I've bought some things in that museum shop in the Marais. There's another one in the underground shopping area of the Louvre. I bought a really beautiful set of wine glasses that were a reproduction of ones that George Sand had. They didn't have cheap stuff in there, as I recall, a lot of it was glassware or artwork. They weren't really what I'd call local quirky souvenirs at all, but nice gifts.

The one in the Marais is at 29, rue des Francs Bourgeois, a few blocks west of place des Vosges.

They don't seem to have a website, I've looked, but I found this URL that mentions them and even has a photo of the shop and some of their items, so it gives you an idea

http://chicstyle.canalblog.com/archi.../26/index.html

bookmark--great info

Thank you Christina, I'll sleep tonight. I knew I could walk someone there but the name and location escaped me.

The place below sort of combines quirky museum with
shopping. It's called Deyrolle and it's certainly the quirkiest place I ever visited in Paris. It's part garden and map shop and taxidermy museum in a beautiful Parisian apartment...really. You have to look at the attached pictures to get a true understnading of its oddity. Near Musee D'Orsay.
http://www.pbase.com/al309/paris1

For gifts from Paris, I love the Fragonard shop on Blvd St Germain. A wonderful array of unique items and well-priced.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

In the movie Ratatouille is a shop with dead rats hanging in the windows. I read that there is a real shop that was copied from and it is in the Marais. Anyone know of it? That's QUIRKY.

So many good ideas here. Like you I enjoyed the Sir John Soane's Museum in London and while not the same thing, I agree with others that you should see the Musee Jacquemart Andre and the Musee Nissim de Camondo.

And yes, you can't get much quirkier than the catacombs and the sewers.

There is a shop near rue de Rivoli with dead rats in the window. You can see a small picture on the otherwise non operating website: http://www.aurouze.fr/

Oh wait, there are some good pictures on the beginning of the Flash animation you get by clicking on the left side.

bookmarking

Jack:

could you be more specific where the dead rats shop is - this is something i'd like to ferret out!

merci

It is at 8 rue des Halles, right between Châtelet and the Forum.

Oh, right along the rodent between those two points then?

You guys crack me up!!

The impressive former "Musée des Monuments Français" reopens soon (19 September), after years of renovation and reorganization in the Palais de Chaillot. It has architectural models and recreations of all sorts of items from the past ten centuries. The new name is the "Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine."

www.citechaillot.fr/

Just south of Pigalle is le Musee de la Vie Romantique. [From Bd de Clichy go south on Rue Fromentin to Rue Fontaine to rue Chaptal] At the end of a cobbled lane, this museum is where writer George Sand once lived and which is filled today with her belongings. The most interesting aspect is the lovely, leafy courtyard with rose and wisteria. There is a salon de the on the terrace.

The building is classical but the art collection is certainly "quirky" and it's in a beautiful neighborhood.

Le Palais de Tokyo, Ave. Pres. Wilson

ttt

bookmarking, thanks