The crowds at the Louvre have gotten so bad, La Gioconda has been given a room of her own by her daddy, Emmanuel Macron. So, it’s an utter relief to report that Paris has added another brand-new museum to its impressive roster. Another jewel, as good—if not better—than the Hôtel de la Marine that debuted in 2021. The BNF Richelieu at 5 rue Vivienne on the Right Bank, was built in the 17th century as the palace of Cardinal Mazarin. It became, in 1721, the birthplace of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, after Louis XV moved his Bibliothèque du Roi and its extraordinary collections there. In September 2022, after 12 years of restoration, it reopened as a research library, a new Museum, and a new space for temporary exhibitions.
The main attraction is the Oval Room, which can be visited free of charge. Started in 1897, and completed in 1932, the impressive room’s 150 seats are filled at all hours—reason enough to appreciate it—with readers of all ages. They sit, rapt, beneath the huge central skylight decorated with gilded acanthus leaves and 16 glazed oculi surrounded by mosaics. Each oculus, placed above arches supported by cast iron columns, bears the name of city that contributed to the history of civilization. It’s all circled by walls of books.
After experiencing that visual thrill, as impressive as the Palais Royal on a spring day, head up the spiral staircase in the central Vivienne Hall for the BnF Museum. Its collections originated with Louis XI’s Cabinet des Médailles. In 1741, it was opened to the public as the Cabinet du Roi, aka the King’s Cabinet of Curiosities (or a Wunderkammer), making it the first “museum” in Paris.
Its 900 treasures, spanning epochs from antiquity to contemporary art, are regularly rotated, and elegantly displayed and explained in the museum’s seven carefully curated rooms. From Greco-Roman jewels to ancient temple treasures, to an aristocrat’s coin collection to gold medals commissioned by Louis XIV, the Sun King, it’s a breathtaking journey into the past. And unlike the Louvre, in the present, it’s delightfully free of bucket-list zealots seeking notches on their fanny packs.