Musee d'Orsay and Rodin

After a long day traveling to Normandy and back, we've started the art and culture part of the trip.  The Louvre is what most people want to see with the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo (which we will certainly see as well), but there are so many other great museums in Paris.  We purchased a Museum Pass which not only saves us a little money, it more importantly allows us to bypass the long lines waiting to purchase tickets and get in the entrance queue.

Interior of main hall of Musee d'Orsay

Today, we started a little later and our first stop was the Musee d'Orsay.  This museum is in a restored former railway station and the architecture of the building interior is spectacular.  The art focus is after the periods housed in the Louvre, specifically from 1848 to 1914.  This was the time of Impressionism and Neo-impressionism, so we saw the works of Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh to name a few.  We also saw Whistler's Mother, athough I know that's not the correct title.  Because the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, it was especially crowded.  Although our museum pass allowed us to go straight to entry, it still took an hour to get in.  However, my guess is that the line to buy tickets was at least three times as long as ours.  They did not let us take pictures inside at all and there were numerous signs reminding us not to; however, somehow my camera accidentally went off and I ended up with a nice picture of the interior.

The Thinker

The second half of our tour took us to the Rodin Museum.   We are both fans of his sculptures and the museum didn't disappoint.  It of course has the famous works he's known for such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, but it also has many more works of his from through out his life.  These are displayed both outside in exquisitely maintained gardens and inside the museum, which is actually the former Hotel Biron (not actually a hotel but a large manor house) built in the early 18th century.  The museum also included works of art personally owned by Rodin including paintings by Monet and Van Gogh.  I particularly enjoyed a painting of The Thinker by Edvard Munch, who most well known for his painting The Scream.

Painting of The Thinker by Edvard Munch