Musée Rodin

The Hôtel Biron was an 18th-century Rococo mansion in the 7th arrondissement that had been serving as a state-run studio building — providing cheap workspace to artists — when Rodin moved in in 1908. He was 68, wealthy, and a national figure; he negotiated with the state for the right to donate his entire life's work in exchange for turning the building into a museum after his death. The museum opened in 1919, two years after he died. It's the only major artist's museum in Paris that is genuinely their own house.

The collection is arranged the way Rodin would have shown it — smaller works and marbles on the ground and first floors, larger bronzes outside in the sculpture garden that runs the length of the property behind the mansion. Musts: The Thinker (the big garden version is the sixth cast; the small one indoors is an earlier study), The Kiss (Rodin refused to include it in The Gates of Hell — too explicit), The Burghers of Calais, and the Balzac. The Gates of Hell itself is at the far end of the garden — five metres tall, hundreds of tortured figures, the piece Rodin worked on for 37 years and never finished.

The gardens alone are worth the visit — three hectares of gravel paths, rose beds, and a small pond at the far end. Bring a book. The café in the garden is excellent (better than most museum cafés in Paris) and doesn't require an entry ticket if you go around the side.

Free first Sunday of the month October–March. Skip the queue by arriving at opening (10 AM). The garden-only ticket at €5 is the best deal in central Paris.