Musée des Années 30 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France

This wonderful museum in Boulogne-Billancourt (west of Paris, but accessible by Metro) is devoted to the art and atmosphere of the 1930s, bringing together furniture, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, posters, and decorative objects from the interwar period. What makes it especially compelling is that it does not treat Art Deco as a purely glamorous style. The museum also reflects the world that produced it: a France fascinated by speed, industry, cinema, architecture, empire, and modern life. Boulogne-Billancourt itself was one of the places where that modernity was taking shape, through fac...