Staircases as Art: The Fanciest Flights in Paris

Leave it to the French to turn such a thing of practicality into one of beauty. These six sets take stairs take to a whole new level of gorgeousness.

Musée Picasso

This is one of the most beautifully preserved Parisian staircases, and — with its lacy balustrade and floridly carved ceilings overhead  — one of the few remaining original features of this 1650s private mansion, built at a time when classic architecture was starting to straighten out a meandering medieval Paris, with its sloping beamed buildings and spiral stairs.

Musée Rodin

The lovely 18^th-century Hôtel Biron, recently renovated, is like something from a French home magazine; the ice-cream-like colour scheme of pistachio walls, toffee floors and cream ceilings will have you rethinking your renovation moodboard. And this heart-flutteringly lovely staircase is a study in that simple-chic the French do so well: a beige curve of stone, contrasting with monochrome floor tiles and black-and-gold rails.

Musée Nissim de Camondo

This sweep of stone, edged in a gilt-flecked wrought-iron banister, is at once graceful and monumental, and sets the tone for a visit to this museum, which — warning —is a bittersweetly beautiful affair. For one, it’s brimful with the exquisite 18^th-century treasures of Belle Époque bon vivant Moïse de Camondo, who commissioned the neo-classical townhouse to pass on to his beloved son Nissim, a pilot who was killed in aerial combat in World War I. That’s not the only reason for the sense of sadness that seems to linger in the air; Nissim’s sister Béatrice, along with her husband and two children, perished in Auschwitz. In that sense, the museum is a testament to the importance of never forgetting the darkness amid the glitter of the City of Light’s story.

Musée Jacquemart-André

Another Belle Époque townhouse, actually more like an urban chateau, the house of banking heir Edouard André and his society-portraitist wife Nélie Jacquemart was much more flamboyant and (for the time) modern than Moïse’s 18^th-century-inspired design. It similarly contains the old art and furniture of its aesthetically minded former owners, but their aesthetic style was much more eclectic. And showcasing their glitzy approach to life were the stairs: a pair of marble twirls that seem carved by magic, topped by a large Tiepolo fresco, no less, situated down by the delightful winter garden, it’s. So fabulous is the double-helix design that it’s impossible for a photograph to do the magnificence justice.

Musée Gustave Moreau

By the turn-of-the-twentieth century, staircases that swirled and twirled were back in fashion, in sync with the sinuous, leafy lines of art nouveau. The perfect example of a fin-de-siècle flight of stairs is the spiral that links the two upper gallery floors of this museum of, well, somewhat dark art. Almost all the gallery wall space heaves with heavy-framed paintings: otherworldly, macarbre visions in rather murky, dreary tones. Thank goodness for the glimpses of salmon-pink walls to infuse some brightness into the air, and this staircase to bring the fun factor, and make a visit worthwhile.

Petit Palais

This 1900 building was always designed as a museum, so the stairs are not a focal feature, yet they should be. The Petit Palais — officially the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris — is a gorgeous example of Beaux-Arts architectural style, with its exuberantly lofty ceilings and fairy-tale golden gates. The stairs were the only nod to modernity; it was the recently pioneered reinforced concrete that enable the seemingly gravity-defying swoop.