Musée de Cluny

Six tapestries woven around 1500, known together as The Lady and the Unicorn, hang in a dimly lit room at the Musée de Cluny, France's national museum of the Middle Ages (Musée national du Moyen Âge on signs). They are the most famous pieces in a collection of medieval art that spans sculpture, stained glass, ivories, goldsmiths' work and textiles.

The setting is part of the appeal. The museum occupies the Hôtel de Cluny, a late fifteenth-century residence of the abbots of Cluny with a Flamboyant Gothic chapel. It stands beside the remains of Gallo-Roman baths, whose vaulted frigidarium still survives. Other highlights include the Pillar of the Boatmen, carved in the first century, and the heads of the kings of Judah from the facade of Notre-Dame, rediscovered in 1977.

The museum opened in 1843 after the state acquired the collection of Alexandre Du Sommerard. It draws about 360,000 visitors a year and suits anyone with an interest in medieval art and craftsmanship.