hours inside, longer if you like medieval art and want to see the tapestries without hurrying.
• Check current opening hours and booking rules before you go, as they change through the year.
• The Sorbonne, the Panthéon, the Luxembourg Gardens and the Seine are all within a short walk, so it combines well with a wider stroll through the Latin Quarter.
• The medieval-style garden beside the building is a pleasant place to pause, but check what is currently open to visitors.

See it on a quest

Mystical Paris: A History of Magic is a self-guided walk on your phone that fits the Flamel and alchemy side of the museum's story. You reach the Musée de Cluny on foot as one stop on a longer route through the area, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group.

The Lost Gold of Paris is another way to see the museum and the streets around it. You walk from place to place at your own pace, hear about each stop as you get there and work out a puzzle from what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you.