Orangerie.
This mueseum is on the opposite side of the tuileries(Gardens) in front of the Louvre. We actually weren't planning on going here at all, except that as we were leaving in the morning, with the Louvre as our first stop in the city of lights, I said to Sarah. "Hey how about we try to buy our museum pass somewhere else before we go to the Louvre, I bet there is going to be a massive line up." And that's how we ended up at the Orangerie. There was no line up!
We spent very little time in this museuem, this is an art museum with the main feature being Claude Monet's Waterlilies. With our Rick Steve's book in hand we hit the big sutff, like the lilies and some Cezanne. The fun part of Waterlilies is that they were actually painted for the Orangerie, so they weren't taken from some other place and plopped into the museum, but were actually painted on the huge canvases with this place in mind. But honestly, it's pretty underwhelming. I think it might be because I don't really "get" impressionism, or maybe it's because the guy was going blind, but the lilies, didn't really resemble lilies all that much. I am still happy that I was able to go and see the waterlillies though, lilies in general being my favourite flower, and we also discovered that we didn't really want to pay too much attention to the Rick Steves book, so that was a good learning experience, because I think we would of died actually trying to find stuff at the Louvre....
Louvre.
Outside the Louvre
The wannabe historian I am, I wanted to see the history of the Louvre, a section of the museum that probably gets ignored quite a bunch. I thought it was pretty cool, but definitely could have been done WAY better. A section like this, that relies mostly about the story it is telling rather then the artifacts themselves, needs to have way more interaction, display boards, and all in all, design. The section had old pieces of columns and architecture from previous incarnations of the building, and also cool diaromas that showed the Louvre through the centuries and how it transformed into how it looks today (completed in 1989).
After that section, I wanted to head over to the French art and paintings, however, somehow we got sidetracked to Greek statues. They were pretty sick too. But mostly, we just saw people, people and more people (it is the most visited art museum in the world). So, then we decided that actually looking (and fighting through crowds) for something that I had arbitrarily picked only 20 minutes earlier was pretty silly. We decided to wander throught the Louvre like water, chosing the path of least resistance, because seriously, everything in that place was pretty darn cool, and there was absolutely no way we could see it all. I really enjoyed the architecture and the decoration of the building itself. It was a royal palace and all.
Lotsa people :)
However, before we left, I did decide to be a tourist, and said that I should probably see Leonardo's Mona Lisa. That was like swimming upstream and drowning in people. Oh well, you only need to do it once and you've done it. Now I can sound all sophisticated, " I really think nothing compares Leonardo's skill in creating the Mona Lisa, have you seen it in person? Oh I have, it's absolutely divine" But actually that is the silliest way to sound sophisticated, because people that have seen the Mona Lisa aren't exactly an exclusive club.
But case you do want the experience of seeing the Mona Lisa:
And now you have basically seen it, through bullet proof glass.
And then we were all museumed out for the day?
NOPE we went to the:
Conciergerie
I am not really sure if this is classified as a museum, but it isn't a church, definitely not food, and I really feel like landmark would be pushing it. It also did have handy dandy information pamphlets and info plaques around, so museum works.
Inside the conciergerie
The Conciergerie is, from what I gathered, an old "jail" building (although on my museum pass it lists it as a former palace.. which I don't think I gathered from my visit). It's actually where Marie Antoinette was held before she was killed for treason. When I say jail, I don't mean prison, I think it is more where people are held, not where they serve their sentence. So drunks and the like (and the queen). The concierge is the guy who's in charge of it all, keeps the keys, makes sure everyone is fed, etc etc.
Beside the Conciergerie is the Palace de Justice, which is like, an actual building still in use.
Courtyard at the conciergerie
And the:
CRYPTS
This was another museum that people just walk by, or over. Located underneath the square at Notre-Dame it showcases the old remnants of buildings that used to be at the same place. We went in to get the most out of our museum pass, not something that was on our top list. But I was also excited for Sarah to go to new places that she had never been before either. It was similar to the History of the Louvre in terms of "this could be so cool, but in Paris they just put objects in a room write up an info card and call it a museum."
So that was the end of our day one Museum adventure! On to day two!
Chateau Versailles.
Line up outside of the chateau
Definitely one of my favourite things that I saw in Paris, and it isn't even really in Paris! I can see why King Louis the whatever decided to pick-up his court and move it out there, it's awesome, I say.
Originally I wasn't sure if I was going to go here, it's pretty out of the way (40 minute train from Sarah's place) but I am so happy I did. I just want to gush about how beautiful it was, and how big! So many rooms and we didn't even see Marie Antoinette's Palaces/Estate, that is a 30 minute walk through the gardens.
So this one we actually did need to wait in a big line to get in, but it was nice that we didn't need to wait in the other huge line to buy tickets. There was (no surprise) a vast amount of people, and when I say vast, I mean there were tons and they were everywhere, spread all along the horizon. So, taking into consideration the traffic the place gets, I suppose they actually did a lot right in making my experience not suck and a re-creation of the room with the Mona Lisa in it.
