Scrapping Tonight

Wednesday we woke to a lovely sunny day in Paris and a walk through the Tuilerie Gardens where we stopped off for breakfast, and snapped a few photos!



We had planned a day museum hopping, and our first stop was the Musee de L'Orangerie just across the Seine.
Well nothing had prepared us for the Monet exhibition which was breathtaking! The paintings displayed were the Waterlilly collection. I had never realised that they were so huge!
Detail, depth and colour were beautiful. Its a funny thing to see paintings that are so well know, so over produced that the painting has lost all emotion and detail, until you see it for real and actually get to appreciate what the artist wanted to achieve; total calm.



Downstairs was a collection of more Impressionist art including, more Monet, Cezzane, Picasso, and Van Gogh to name a few.

Our next stop was Musee D'Orsay. I will admit that this was far more appealing to me than the Louvre, I am really sorry to have to admit this. Musee D'Orsay is jam packed with Van Gogh, Renoir, Lautrec, Monet Picasso and Cezzane as well as Rodin sculptures includinh The Gates of Hell in bronze. All those paintings you know so well come to life right in front of your very eyes, it is truly amazing. (No photos allowed.)

We then stopped off for a late lunch and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. The Louvre was open late so we headed over for about 6pm. The Louvre was literally on our doorstep.
As I have mentioned before I am not overwhelmed by the Louvre nor the Mona Lisa. But Peter made me see a different perspective, to realise for its time it was amazing. Paintings prior were out of proportion and mainly for the church. Leonardo De Vinci painted a portrait that was as near to a photograph for its time and is over 500 years old! When I visited back in the late 1980's the painting had its own room, today it is in a huge high ceiling room with many other paintings, still in a glass box surrounded by security, and you are viewing from at least 6ft away.
The Louvre is huge and we only saw a small part of the museum, mostly sculptures. I dont think I would rush back again, I would highly recommend Musee L'Orangerie and Musee D'Orsee as "musts" to visit when in Paris.
Totally exhausted from our Musuem day it was back to the hotel for an early night.

Thursday we woke to blue skies, breakfast at  McCafe and then off to the Rodin Museum. The museum was originally the Hotel Biron where Rodin and other artisits and writers rented rooms. In 1916 Rodin handed over all his work to the State and in 1919 the Musee Rodin was opened, 2 years after his death.
The building is like a chateux and is amazing, and the gardens are breathtaking.



Here are a few of my favourites:

The Thinker



The Gates of Hell




The Kiss



The afternoon we headed over to the Musée de l'Armée; a War Museum and also where Napoleans Tomb is.
Not my thing to be honest, but having said that I found the WW2 exhibition really interesting and also the Charles de Gaulle exhibition. This museum is known as the worlds greatest millitary museum, and I would agree, for someone who is not too interested in military history, it really did hold my attention. Napoleans tomb is not to missed either!



This has been a looong post. back tomorrow with Mont Martre, The Moulin Rouge and The Eiffel Tower!
By the way, I actually do these detailed holiday posts as I use my blog writings for my travel albums; more on that on Crafty Friday!
I hope you are enjoying my insight to Paris.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x