Museums: Day 2

Sorry this is a little late in coming - but this is the 2nd half of my museum trip (from my first week here in Paris). The 3 for the day are the Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, and Musee l'Orangerie. Now... if you look at that list, you may see something kinda strange... the fact that I'm trying to do the two biggest museums in Paris in 1 day. So what ended up happening was that I spent the majority of the day in the Musee d'Orsay looking at the Impressionists and Realists, and about an hour in the Louvre looking at everything else. I mean... after a little while you stop feeling bad for walking quickly past the Da Vincis, Raphaels, and Titians.

But I did love Michaelangelo's "Slaves" and the apartments of Napoleon III (I've decided I'm going to have chandeliers like that in my house whenever I grow up).

The apartments were a welcome break from the miles of galleries and fantastic art. Basically, Napoleon III decided that he wanted to live in the Louvre after he declares himself emperor in 1852. So he created this mini-Versailles in the Louvre, and its really incredible (it's in the Richelieu wing in case you wanted to visit.)

So after my d'Orsay and Louvre whirlwind tour, I spent another hour in a lesser known Paris museum, but I think maybe one of my new favorites - the Musee l'Orangerie. This museum is in the Tuileries and its where Monet's water lilly series is located. And sure - that's great, but what I really loved was the more Post-Impressionism stuff downstairs. This one guy (Walter-Guillaume) donated his personal collection to the Orangerie, and its pretty incredible. I'm hoping to go back and spend some more time there. Its one of those... manageable museums. Not as overwhelming as the Louvre, but still with a lot of masterpieces (Picasso, Rousseau, Matisse, Soutine)... very cool stuff.

But here's a pic of the water lilys who stopped reading a while ago (each painting actually covers an entire wall... this is just one tiny section of it.)