A very decorated room in chateau Versailles
Basically, when you go in, you can pick up a free Audio Guide. From that point on, you can go on the main tour through the different rooms. The Audio guide will either automatically start playing when you walk into the room, or you will need to input the number. But throughout the tour, you really don't get a lot of choice or chance to wander, it's pretty linear from one room to the next. We started in a series of rooms that had video and audio with a history of Versailles and then continued through the different rooms, with the audio guide telling us what the paints/decoration were and also the function and any history of the room. One of the coolest rooms was the hall of mirrors, which has 11 or 13 (I can't remember) windows with the same number of mirrors facing them, so it is nice and bright and pretty. And the room is decorated like crazy, just like every other inch of the place. A fun fact is that the mirrors were made in France (along with pretty much everything else in there) except at the time Italy had a monopoly on mirror making, so they sent someone to assassinate the Italian artisan who had made the mirrors in France, to protect the trade secret in their production methods.
Hall of Mirrors
The chateau also features a whole bunch of modern art. I could take it or leave it personally, it doesn't exactly fit with the 18th century decor, but I suppose some people really dig it, plus apparently there have been some really controversial stuff featured there (and people love controversy).
We had planned on seeing the Gardens and also Marie Antionette's Estate, but since it was the weekend there were musical water shows going on in the Gardens and our museum pass didn't cover that. We debated seeing the gardens anyways, but we were tired and decided, instead, to boogey back to Paris and try and see another museum before they all closed. So I snapped some pictures from outside the entrance and we hurried back to Paris and the......
Musee D'Orsay
This museum is housed in an old train station and probably the best atmosphere. We discussed it, and the reason is probably that photographs aren't permitted. It was still busy enough, but just way.. calmer. This was my favourite art museum (ever, not just in Paris), I got to see a whole bunch of pieces and artists that I learnt about in Art History classes, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Delacroix, Degas the list really goes on and on. The French really did do art right. Sarah was pleased with the pre-impressionist Monet and I personally really like Manet, so we were pleased all around! Another thing I really liked is that this place wasn't huge, we pretty much saw all the French art, skipping over the arts decoratif (Vases, pretty much). If you took any art classes in school, this museum is a must, it probably holds like half of the paintings you'll study (the other half will be in the MoMA in NYC)
Musee D'Armee
Outside the Invalides where the Musee D'armee is situated
Fabulous Museum. Huge museum, but just so cool! It is housed in the Invalides and outlines the French war history. I dished out 4 Euroes for the audio-guide and it was worth it. It was actually an Ipod, so it was an app that had different categories and a map integrated all into one. Good intent, semi poor execution, I pretty much ended up using it like a normal audio guide (punch in the numbers) even though I felt like there was more that it could do, I just wasn't sure how. But really audio-guides like that are a step in the right direction. Plus I am always frustrated with museums and exhibitions that have additional content on the web via QR codes or the like, because I don't have a smart phone and I feel like I miss out. So having an audioguide like this is definitely better.
U.S recruitment poster, Golden dome of the Invalides.
We started out in the World Wars section, and Sarah left to get burn cream, so I wandered through there for a while, learnt a whole bunch about WWI, grazed through WWII because we learned a lot about it in school. The part I was really excited about was the french revolution, so the next section I saw was Louis VII - Napoleon III. However the downfall to this museum is that the signage was horrible, I walked around far too much before actually finding my way into the exhibit. Once inside I found out that France has been at war with pretty much everyone, it has ruled and sucked at times, and sadly when I left the exhibit, (when Sarah re-joined me and we were hungry), the French were kinda failing hardcore with the downfall of Napoleon, so that will be how I will, forever, imagine the French militia.
I think I enjoyed the history aspect of the museum, because most of the artifacts and such were uniforms, weapons or similar. They did have a map explaining the situation, which was cool though!
Pompidou
Another SUPER COOL museum. The atmosphere was less museum, which was cool, as it actually is an art centre, rather then just a museum. The building itself was unique looking, with the stairs on the outside in a tube. My feet were tired, and one of the only reasons I went there was to use the bathroom, so for the first while I spent time in the media center, where they had a bunch of computers where you could watch those art videos that no one ever understands and are normally in black and white or at least are made to look at least 20 years old. I watched a 20 minute video of a french couple talking and two scenes were juxtaposed together between them being happy and their relationship malfunctioning. Didn't understand, but my feet were less sore by then, so I saw the rest of the museum. And the rest of the museum was really cool, less like the other, older museums in Paris, and more like a modern art Gallery. I took my time and stayed until closing (9 o'clock!!). I do wish I had taken time to check out the rest of the centre though, because they have a library there too, and a second gallery (that I think has more work by people, you know... alive.) Definitely a place to check out after the rest of museums in the city are closed if you have the energy to have a really full day.
Outside of the Pomideau
Hallway to the entrance
I like Olympia in Black face, by Larry Rivers.
(I saw the original Olympia at Musee D'orsay)
And so concluded my Museums in Paris, I hope that I didn't forget to mention any, but if I did I am sure it's because it wasn't that amazing. I almost forgot to mention the Crypts, which was not the amazing, but now you know. Next up will be Churches!!
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