Paris 2017: museums

by | Nov 16, 2017 | International Travel, Travel

Musée d’Orsay

Wow. Just – wow. The Orsay covers mid-19th century to early 20th century, and simply has so many masterpieces. We visited on Thursday evening when they are open late until 9:45p, and thoroughly enjoyed the 2.5h hours we spent wandering the halls here. The upper floor filled with Monets, Van Goghs, Degas and so many others was awesome. Some highlights:

Musée d'Orsay

"In a Cafe" by Degas  "The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise, View from the Chevet" by Van Gogh

"La Lecture" by Manet

Van Gogh @ Musée d'Orsay

Musée d'Orsay exterior

Musée de l’Orangerie

We bought the combined Orsay / Orangerie ticket, but we didn’t visit the Orangerie until our last day. A much smaller space, the ground floor consists of two large oval rooms filled with massive Monet waterlily paintings as part of his Nymphéas series.

Monet water lilies @ Musée de l'Orangerie

Monet water lilies @ Musée de l'Orangerie  Monet water lilies @ Musée de l'Orangerie

Downstairs is the Guillaume collection, with a number of interesting pieces from Modigliani, Picasso, and Matisse and others.

Cezanne @ Musée de l'Orangerie

Musée de l'Orangerie  Renoir @ Musée de l'Orangerie

Monet @ Musée de l'Orangerie

Musée du Louvre

The Louvre is seriously enormous. We arrived a few minutes after 9am (when they open) and were through security and the ticket desk within 15 minutes… we left at 2:30pm, and still had plenty of rooms we hadn’t yet seen. Thankfully, we were able to see all the sections that we were most interested in, as well as a few pleasant surprises. Some of the highlights:

upside down pyramid

Mona Lisa  portrait of fruit by Arcimboldo

Louvre

Venus di Milo  Three Graces @ Louvre

Lamassus (713 BC), Mesopotamia

Law Code of Hammurabi  Louvre sculpture

Tagged with: France | museums | Paris | Paris 2017

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