8/15: More of Paris's Treasures!

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A shot of Steven sitting on the Pont des Arts or Bridge of the Arts with the entrance to the Louvre Museum in the background:

Facing the opposite direction was the National Library.

Have you also seen photos of the I.M. Pei designed glass pyramid that is part of the Louvre and thought it was pretty large? Both Steven and I were very surprised when we were so close to it that it seemed far smaller than we anticipated. The museum is Europe's oldest, biggest, greatest, and second-most crowded museum after the Vatican. The immense size was why we'd decided to not visit it when planning the trip but, when we were so close, we decided why not since it wouldn't cost us a penny with the four-day Museum Pass we'd bought at the airport.

Part of Napoleon III's apartments while we we searched for the iconic Mona Lisa in what we later found out was in another wing of the palace cum museum.

Once we decided to head for the Mona Lisa, seeing signs like this helped us immensely as the museum was just overwhelming in size and the throngs of people everywhere we turned.

What a shame we had to take this detour!

We also made time to go through some galleries containing massive paintings done by Old Masters, always favorites of ours, but the crowds wanting to see some of the museum's 30,000 works of art were too daunting for me to appreciate fully the superb art.

Talk about crowds - this is what we faced when entering the room where Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa ,also known as La Joconde in France, was displayed!

It took me a long while, much patience and a few elbows in my back to get to the front of the line to take this photo that was hidden behind a large pane of glass and was still many feet in front of me! Steven said he preferred to see it from afar and waited at the back of the room for me.

This may look like the famous Arc d'Triomphe but it was 'just' the entrance to the Tuileries Gardens!

The Musee d'Orsay, which specializes in French art of the 1800s and early 1900s,wowed us right from the moment we entered and it wasn't the copy of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France to the US, that did it either.

The former train station, the Gare d'Orsay, was almost demolished in the 1970s when the French decided it would be the perfect locale to house the enormous collection of 19th century French art that was scattered through Paris.

Photos of some of the museum's most famous pieces follow. Representing conservative art was this work by Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres called The Source which depicted a Greek statue on canvas.

Alexandre Cabanel's Birth of Venus has been described as 'a perfect fantasy.'

When Toulouse-Lautrec visited the Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre section of Paris, he painted the crowds, the can-can dancers and the backstage action.

At the far end of the main gallery was the Opera Exhibit, a glass floor over a model of Paris with the 19th century Opera Garnier at the center. I always hate walking over glass panels like this, fearing the glass will give way under me but my curiosity won out!

This eye-catching piece was called The four parts of the world support the celestial sphere.

The travel writer Rick Steves described Manet's Olympia as a 'Realist's take on the traditional Venus.'

One of the largest and most compelling works for me was Gustave Courbet's The Painter's Studio which demonstrated the reality behind the creation of beautiful paintings.

Millet's The Gleaners captured the back-breaking work performed by the women hoping to pick up any leftovers in the field after harvest.

Who doesn't love Claude Monet's paintings of his garden at his home in Giverny, not far from Paris? If we had another day here, I would have loved to have gone there.

Paul Cezanne brought Impressionism into the 20th century with paintings like The Card Players.

Two of  Edgar Degas' famous paintings for you to drool over as we did!

We have been supremely fortunate to view some of the great art galleries or museums of the world but never did we recall seeing any painting split into two before as this one by Manet was. Both it and the second painting below, also by Manet, had similar themes of picnickers enjoying a meal on the grass. 

One of my favorites at the museum was Van Gogh's A Starry Night.

His final self-portrait showed Van Gogh at a very troubled period of his life.

Steven was obviously quite content to rest while I took more time exploring the outstanding museum that contained such a stunning collection of art! Ivy and Alan: I hope I didn't spoil your upcoming trip to the Orsay but rather made you feel even more excited about discovering all the works there for yourselves.

From the Orsay, we walked a few minutes to the Orangerie Museum in the Tuileries to treat ourselves to six of Monet's huge Water Lilies.

Once again, we were unaware that Monet painted on such a grand scale, especially when he was nearly blind and struggling with cataracts. I read that he built a special studio at his home in Giverny to accommodate the huge canvases.

The museum also had works by Modigliani.

I couldn't help but smile when viewing this painting by Andre Derain.

The Orangerie had Europe's largest collection of paintings by Chaim Soutine, a Russian painter that was new to us. 

From the sublime to the ridiculous: a photo of the most complicated toilet I have ever seen and used. Pretty crazy when you have to look at all the directions and options available!

All the options including a heated seat if you please!

The sink wasn't that much easier, either, with blue, white and red lights to provide water, soap and hot air respectively. Spare me from all this technology, please!

A view of yours truly with Paris' largest square, the Place de la Concorde, in the background:

Our next pit stop that day was the Eiffel Tower which was a long hike away from the Orangerie. No wonder lose weight on these overseas trips with all the walking we do and the few breaks we take to eat along the way! If only I could sustain these same habits when we get home, I'd love my low post-travel weight!

To get around Paris, it seemed like we were always crossing from the Left Bank to the Right Bank or vice versa. One of the beauties of that was admiring the decorations on many of the many bridges that connect the Seine.

Alexander: This one was for you, hon!

No trip to Paris in our minds would have been complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower up close. The structure that probably symbolizes Paris more than any other was built on the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution and was the centerpiece of the 1889 World Expo. The original plan was to dismantle the tower after the celebration ended but, luckily for all tourists from then on, it was kept by popular demand!  

One of the most fascinating sights was our visit to the golden dome of Les Invalides Church under which Napoleon's Tomb lay. 

In the center of the complex, Napoleon Bonaparte lay majestically dead in a coffin under the grand dome which glittered with 26 pounds of thinly pounded gold leaf.

The only sign of its being a former church was the immense and gorgeous altar.

Only once we walked down to the lower level did I notice the candles surrounding Napoleon's coffin.

In addition to the tomb, there were several buildings that comprised the Army Museum that contained an impressive array of medieval armor as well as many items dedicated to the two World Wars. The paintings from life in the trenches during WW I told of the horrible conditions those brave men faced.

Until we saw this poster that had been published in 1897, I hadn't known the French had been embroiled in a conflict with Madagascar, a country on our Wish List of places still to see if given the chance and continued good health. I must confess I was not at all disappointed when the guards told us the museum was closing and we needed to scoot out of there a while later, though! 

Next post: Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, the Pantheon and Rodin - lucky us!

Posted on August 17th, 2018, from Paris.