October 28, 2021
Musée d'Orsay + Musée de l'Orangerie
The three of us had a fuller agenda planned for today, and thankfully we were all up for the task. We met Susan at the Musée d'Orsay a little after 10am. She was stylishly standing there waiting for us.
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The d'Orsay is another impressive building. A former railway station, it matches or even surpasses Grand Central in its grandeur.
One feature that attracts a lot of attention is this view from inside one of the large clock faces:
In contrast to yesterday's mayhem, the d'Orsay's ambience was very relaxed. It was a pleasure to stroll the airy hall to marvel at the sculptures on display. The galleries, in which impressionist paintings and art nouveau furniture were showcased, were more enclosed, but there was still plenty of room to view everything. Several times I was able to sit on a bench in the center of a room and take in an entire wall of paintings as a whole. It can give you a different perspective on things.
I love art nouveau. I associate Paris with it, and it with Paris. I'm glad that at least one museum in the city has a wing dedicated to it. Maybe next time we'll try to hunt down more.
Next, it was off to the nearest pharmacy to ask about our antigen tests. Yes, they had it, yes, they could give it to us now. Fifteen minutes later we had our documentation. Glad to have that out of the way.
We had lunch at a nearby Vietnamese canteen, then crossed the Seine to L'Orangerie. We were early, and the security guard was adamant about us waiting until close to our entry time. We enjoyed the sun for a bit longer. We returned. Nope, still too early. I think he finally let us in about 10 minutes before our reservation time.
This was a smaller museum which seems to ride on the massive panels of water lily paintings by Monet. In two different rooms, you find yourself surrounded by the scenes in an immersive experience. I'm not a huge fan of impressionism, so they didn't really speak to me. A similar large-scale artwork by David Hockney, this one created digitally, also left me unmoved.
However, I enjoyed the de Kooning, Modigliani, and André Derain (whom I'd never heard of before) quite a bit. So I guess there's something for everyone.
We had coffee, talked a lot more about bike stuff, then walked over to St. Germain des Prés to look at the shops. We ate at a créperie, the visual highlight being my Calvados dessert crépe:
We said our goodbyes on the subway train, as Susan's stop came first. There's plenty of time to pack, so of course the first thing we did when we returned to our room was to pack. Now I have time and energy to catch up on the journal. Tomorrow will be a very long day, and hopefully an uneventful one!
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