Our first full day in Paris, Wednesday the 10th, started as we ate a spare and nasty breakfast in our hostel, then went to meet Peter at the République Métro stop to go drop our things at Claire’s apartment. Her place is adorable! Small, perfectly clean and decorated very eclectically, just as I always thought a French girl’s house would be done. It was beautiful outside! Very sunny and pretty. We took the Métro to the Musée d’Orsay as soon as we had all dropped our things off, looked around and geared up to head out. The Musée d’Orsay used to be a train station, and was almost demolished to make way for new construction, but thankfully was converted to a museum instead…it’s absolutely beautiful! The focus of the museum is mainly on Impressionist art. I was in heaven…Impressionism is my favorite!
We saw works by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Degas (I love his ballerinas!), Sisley, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and so many others I can’t even remember all of them. I was in absolute heaven wandering around by myself…we all split up to do the museum right and just enjoy it on our own, at our own pace. One of the best parts for me was talking to one of the museum's head curators, in French, for about half an hour about how the d'Orsay was renovating gradually in hopes of being able to attract donations from private art collectors and add to their Impressionist collection. I felt like such a bad-ass, using my French and actually having an intelligent, cultured conversation...aaah!! :D
It was really cool especially to see some overlap between the Van Gogh museum, which I visited in Amsterdam, and the Musée d’Orsay. There were more paintings by the Barbizon School, a French pre-impressionist movement that majorly influenced Van Gogh and focused on painting nature and capturing light. There was also another big feature on Van Gogh…I feel like everything these days is focused on him, with the museum in Amsterdam, the big exhibit at the d’Orsay, and now the huge exhibition in London at the Royal Academy of the Arts, which I still have to get to.
The sculpture at the Musée d’Orsay was remarkable as well! It took up the entire main part of the gallery, which used to be the central part of the train station and was consequently enormous, sun-drenched and beautifully open. I love sculpture, but to be honest, everything sort of paled in comparison to the amazingness of The David in Florence. Still, it was so beautiful and I loved it.
After the d’Orsay, we headed back to Claire’s to bid Peter farewell, as he was heading to Perpignan, her hometown, to spend the rest of the break with her. We got some baguette, sausage, cheese and jam on the way to make our usual lunches of sandwiches (nowhere NEAR as good as the coppa and pecorino in Lucca, but still), and all too soon it was time for him to go…it was so sad to break up Team Hot Route! We spent the rest of the afternoon settling into Claire’s and catching up on some much-needed rest, relaxation and correspondence with families.
Later that afternoon Nicolle texted us to see if we wanted to meet up for dinner, so we offered to cook. After meeting their group at Goncourt, the Métro stop closest to Claire’s, we cooked a dinner of spaghetti Bolognese, salad, toasted bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a cheese platter for appetizer/dessert. Not to mention several bottles of amazing red, white, and rosé wine…yum! We went to bed really early after they headed out for the night, totally exhausted and looking forward to our planned trip to Versailles the next day!
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