Paris: Art

Paris is renowned for it's many art museum and fabulous art collections. It would be hard to imagine a trip to Paris without at least a few stops in some of these world famous museums.

First on our list was the Musee D'Orsay which was originally a train station built for the 1900 World's Fair. Now, it is a beautiful museum, showcasing an impressive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces. It was really inspiring to see, up close, some works that we've only ever heard of or seen in books. Really beautiful.

Musee D'Orsay, from the river

Inside the museum

From there, we headed to the Musee de L'Orangerie on the suggestion of a friend who told us this was the museum with the Monets. Since we'd seen so many Monet's at the Musee D'Orsay, we weren't sure what to expect and were absolutely stunned to walk into the two main galleries to see 8 massive water lily murals. Honestly, I never knew these existed, and we were so taken with them. Apparently Monet painted these 8 pieces over the course of 12 years and gifted them to the city of Paris so that his fellow countrymen would be able to escape the desperation left behind from the first world war and find solace and peace amidst these beautiful and serene paintings.

Water Lillies Mural

Up close with the Water Lillies

On Bastille Day, we took advantage of the free admission and made our way to the Louvre, one of the world's most famous and largest (over 650,000 square feet) art museums. The museum was actually a palace built during the Renaissance (and added to by many of the later monarchs) or a site dating back to the middle ages The museum, which opened in 1793, apparently only displays 10% of their collection at one time and we've heard that it could take anywhere from several months to a year (depending on how long you look at each piece) to see every item in the Louvre. We spent about 7 hours there and barely scratched the surface. Although, we actually both liked the other museums a bit better (both in terms of collections and manageability) it was stunning to see some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures: Venus de Milo, Psyche and Cupid, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, the Wedding Feast of Cana, the Coronation of Napolean, Botticelli's frescoes, and the simply massive collection of Jean Paul Reubens.

The Louvre

Even the interior of the building is breathtaking

Botticelli

The Winged Victory

Psyche and Cupid

Napolean III's apartments, within the Louvre

Our trip to the Louvre was extra special because we got to spend the morning with some Edinburgh friends and randomly met a lovely Swedish girl in the afternoon who walked around the collections with me (while Joe took a break) and visited with us in the gardens afterwards. A fun and unexpected friendship!

Anyone who knows me knows I don't have a well developed appreciation for modern art. There is just something so meaningful and timeless about these classic masterpieces, not to mention the tremendous skill and the stories behind them, that captivates me in a way more modern art typically does not. No doubt we missed some amazing things, especially in the Louvre (and we missed the Musee Rodin entirely--we were just so exhausted by the end), but we truly loved every minute we spent in these iconic museums!

**special note: it is permitted to take non-flash photographs in the Louvre and the Musee de L'Orangerie. I was surprised, and didn't take many, but the pictures I posted were taken within the limits of the posted rules!