Paris: The Musee d'Orsay

Sorry Mrs. Collins, I didn't go to the Louvre. It was too expensive, and I didn't want to go see art that I didn't know. So Mady and I chose this instead:

The Musée d'Orsay is in the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, and right across from the Tuileries Gardens (which I also visited.) It was originally built as a railway station and hotel. The building was also used as a mailing centre for sending packages to prisoners of war during World War II, and prisoners were welcomed there on their return home after the Liberation. It was used as a set for several films, but now displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. The official decision to build the Musée d'Orsay was made in 1977; the building was classified a Historical Monument in 1978 and a civil commission was created to oversee the construction and organisation of the museum. The new museum was inaugurated on December 1st, 1986, and it opened to the public on December 9th.

The building is actually a work of art in itself. It's absolutely massive, at 617 feet long and 246 feet wide.

That's me, posing awkwardly in front of a sculpture of a naked man. 

As much as I love statues of naked people, that wasn't the best part. The Musée d'Orsay has a great collection of impressionist works, including several by Van Gogh, who is probably my favorite. But I only like his swirly ones.

One of his famous self-portraits. The swirly kind. 

Van Gogh's bedroom... I don't know why. 

I really loved this one also.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, "Julie Manet dit aussi L'Enfant au chat"

I said the sculptures of naked people weren't my thing, but they did have sculptures I did like, and of people with clothes on.

I liked this one, because the Alligator is all like "Rawwwwwww"
 and the woman's frantically trying to hold on to her babies, and I just
like the story that it seems to tell. Also, that little stick is not gonna
stop that gator... or is it a crocodile? 

A polar bear.. because why not? 

And this regal Mufasa.

It was amazing to see some of the artworks I had studied and learned about, by artists that were amazing at what they did. We spent almost two and a half hours in the Museum, if that gives any indication of how much we loved it, and how much there was to see. Two hours and we probably didn't even see half of the museum.