Mzny museums are closed on Tuesdays in Paris but not the Musee d'Orsay which makes it very popular and an early arrival almost mandatory. Left the apartment in what I thought was plenty of time only to find myself unexpectedly delayed. The trip to get there involved taking two Metro lines and a train -- the Metro lines went smoothly but then I got to the train station for the last leg only to find the entry machines were different from the Metro machines and couldn't figure out how to get them to accept my pass -- ended-up having to find a station agent and ask for help -- the solution was pretty simple but it was a delay.
In Paris, for some reason, they have two overlapping transit systems -- the Metro (basically subways) and the RER (a partially underground train) -- some times they go to the same stations, sometimes they don't. You can use the same monthly pass but you need to fully leave one system and separately enter the other. The Metro cars look like subway cars although there are are least 3-4+ different versions depending up which line you're riding on -- some are brightly lit, brand new with signs flashing the name of each stop as you arrive -- others are dark, much older and you kind of guess what station you're at if you miss the signs in the station itself, plus the air conditioning is limited to opening the small windows at the top of the cars to let some outside air in (1960's NYC quaint!)
The trains on the other hand look like trains -- upper and lower levels, big, loud and dark -- if the ambiance lighting on the platforms should fail -- good luck in the pitch black! They also have attendants in bright yellow vests watching the trains come and go and occasionlly answering traveler's questions (if you speak French). The Metro cars can be crowded, riding the trains today was somewhat of a solitary experience which was unexpected -- on the busy lines, the Metro cars come every four to five minutes -- the trains run every twenty to forty minutes. All in all -- different.
Anyway, between the ticket problem and trying to figure ouit the trains, I arrived at the museum a little later than planned and found hundreds of people trying to figure out which entry line to stand in. Fortunately, I already had a ticket and headed for the "short" line -- fifteen to twenty minute wait, not bad.
The Orsay is a converted train station built around 1900 in the "grand style" when traveling by train was a major event -- spacious, ornate decorations, windows everywhere and they retained that atmosphere when changing it over to a museum -- an absolutely gorgeous building! Inside, on the ground floor, they have divided the space into a center nave where they have scads of statues (many huge) displayed -- and two long, parallel (to the nave) exhibit halls which are divided into specialized galleries. The second and fifth floors also have the parallel halls with galleries leaving the center open to the ceiling creating a very spacious feel to the place. On one end is a huge gilded interior clock overlooking the open space -- there is also another huge clock on one of the side walls that you can stand behind and look out over the rooftops of Paris.
This was my favorite museum by far (the Louvre was second) -- and I hadn't even planned on going here! It holds a huge collection of paintings, sculptures, bronzes, and craftwork from the early 1800's to just before the start of World War I (Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Art-Nouveau movements). It features works from Monet, Pissaro, Degas, Courbet, Rodin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Galle, Ingres, Denis, Manet, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix and a bunch of others, who I'd never heard of, but whose art is wonderful! For some reason, I immensely enjoyed the paintings of some artists today whose work yesterday was not to my liking at all.
Today was also an education for me, seeing before my eyes, the transition from the classic art forms (mythologic and real figures/scenes with tremendous attention to detail in the paintings) to the early impressionists who backed-off somewhat on focusing on details and tried to instill movement and emotion into the paintings to the post-impressionists who totally "bagged" detail and went for the emotion in a sometimes very "in-your-face" abstract fashion.
I was there for five and a half hours constantly walking and looking -- swore my legs were going to drop-off any minute but it was worth it! Van Gogh's "Starry Night..." and self portrait were every bit as impressive as you'd imagine. One of my favorite galleries was devoted to charicatures(?) of politicians, the church, military figures, etc... from the 1800's -- funny and really nasty, "biting" illustrations and comments.
My only "ding" on the place is the hot chocolate -- they take their hot chocolate very seriously here in Paris -- whoever is in charge of the cafe is lucky they retired the guillotine a while back!
An interesting and educational day!
