We woke up around 8:30 cause we thought Musée Rodin opened at 9:00 and we were going to cruise on over to beat the crowds. We ended up lolly-gaging about until 9:something and showed up at Musée Rodin at 9:55. Turns out it opened at 10:00. Things worked out sweet.
Once inside, we got a map and I scoped out where the café was for some breaky. Along the way, we passed The Thinker.
I have one of these at home and now I've seen the real thing. How cool. The gardens were filled with huge roses.
We stop for a little bench warming.
Then on to café allongés and croissants!
After fueling, we roamed the gardens and checked out some statues.
I'm so happy we watched Midnight in Paris before we came here. It was like it was made for us. I'm pretty sure this is the place where Pedantic Paul was corrected by the tour guide.
Inside the museum, we saw many sculptures and got a crash course in how the bronze statues are made. I can really appreciate art that has a technical aspect to it.
The man (now that I know who he is), Victor Hugo again.
On our way out, we passed the gates of hell. That's as close as I want to get, thanks.
After Musée Rodin, we made our way to L'Orangerie. Walking down Rue de Bourgogne, there was dog doo all over the place. I thought that was weird because most dogs I know look for a nice patch of grass to poop on. Looking around, there was only one patch of grass on this street.
That's on a curb. Who ever trims it must be into bonsai. The L'Orangerie.
It's a long skinny building that was rebuilt in 2006. The exterior is traditional French awesome and the interior is very modern (even more awesome). There is a lot of exposed concrete, hard lines and natural light.
My kind of thing. Even more impressive was Claude Monet's Water Lilies.
My true love was in heaven. I thought they were pretty impressive myself. I really like the colours. The Water Lilies took up the upstairs of the gallery. Downstairs was a bigger gallery with impressionists and post-impressionists. There were pieces by artists such as Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse and Picasso.
I think my favorite piece was La Barque et les baigneurs (the dock and the bathers) by Paul Cézanne.
It was calming and took me to a place that seemed care free. My true love agreed, but it wasn't her favorite. Those Water Lilies stole the show for her.
After the L'Orangerie, we made our way to the Louvre (I know, triple Musée day!). We strolled down Rue Saint Honoré. We felt poor and I thought I saw Joan Rivers, but it was just an old lady with a lot of plastic surgery. The window shopping was amazing.
We stopped at a café for lunch.
After lunch we had to cross the street to get to the Louvre. I saw this bicycle carriage and took a photo.
The two girls inside got out here, didn't mind the traffic lights and one of them got his by a bicycle. She or the bicyclist wasn't hurt, so it was hilarious. I wish I had video. Anyway, on to the Louvre for the third time!
Today we visited the final wing for us, the Richelieu.
The Richelieu wing is massive. Of course, they're all massive, but the Richelieu has enormous rooms to display sculptures and statues.
The crazy thing is that there are two sections of this wing that almost mirror each other. After you spend time carefully browsing the first, the fact that there is a second is so overwhelming that you just keep thinking how huge it is.
There was a class that taught people who to draw the sculptures. My ADHD tells me that the invention of the camera has eliminated the need to try and draw something that already exists and only takes 1/100th of a second to capture digitally.
If I had to draw the pictures on this blog, there would be no pictures.
There were also a lot of paintings in the Richelieu, but after visiting L'Orangerie, the sculptures were much more appealing.
One of the coolest/almost strangest things about the Richelieu wing was that one side opens to the street. It made some of the sculptures seem a little out of place.
Barely able to walk anymore, we left the Louvre 5 minutes to closing and headed to the nearest Metro station. There we learned about another local scam. The Metro ticket scam. Someone tells you the ticket machine doesn't work, but they have tickets for sale. I could tell by the way this dude was dressed and had gnarly tickets in his hand and shirt pocket that he was full of it. It took more than one suggestion of where to go to get him to bugger off and the ticket machine did work. Whether or not the tickets he was selling worked, I hate these scam things. Although, the more we learn, the more in tune with the city we feel. We're getting around this place like we know it now!
Tomorrow we're planning on visiting Giverny to see Monet's house and gardens!
Awesome day yet again. Sure am enjoying your blogs!
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