The Musée Cognacq-Jay is fascinating. Once you get in the Hôtel de Donon, a house from the late 16^th century, we find ourselves in a typical 18^th century home with furniture, objects of virtu, and works of art!

Clocks and tableware from the Manufacture de Sèvres, niggles, Watteau etchings, courtship paintings by Fragonard expect us in a didactic staging. This atypical layout for an art museum was wanted by La Samaritaine founder, Ernest Cognacq and his wife, Marie-Louise Jay, both fascinated by that time period. With his spouse, he collected sculptures, furniture, paintings and other works of art between 1900 and 1925, helped by counselors, antique dealers, and art historians.

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Without child, the couple has bequeathed the collection to the city of Paris that decided to settle them in a beautiful 5-story building set in the Marais area. Renovated in 2015, the museum has given free rein to Christian Lacroix who proposed a museal atmosphere around the costume, on the three floors and the gallery lining the courtyard.

All year around, the museum holds exhibitions focusing on the lifestyle in the 18^th century, as well as workshops, concerts, and family entertainments.