musée d'orsay

a museum/gallery housed in the old gare d'orsay, the old beaux-arts railway station. the station was put into disuse in the 70s before being transformed into the musée d'orsay a few years later. the original glass ceilings & walled arches are still the original, however its train-tracks & platforms have been removed & replaced by little galleries - to house some of france's most celebrated impressionist & post-impressionist artworks.

the musée d'orsay has a crazy number of monet, cézanne & renoir pieces - it was such a surreal feeling (as it always is) to see the real originals before my eyes. ahh! normally there are van gogh works on display, but the gallery was being renovated at the time, so i didn't get to see them. having visisted the van gogh gallery in amsterdam however, i wasn't too devo.

annoyingly, the museum has that irritating 'no photos' rule all throughout the gallery. i managed to snap a few sneaky shots, to capture the beauty of the architecture...but in front of the artworks, if the museum workers even see a camera they chivvy you on your way.

i'd been meaning to get here for months, and (unfortunately) eventually came during peak summer: hundred's of people lining up to get in. i went to the nearest tabac (our equivalent of a milk shop) and managed to buy a ticket there instead, and got to enter through the side door of the museum straight away. saved myself a good two hours of lines - life is sweet!

a quote written down in miniscule writing next to one of monet's pieces has stayed with me: "everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand it, as if it were necessary to understand - when it is simply necessary to love".


à toute,




S.

the exterior of the museum - the original railway station

the original, ornate clock from the railway station is still there in the museum