The iron gate at 5 bis rue de Verneuil once concealed Serge Gainsbourg’s Paris pied-à-terre. The rooms within had dark felt walls and held bizarre relics: a golden mermaid bench, for example, and stuffed monkeys. His life’s clutter was all around—clothes, shoes, endless books about artists (Van Eyck, Bosch, Turner), and books written by kindred spirits (Poe, Baudelaire). Since his death, in 1991, Gainsbourg’s daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, who spent her childhood there until she was nine, has kept everything virtually untouched. “It was almost an obsession, to preserve and maintain everything as it was,” she told the Financial Times. “Today, as I look at his house, frozen in time, I feel he’s still there.” In September, as part of the Maison Gainsbourg project, Charlotte opened the house to the public (Anthony Vacarello and the house of Yves Saint Laurent are official partners). Also unveiled—on the same street, at number 14—the Musée Gainsbourg. This more formal institution, home to objects, manuscripts, records, and 450 photographs, puts the musician’s creative process center stage. —Elena Clavarino