2.13.2011

PARIS 101: LOST IN MUSEUMS

As promised, I'm going to write a couple of posts dedicated to Paris, starting with my favorite place to get lost which is the Musee d'Orsay. Paris has more than 150 museums around the city, but this one has to be my favorite because not only do I love the art inside the museum, but the museum itself is a piece of art in my view.
The museum is situated along the Seine river, beautiful, majestic. It was a former train station, which you can see in the picture below. Musee d'Orsay houses collections of art from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including many paintings from the Impressionist era, my favorite. There's something about the way the paintings were made, so colourful yet soft, and many were pastel colored. The subjects of the paintings are no longer religious nor history related, just every day scenes.


Below are just a preview of what you might find at the Musee d'Orsay, like for example the sculpture called "Woman bitten by a serpent" by Auguste Clesinger. I love how artists like Clesinger and Rodin can produce life-like sculptures out of stone. I also really love paintings by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Pissaro, among others. The paintings you see below are Manet's "The luncheon on the grass" and Monet's "Water lily basin, pink harmony".

















Of course, I highly recommend you to go to this museum, but there are many many more to see and if I had to make a pick of my Top 5 Museums (besides Musee d'Orsay), they would be:
1. Musee du Louvre - must see this museum at least once in your life just so you can breathe art!

2. Musee Rodin - breathtaking, romantic, unbelievable

3. Centre Pompidou - crazy, modern art, warhol, modigliani

4. Palais de Tokyo - modern art exhibitions, super cool, close to great view of Eiffel Tower

5. Musee Guimet - magnificent statues from India and South-East Asia


Tune in for more great information on places to visit and things to do in Paris....