The bees are buzzing and the trees are blooming once again. It’s a wonderful time to be in France. There are many things to do in spring in Paris, a day at the museum being one of them.
One thing you need to understand about Paris museums is they are huge! A day at the museum in Paris normally means a day at one museum. Make no mistake: even in low season, the average queue in front of the Louvre or the Orsay is hundreds of people long. So it basically takes at least a couple of hours of dutifully staying in line to get to the security checkpoint and then inside the museum.
But what I can tell you is that, once inside, all the wait will have been worth it, because the Louvre and the Orsay are spectacular!
Today’s talk is all for arts lovers, because I thought I’d tell you a story about the Musee d’Orsay, the greatest arts gallery in the city and one of the most important cultural centers in the world.
Musee d’Orsay is hosted inside an old railway station, beautifully restored into an outstanding museum. The railway station was built between 1898 and 1900, but the museum was inaugurated in 1986.
The museum hosts some of the most important pieces of art (mainly paintings, but also sculptures, photography and furniture) from the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the artists who are represented here, we simply must count Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Sisley, Seurat, Paul Gauguin and the impressive collection of Vincent van Gogh (including his famous 1889 self-portrait). The painter’s portrait is like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, a point of interest that is always crowded and photographed. (By the way, you are welcome to shoot pictures, so long as you’re not using the flash).
The Musee d’Orsay lies on the left bank of the river Seine, but if you have any doubts, you can ask Paris taxi transfers to take you straight to your destination.
