Today we decided to explore the Musee Rodin (the Rodin Museum). It was in a beautiful hotel; apparently, when he died, Rodin left all his works to France, that this museum is the result. We used our Paris Museum Passes to get in; they're becoming very handy these days. Almost as soon as we walked in, we spotted The Thinker outside and took quite a few pics. We also saw his piece The Gates of Hell (based on Dante) in this sculpture garden. After viewing some of these outside works, we went in. It's a two-floor museum. The ground floor contains Rodin's early works; the second floor is organized more thematically, and contains some works by his contemporaries (including Camille Claudel, Van Gogh). The second floor also includes his collection of Greek antiquities and some recent photos inspired by his work. On the first floor, I got to see the very famous The Kiss sculpture. There were others that stood out for me as well, including one called Children Embracing. I discovered that I tend to prefer his sculptures, especially those with a lot of movement, to his paintings. The sculptures of heads also didn't do much for me; I found this was true at Le Louvre for me as well. We popped in at the "boutique" before leaving the building, and then traveled around the garden with sculptures some more. They had an enclosure of marble sculptures here, and larger versions of some of the smaller ones inside. I liked one of the last ones we saw, which was a memorial to Victor Hugo. He seemed to do a lot of works of Hugo and Balzac. Overall, the museum gave me a fuller appreciation of the man's talent; I can't think of a more individually talented sculptor.
Afterwards, Kerry and I went to the Hotel des Invalides, a gorgeous building, to see the tomb of Napoleon. We walked through security, which had huge guards with even bigger machine guns. The main building we walked into was like a cathedral, with a dome-like ceiling, tombs from famous French soldiers and Napoleon's relatives all around, and then, looking down at the floor beneath, we could see Napoleon's tomb itself. Apparently all five layers of the tomb contain his fragments. It's quite elaborate.
We didn't stay long because we were hungry, so we tried the nearby Cafe du Musee. The waiter, who did not smile, made it abundantly clear that the nicest plates (like the steak tartare) were no longer being served. "Mangez?" he asked. (I remember the other restaurant asked this too...apparently they want to know if you're there to eat or just to drink, maybe?) So we just ended up having ham and cheese sandwiches, french fries, goat cheese, and some drinks (non-alcoholic). The sandwiches were crap--they looked like they had been thrown together in two seconds. However, the fries and cheese were really good. I also like that they served french bread gratis with the meal. Total cost: 33 euros, much cheaper than the cheeseburgers we had. It wasn't great, but it sufficed. So far, I must say I'm disappointed greatly with the quality and cost of Parisian food. It seems like you have to pay a lot for basic crap; I guess I'm just used to much cheaper prices in China....or even in Prague!
On the way home, we stopped for water and Magnum bars. Tomorrow, we will probably go to the Picasso Museum; we found an ad on the subway that said they're having an exhibit about Guernica...which made me wonder....will they show the piece itself? We will find out.
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| The Thinker |
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| Gates of Hell |
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| Me at the Hotel des Invalides |
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| Napoleon's tomb |
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