France · Île-de-France · Paris
Le Marais, Paris — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Le Marais is a historic district of Paris, spread over parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements on the Right Bank of the Seine.
About Le Marais
Where to stay in Le Marais
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Le Marais holds so many museums that the choice of street matters less than the choice of collection, since the Musée Carnavalet, the Musée Picasso and the Maison de Victor Hugo all sit inside the same few blocks. Distances stay short. The 3rd and 4th arrondissements meet inside it, with the Seine along the Right Bank edge.
Art galleries and restaurants fill the streets between them.
About Le Marais
What are the main landmarks in Le Marais?
Museums dominate. The Musée Carnavalet, the Musée Picasso, the Musée Cognacq-Jay, the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Maison de Victor Hugo all carry Le Marais addresses, as do the Museum of National Archives and the Musée de la Serrure. Churches hold the older frontages: the church Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis of Paris, Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux and the Église Sainte-Élisabeth-de-Hongrie.
Photography has two houses, the Maison européenne de la photographie and the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation.
What is the history of Le Marais?
Aristocrats built it first. Le Marais lost its standing as a fashionable district in the late 18th century, when only minor nobles kept houses there, and the French Revolution left it to fall into disrepair as the nobility abandoned it. Decay ran on for a long period.
The buildings came through it, which is why the Musée Carnavalet, the Hôtel Hérouet and the Maison de Victor Hugo still stand across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. Art galleries and restaurants followed.
Where is Le Marais?
Le Marais lies on the Rive Droite of the Seine, its streets divided between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.
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Updated September 2026