Up and at 'em at 8, out the door at 8:40. We take the Pyrenees Metro to Hotel de Ville, change lines there, get off at the Tuileries, and walk to the Musee d'Orsay.
The D'Orsay opened in 1986 in a railway station that was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. This was after I was last in Paris, in 1982, so I had never been here before. In the photo above, Pablo is looking through a glass floor onto a 1/100 scale model of the district surrounding the Paris Opera House as it was in 1914. Construction of the Opera House itself was completed in 1875, which places it right in the middle of the 1848-1914 time period featured in the museum as a whole.
This is Van Gogh's painting of the church in Auvers-sur-Oise that we visited just two days before!
According to the D'Orsay website, Van Gogh produced three, almost identical paintings on the theme of his bedroom. By the end of this trip, I will have seen them all. The first, finished in 1888, is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. A second, similarly sized one finished in 1889, is at the Art Institute of Chicago. And the third--this one, also finished in 1889--is slightly smaller than the other two. Seeing the paintings up close makes it easier to appreciate the texture of the paint on the canvas.
According to the D'Orsay website, Van Gogh produced over forty-three self-portraits, paintings or drawings in ten years. We learned that one of the reasons he painted so many self-portraits is that he was too poor to pay for models.
Over Nina's right shoulder is the original, gilded grand hall clock designed by architect Victor Laloux.
According to the D'Orsay website, when Degas brought a clay model of this sculpture titled "Dancer Aged 14" to the Impressionist exhibition in 1881, critics were horrified. This bronze casting of the sculpture was made after Degas's death. The original sculpture was "naturally colored, fitted with real hair, dressed in a tutu and real dancing slippers" and was displayed in a glass case "like a specimen in a museum." Critics believed Degas was guilty of depicting the girl as an animal instead of as a person.
This clock face is at the northeast corner of the building. The hill in the distance is Montmarte.
I used my telephoto lens to capture this view of the Sacre Couer on top of Montmarte.We had lunch at the Museum's Cafe de l'Ours and when we had finished our museum visit, we met Gerardo for a Vedette cruise on the Seine.
The building behind Nina and Pablo in the next three pictures was completed in 1680. From 1688 to 1789, it was a college for noblemen. During the French Revolution, it was turned into a prison.
Gerardo brings a smile to Pablo's face?
Since 1805 the building behind Pablo--the "Institut de France"--is the home of the Académie Francaise, which was established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634. Its 40 members are responsible for updating the French dictionary (and, often, doing their best to protect it from contamination by the English language).
These "Nymphs of the Seine" decorate the Pont Alexandre III. Like the D'Orsay train station, this bridge was built for the Universal Exposition of 1900. Completed in 1900, the bridge is named in honor of the Czar of Russia and commemorates the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892 (they were allied, mostly, against Germany).
After our cruise, we crossed the Seine and took a walk north up the Rue St. Denis, one of the oldest streets in Paris. Its route was laid out by the Romans in the 1st century. The street was one of the centers of the June 1832 Rebellion against the King Louis Philippe, which is dramatized in the climax of Les Miserables.
We had a pizza dinner on the corner of St. Denis and Rambuteau at an italian trattoria called "IT." The room we ate in had glass walls on three sides.
After we ate, we walked to Les Halles Community Center, where some of us checked out the Lego store while others listened to some live rock music.Our next stop was a crowded Amorino ice cream shop, where Gerardo ordered rose-shaped gelati for all. Nina's chocolate and mango combo had a macaroon on top.
After gelato, we took the Metro home for card games and showers.
