Petit Palais

This guide to the Petit Palais in Paris opens with Henri Matisse and a Cézanne he studied every morning for decades before giving it away to this museum in 1936. It traces how architect Charles Girault built the building for the 1900 World's Fair around a hidden garden and traces a collection that grew not through government purchases but through gifts from artists who loved what they owned. Listen for how the entrance opens onto that mosaic-floored courtyard you'd never guess was there.