Days 20 & 21: In which our hero tries (and fails) to get into Musée d’Orsay (twice)

I launched from my domicile with Museum Spelunking in my heart on Tuesday morning.  Hopping on the 1 train, I made my way to the Louvre-Rivoli stop, crossed the river, and walked along the Seine until I found myself at the Musée d’Orsay.  And what I found there shocked me.

The line was totally redonkulously long.

The line was soooooooooo looooooooooong!!

People at the end of the line were talking about a 3 hour wait to get in, and as it was 11, and I needed to be working by 3, that just weren’t gonna happen.

So I crossed the river again, with Destination Musée de l’Orangerie in my sights.  Passed by Place de Concorde (where the bigass Egyptian Obelisk is), and entered Jardin des Tuileries to find l’Orangerie closed on Tuesdays.

Refusing to be thwarted, I took a nice walk through le Jardin and snapped some photos, and giggled at all the statue wieners, finding myself eventually back at the Louvre, where I entered the Caroussel (mall) and bought myself some of the awesome tea I’d had at dinner the other night.

Headed home early, grabbed some lunch, and worked from 2 until 12:30.

::TIME PASSES::

This morning, I awoke super early, to get to Musée d’Orsay super early.  It was raining pretty steady (steadier than I’d seen it in a while), so I thought to myself “Super! Lines should be short! Musée, voici que je viens!*”

This time, because of the rain, I hopped on the 1 to Châtelet, hopped on the 4 to St. Michael, and changed to the RER C Line (thank you NaviGo Carte!) which let me off right in front of the museum where I saw that the line was totally redonkulously long.

Not quite as long as yesterday, but still.. and me without an umbrella.

So once again, I crossed the river and walked towards Musée de l’Orangerie.  This time it was open, and there was no line outside the building.  SCORE!

For those of you who don’t know, Musée de l’Orangerie is where Monet’s Les Nymphéas hang.  Before you read any farther, click on the link, and go look.

Screen shot from Midnight in Paris, used without permission. I'm sorry, I loved your movie, I loved the museum. Don't sue me please. (Also a clickable link)

To say I was totally blown away is an understatement, really.

The barrage of color and emotion that these paintings convey is overwhelming to say the least.  I sat for quite a long time just staring and watching the paintings change with the light.

It should be a crime for people to experience painting through photographs.  Even though they are two dimensional images, the subtle shadows from the mere millimeters thick layers of paint cause them to be things that are constantly moving and shifting as the light around them shifts.  With all the work in 3D that people are doing lately, it surprises me that people aren’t doing 3D photography of paintings so people can experience the textures and depth.

So once my mind and eyes had sufficiently recovered from these two rotundas of awesomeness, I explored the rest of the museum, bought some postcards of the paintings to hang in my cube (no photography allowed) and an umbrella (duh), then headed home, stopping for a lunch of blood sausage and mashed potatoes.  It was the special, so I figured “What the hell!” The waitress made sure to repeat SEVERAL times that it was “Cooked with blood.”  And let me tell you, it was tasty as all get out.

Oh, and the added bonus?  I got the combo pass to l’Orangery and d’Orsay, so tomorrow I can skip the line and go right in.  Totally worth it.

* bad translation courtesy of Google Translate.

Categories: Paris

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