Paris - Aug 16

It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  Crystal clear blue skies with a high in the mid 80s.  Couldn't have been better weather...

Today was a museum day...  I started with the Museum D'Orsay.  It was a very large museum with a great collection.  Probably nothing compared to the Louvre but that will be tomorrow or the day after.  It is supposed to rain for the first time on Thursday.  So probably a day in the Louvre would be the best.  

The D'Orsay is massive as you enter it.  My night bike ride guide gave me a good suggestion.  If you like Impressionists, head straight to the fifth floor.  I did and it was a great suggestion.  The regular tourists meander through the lower floors which were extremely crowded.  

They had a good collection of Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas and Monet.  But my favorite as it turns out is Pissarro.  In art much the same as in wine, I am a bit of a neophyte.  I certainly am not an expert but I do know what I like.  As I walked through I would come across a painting that I liked and then read who the artist was.  It seemed that Camille Pissarro was coming up time and again.

This one, Le Lavoir de Bazincourt, by Pissarro was beautiful.  This picture does not even begin to do the painting justice.  As you looked at it you could imagine sitting on the bank of the river and just drifting away in thought.  

It is hard to imagine the artist made this painting by placing dots of paint.  The advent of pixels!  It all came together to present a very serene setting. 

 

Another that caught my eye was, Repetition d'un ballet sur la scene by Degas.  As you looked at the painting other elements do appear.  A man in the wall as the stage connects to the boxes.  He is there but slightly painted over. There are other ballerinas that are very faint but only appear as you gaze at the painting.  It is an interesting painting in its capture of the strife and efforts in the ballerinas faces as they work towards perfection.  

And this one was one of my favorites 

It is, Raboteurs de parquet by Gustave Caillebotte.  It is so striking in that you can see the effort that the workers are putting into the work.  The definition of their body yet the lack of finite lines is amazing...

I know, I am sharing too much!  But I am writing it so I guess liberties are allowed!?

With that in mind I have one more to share

This one, Femme a sa toilette by Berthe Morisot, captured my attention for the grace, beauty and detail of the woman.  

Well I think I lied when I said I had one more.  I have one one more.  This one sent me to the next museum and I am very grateful that I saw it and did.

It is, by Auguste Rodin it is the model that he used to make his bronze that is at the Rodin museum in Paris.  With that in mind, I headed off to see that museum.

If you have not seen the Rodin museum you have missed a great experience.  The museum is housed in a beautiful old chateau in central Paris.  The sculptures of Rodin are impressive but the icing on the cake is the chateau and the grounds.  It is an absolutely stunning house only to be paled by the grounds around the chateau.  It is so worth a trip here.

This is the sculpture made from the model that was in the Museum D'Orsay.  You could look at this for hours and see new fascinating details come to light.  There is so much going on inside this piece.  

Then there is the quintessential piece of "The Thinker".

And who could miss his representation of "The Kiss".  He captured the essence of the moment in his carving in stone.  The details when you see it in person are impressive.

This piece captured my attention for its beauty of lines and expression.  It was almost as if you were seeing the individual in person.  It was magical...

And then on to the grounds... The grounds around the museum are beautiful as you can see.  There is a section of woods and gardens and this open green space.  Throughout the grounds there are sculpture pieces displayed.  This courtyard circle has 4 pieces anchoring it with a main sculpture in the center of the pond.

It is hard to see the scale of the house from the picture.  But to give you an idea, see the window in the center of the second floor that is open?  There is a person standing in the open window.  They are dwarfed by the height of it.  The windows are about 12 feet high in their opening.

This the grounds as seen from the aforementioned window.

And inside the chateau is the grand staircase, truly impressive.

Yes, another great day!  Each one unique in its own way.  There has not been a day that has felt like a repeat of another.  New experiences that each has been wondrous.  I guess sooner or later this will get old but I can't imagine how.  Still so much to see...

One of my little pleasures that I have come to look forward to each day is listening to the street performers on the bridge between Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis as the sun goes down.  That is where I discovered Alice Hills.  If you haven't checked her out, I recommend it, you will hear from her someday.  She is that good.  

Last night there was a performer playing Chopin.  And this time I was treated to classical music on a piano not on xylophones (humorous reference to earlier post 😊).  He was fantastic.  It made you just sit down and absorb the music.  It was magical as the light of the day began to fade with the melody of the piano.  The beauty of the music announcing that the beauty of the day was giving way to the still of the night....