"Like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway ~~ We're the best of friends ~~ Insisting that the world keep turnin' our way…" Willie Nelson – Johnny Cash
After a day recovering from jet lag, we started seeing the sights of Paris. To get oriented, we walked down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre. The next day, we toured the Orsay Museum. It was easy to get around with our multi-day transportation passes for the metro and the buses.
The Orsay is a museum in a train station. The history of the museum, of its building is quite unusual. In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914.
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html
Our first lunch was at Les Papilles, a tiny bistro around the corner from our hotel in the Latin Quarter. It was delicious!
Wine shelves at Les Papilles
We took the 2-mile walk down the Av. du Champs-Elysee, starting at L’Arc de Triomphe.
One of two fountains honoring the lakes and seas in the Place de la Concorde, major public square, scene of executions, decorated with fountains, statues & an Egyptian obelisk. When it was Place de la Revlolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded here.
Looking back up the Champs-Elysee at the Arc de Triomphe.
Garish ferris wheel between the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Garden.
A view of the Musee de Louvre from the Tuileries Garden. https://www.louvre.fr/en/departments/tuileries-and-carrousel-gardens
Placard commemorating the beheading of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at the Place de la Concorde.
Le Garcon au chat
Boy and a cat by Renoir at the Musee d’Orsay.
L’Enfant au chat
Child and a cat by Renoir
A workshop of artists by Fantin-Latour.
Flowers by Fantin-Latour.
Large white bear statue “L’Ours”…
…and a cafe right next to the bear.
Musee D’Orsay used to be a train station, and the old clock is still there keeping time.
