Romantic Tour in Paris - 19th century art in Nouvelle Athènes

We start our tour at the point where a lot of Romantic painters gathered together in the first half of the 19th Century: around Place Pigalle. We pass the location of bar Nouvelles Athènes, Cité Malesherbes and we walk through the quartier Nouvelles Athènes (quartier Breda), 200 years ago a brand new neighbourhood. Build in the years 1820-1830 this quartier was a new center for artists like Fréderic Chopin, George Sand, Délacroix, Gustave Moreau...

We will enter this small museum - a hôtel particulier - to have a look inside. "The museum of the Romantic life" was the private mansion of the original Dutch painter Ary Scheffer. It's now also dedicated to the life of writer Georges Sand. We spend some time in the house and the garden.

We pass the small square of Saint-George. The guide will talk about what's to be seen and about the cultural life of the Romantic period.

We visit the museum of Gustave Moreau. Moreau was a representative of symbolic art, late 19th century. The guide will give a small introduction in front of the main door and leave the guests inside. The guests can finish their tour here and explore the impressive atelier of Gustave Moreau in their own speed. Or they can also join the guide for some extra sightseeing afterwards.

In the last part of the tour we will pass the Trinité church and we end inside Galerie Lafayette. Les Grands Magasins (big department stores) came up in the period of Gustave Moreau and left the more rural atmosphere of the Romantics definitely behind. It's a clear sign that the modern city, as we know it now, has arrived.