Paris Day 2 -- Louvre / Musee d’Orsay

Following a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, we again traveled by subway into the city center to visit the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay. We walked through Tuileries Garden in heading toward the museum’s central plaza crowned, as it is, with a futuristic glass plated pyramid. Once inside, we headed straight past the Venus de Milo toward the Italian Renaissance paintings, saw the Giottos and then the Mona Lisa and Veronese’s massive Feast at Cana. We then took in the Carravagio’s and some of Goya’s drawings, then headed into the Grand hall of large scale 19th century French paintings—Delacroix, Delaroche, and, of course, Gericault’s masterpiece Raft of the Medusa. It was all breathtaking. We then stood in a square gallery I thought had been the site of Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre, but alas, I was mistaken. We marched through the great hall of David’s Oath of the Horatii and Rape of the Sabine Women before quickly breezing (unfortunately) through the Dutch galleries and the 18th century French paintings of Watteau, Fragonard, Chardin, et al. Chardin’s monkey paintings always get me!

We left the Louvre and headed across the river to the Musee d’Orsay. But first, we took a detour to the Boulevard St. Germain, where we lunched on salads and monsieur croques (open faced grilled cheese sandwiches) and $12 glasses of Kronenbourg beer at the café known as Deux Magots. All was delicious and the weather was delightful. Sated, we entered the museum, a converted train station, that houses the Louvre’s collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century paintings and sculpture. Though the large Courbet paintings were not on view, Manet’s Dejuener sur la Herbe more than satisfied. Also enjoyed seeing paintings by Fantin-Latour (Homage to Delacroix), Bonnard, and…oh I can’t think of what else…

From there we walked along the Seine, on the river front, and through a tree lined park, toward the Royal Palais and the Champs Elysses and caught a quick glimpse of the Arc d’Triomphe. It was all glorious, and despite the trouble I had getting into the Metro (the gate messed up as I was entering and essentially took my ticket without allowing me to enter), we made it back to the hotel in plenty of time to shower, pack, and dine on some local Turkish cuisine before getting back into the van for an overnight jaunt to Bilbao.

(something I learned during the trip was that it was possible to include more than five pics per post)