A Night at the Museum

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Friday is museum day! I am excited to see both the d'Orsay and Louvre. Our afternoon is free so Mom and I need to figure out what we're going to do. We only have this afternoon and Saturday left. There's so much more to do! I'm not sure how someone can say you only need a few days in Paris. Weeks! You need weeks and then there would still be more places to see, bistros to eat in and macarons to eat!

Cooler weather has come to Paris. It finally feels like autumn. As we wait to get into the Musée d'Orsay, the wind has quite a chill. We huddle in the sunshine trying to get warm.

Once inside, the cavernous central room feels more like an intimate gallery. The building used to be a train station built for the 1900 World's Fair. Closed for many years, someone had the brillant idea to turn it into an art museum.

Michael has us spoiled. I love to listen and look while he gives me the background and details. It's the perfect way to go through a museum. We zig zag from room to room. "Establishment" artists vs. renegades. Monet, Manet, Cassat, Renoir, Sisley, Bazille, Degas, Pissarro, Cezanne, Van Gogh and others. The list is extraordinary! The works are magnificent. Honestly, I am running out of words to describe Paris.

We end our few hours in Musée d'Orsay with lunch in the most beautiful salon. It was always a restaurant. In the former railway station, it was the restaurant for the Hôtel d'Orsay. The walls and ceilings are gorgeously painted and gilded. The chandeliers sparkle and shine. Ugh! It seems a shame that we only eat here. There should be musicians and dancing!

Upon leaving, the afternoon is ours! Mom and I decide to walk through Le Jardin de Tuileries, which is just across the Seine. We take the pedestrian bridge across and enter through golden spiked wrought iron gates. Gorgeous gardens on a beautiful, sunny fall day. It is crowded with people strolling about, lounging in the chairs or enjoying the 4 cafés. There are flowers and artwork to see and the impressive buildings of the Louvre loom at one end.

When we make the complete square, we set off to find St. James tower. Our luck with buses when it's only us continues to be awful so we walk the mile and a half or so down the street.

A little background....when Mom retired in 2009, she and Catherine (Sara's best friend) went to Spain and walked the Camino de Santiago from St Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago, Spain to the cathredral where St. James in buried. A pilgrimmage. 500 miles. 34 days.

Well, when pilgrims walking to Santiago begin their journey in Paris, this tower is where they would meet! For a former pilgrim, this was special. Good memories of a beautiful beginning to retired life! (She'd do it again in a heartbeat)

We found the tower but were disappointed that the gates were locked so we had to look at it from behind a fence. We did get some decent pictures and will do a little more research as we have discovered we'll be in another starting point later in our trip!

We took a bus back toward our hotel. We have just enough time to take a small break, charge up our cameras (phones) and clean up before we meet in the lobby. Tonight we're going to the Louvre!

I'm excited to see the Louvre but, honestly, we have been going nonstop and I'm even happier knowing that we only have a few hours til closing and we'll just hit the highlights.

The Venus di Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, the French crown jewels and the Mona Lisa were my favorite pieces of art but the building itself is stunning without the artwork. Painted ceilings and gilded everything. I could walk through the museum and never look at anything except the ceilings!

As we walk back outside, we say our goodbyes to Michael. It's been an amazing week and I'm sad that this portion of our trip is fast coming to an end. If I had planned my own trip, I would never have learned even in my research to see 1/2 the things Michael showed us. The wandering is what made Paris come to life! À bientôt, Michael! xoxo

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