Valérie Guillaume: Head of the Newly-Renovated Musée Carnavalet

What was the initial aim of this refurbishment? The project, which cost €58 M, was very extensive. It involved two aspects. One side is seen by those who enter the museum and admire its new circuit, the restored permanent collections and buildings, and the areas open to all visitors. And an invisible but equally important part lies behind the scenes. Considerable work has gone into the content provided by the various multimedia terminals. We now also have rationalized storage facilities, computerized and digitized collections, shoot rooms, a transit room, a quarantine room and framing and restoration workshops—in short, all the facilities a modern museum ought to have. What is special about the Carnavalet? Since 1880, this museum, the oldest in the capital, has focused on the history of Paris from Neolithic times to the present day, providing a balanced picture of the city's political and cultural life. Housed in two magnificent mansions in the Marais—Les Ligneris, where Madame de Sévigné lived, and Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau—, our collections are famous for their quality, especially those…