Today we visited the Musée D’Orsay! The collection at this museum focuses on impressionist art, containing many pieces from Rodin, Monet, Manet, Rembrandt, Gauguin and Van Gogh.

The timeline for the works in this museum sit as the missing link between the earlier pieces at the Louvre and the later, modern art at the Pompidou. If you were trying to teach art history to an alien, and first showed them the Louvre, then showed them the Pompidou, they would have many questions.

The building itself is a former train station. Compared to the palatial hallways of the Louvre, the Musée D’Orsay is bright and airy. It’s much smaller, as well. The risk of getting lost here is non-existent, and it’s entirely possible to see everything in a day. There are a handful of galleries arranged linearly on different floors, surrounding an open air sculpture exhibit.

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We didn’t take a lot of photos (Jessie’s phone had died, and I must have been off my game), but just to mention a few stand outs:

• Their sculptures, especially those by Rodin. I really enjoyed the use of textures, motion, and negative space.
• The Van Gogh exhibit: There were so many iconic pieces stuffed into one room, including an earlier version of Starry Night
• The Gauguin exhibit: I didn’t know much about him, but it was fascinating to see his transformation from impressionism to his work in Tahiti and how that made way for cubism.
• The Art Nouveau furnishings / decorations exhibit had some cool chairs.

After the museum, we walked back, had a nap, then went out for dinner at the neighborhood brasserie, Le Roussillon. This was the first place we went to that could make an Old Fashioned!

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