Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Day 316: Paris, Day 6--Musee d'Orsay

Originally, we had planned to go to the Musee d'Orsay today. However, we slept in a bit later than we thought we would, so we made a last-minute change of plans to go to the Musee National de l'Orangerie, which is in Les Jardin de Tulierries. So we took the Metro there (Line 1, as usual) again. The area around the garden is so photogenic: all sorts of monuments and palaces as well as a great view of La Tour Eiffel. It's all unbelievably beautiful. When we got to the Musee National de l'Orangerie, however, we discovered it was closed on Tuesdays; it was my fault that I didn't read that more carefully. So we talked about what to do. I still wanted to make use of our six-day Paris Museum Pass in some way. Therefore, we decided to go to the Musee d'Orsay after all. As we started our walk, we noticed two young bearish guys making out with each other in front of the museum. Ah, l'amour a Paris!!!! :)

It wasn't that far to walk to the Musee d'Orsay--about 10 minutes or so. First there was a security line to get into, but it wasn't that long, and our museum passes got us in. We got there around 4 pm or so, about two hours before closing. The Musee d'Orsay was once a railway station, but it's amazing on the inside, with a very pretty clock and all kinds of sculptures that adorn the outside of the building itself. It is contains one of the largest collections of Impressionist art in the world; it focuses on French art from 1848-1914. It's not as gigantic as Le Louvre, but it's pretty fulsome.

We began by deciding to start the Rick Steves walk for this museum. We saw the following:

Many French sculptures (done in Greek style)
Ingres, La Source (and others by Ingres, who fascinates me....)
Cabanel, La Naissance de Venus

For the sake of time, we then deviated from the Steves tour a bit and skipped to the Impressionists on the 5th floor. Here we saw these artworks/artists, who were not organized in any particular way:

Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (my personal favorite!)
Many sculptures and paintings by Degas...lots of dancers (La Classe de Dance) but also ordinary scenes (like Dans un Cafe)
Monet's works
Renoir (Garcon au Chat, which Kerry loved, and Bal du Moulin de la Galette, which is very colorful)
Cezanne (Les Joueurs de Cartes)
Pissarro
Sisley
At least one by Cassatt

It was getting late at this point, but we decided to go to the 2nd floor and see some Post-Impressionists. Here's some of what we saw there:

Van Gogh (La Chambre de Van Gogh a Arles; Midday, La Meridienne; Potrait de l'Artiste; portraits of the Gachet family)
Several paintings by Gaugin (I love his colors!)

Then they began to usher us out, so we went to the museum store. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. We got a few things....again for ourselves and others. I don't think I'll need to do much Christmas shopping this year.

Once we left the museum, we saw some interesting things. There was a piano player performing outside. At one point, a young woman got up to sing "At Last" with him playing piano. A crowd sitting on the museum steps watched. Also, we saw a man whom I assumed was crazy begin to mimic people he saw, such as a skateboarder, children running around, or people walking. It then occurred to me that he might be a mime, in the grand Parisian tradition of Marcel Marceau. After all, he wasn't saying anything. Still, he unsettled me, and I tried to avoid him as best I could as he chased children around the museum steps while they shrieked with laughter. This, I thought, would not go over well in the USA.

Because we were a bit desperate for cheap food after the souvenir shopping, we walked to McDonald's. Tragic error. We tried to use their machine for ordering, and it wouldn't take any of our credit cards. We ran into another American woman who said she'd had similar problems. Then when we ordered, the young man behind the counter didn't seem to understand us too well, either in English or French. Kerry's order, in particular, seemed to take forever. I decided to check out les toilettes. I walked down two flights of stairs only to see a line for a unisex toilet area. And apparently I had to point a metal coin that they gave me into some dispenser on the outside to use the toilet. Fortunately, I didn't have to do this, because I ran in there when some other person was leaving. There was paper all over the floor of the stall, a crushed plastic bottle of soap thrown haphazardly on the sink, and no dryer or paper towels. DISGUSTING. As bad a China bathrooms, or even worse.

After eating our food (amazingly, they gave us ice in our drinks when we asked), we head to the subway. And, for the first time, it was a problem. Apparently Line 1 was shut down due to a malfunction with one of the trains. People just waited and waited for the subway to come. We waited 30 minutes; it never happened. So we decided to use an Uber. Thank God for phones and data. Kerry ordered one and it came in 3 minutes and took us to the hotel. Yes, it was 12 euros, but by that point it was worth it.

So this day was full of surprises, good and bad. Tomorrow I think we'll try to go back to the Orangerie Museum; it's the last day of our 6-day museum pass. And then Thursday....most likely that will be a day off to do laundry.