April 24
We spent a good part of the day at the Musee d’Orsay. While the museum has a lot of different styles of art, it is most famous for its collection of impressionist art. This is very different than what we saw yesterday at the Louvre and 2 weeks ago in Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum. There were dozens of works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Renoir, Manet and the rest of the heavy hitters of the impressionist art world. Unfortunately, Lynn’s leg didn’t cooperate so, once again, we resorted to a wheelchair. Since we’re afraid of falls, it was the safest way to go. Later in the afternoon we found a collapsible cane which has helped a lot. Since not all of her weight in on her right leg, when the stabbing pain hits, she’s less likely to lose her balance. It fits nicely into her bag so it’s easy to take and only use when she needs it.
Anyway, back to the art. Some of the salons were crowded but nothing like yesterday at the Louvre so it was a little easier to get around. Here are some of the dozens of pictures we took. The lighting wasn’t the greatest and many of the paintings were behind glass, so we were also fighting a glare but some of them turned out pretty well.
A couple more Van Gogh’s
Here’s the story on the Claudel sculpture. She was the lover of Rodin, but his other mistress wanted him to dump Camille. The other mistress was older than Camille, so the sculpture depicts an older woman pulling the man (Rodin) away from the love of the younger woman.
Some of the non-impressionist art; didn’t recognize any of them but they were beautiful.
The Impressionists
After about 3 1/2 hours, we had finally had enough, so we had our sandwiches along the river. Then we headed back to Montmartre, where we visited on Sunday. Lynn wanted to go back to the square where all the painters were working and check out some of their artwork. We bought a beautiful oil on canvas that reminded us of the many French villages we’ve seen in the last 3 weeks. The artist took it off the stretcher bar and rolled it over a tube then wrapped it in paper so it’s secure, but it’s one more thing to drag around with us for the next 4 1/2 weeks. We’ll stick it in the backpack for the flight to Copenhagen but then we’ll just put it in the duffle bag until we head home.
Some of the other artwork for sale on the square.
We strolled through Montmartre for a while longer, passing the Moulin Rouge while looking for someplace to have dinner. After dinner it was back to the Metro for the ride home. Even though it was about 7:15, the trains were crazy crowded but luckily it was a relatively short (30 minutes) ride home.
Tomorrow we’re off to the suburbs to visit the Palace of Versailles. It should be great.