Rue des Francs-Bourgeois

From Paris Hotels Reviews

Rue des Francs-Bourgeois

Running west from the Place des Vosges, the main lateral street of the northern part of the Marais is the narrow rue des Francs-Bourgeois, full of fashion and design shops. Beatnik Jack Kerouac translated it as “the street of the outspoken middle classes”, which is a fair description of the contemporary residents, though the name in fact means “people exempt from tax”, in reference to the penurious inmates of a medieval almhouse that once stood on the site of no.34.

Along or just off this street lie some of the Marais’ finest mansions, including the superb Musee Carnavalet, tracing the history of Paris; the bijou Musee Cognacq-Jay, devoted to eighteenth-century art and decorative arts; the engaging Musee d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme; and the Musee de l’Histoire de France, the state archives museum, housed in one of the grandest mansions of all.