Art in Paris, the Collector's Way: Galleries, Auctions, Studios

Everyone knows the museums of Paris. What we prefer is the city's second artistic life: the one of galleries, auction houses, and studios — where you walk in freely, where you talk, and where you can walk out with a work under your arm. Much of it plays out at your doorstep.

The Marais holds the highest concentration of contemporary art galleries in Europe: more than a hundred between the rue de Turenne, the rue Debelleyme, and the rue Vieille-du-Temple, from international houses to discoverers of young artists. Entry is always free: push open the door — no one will ask anything of you. The ritual we recommend: the Saturday-afternoon rounds — five galleries, a coffee, two galleries. And on Thursday evenings, the openings, open to all: the finest school for the eye that exists, glass in hand.

For the grand theater, the Hôtel Drouot: fifteen auction rooms, public viewings the day before each sale, and that singular mingling of dealers, curators, and the merely curious. You can touch almost everything, and bid on a nineteenth-century drawing as readily as on a 1950s armchair. Our favorite rainy-day sport. The great houses — Sotheby's, Christie's — exhibit on the avenue Matignon before their sales: museum-grade hangings, zero lines.

And to bring Paris home with you: the studios of the Village Saint-Paul, the print publishers of the Marais. An original engraving or a studio ceramic for between 100 and 500 euros, plus the story of meeting the person who made it: worth every museum souvenir ever sold.

Our advice: begin with no intention of buying — three Saturdays of galleries train the eye better than any book. Then, if a work stops you twice, ask questions. Parisian gallerists, contrary to their reputation, love to tell stories. Our favorite galleries of the moment are in the guide at the apartment.