Paris (Road Scholar Trip #2)

Musee d'Orsay

Second installment of blog on Road Scholar trip The Impressionists – A Retrospective, June 10 - 23, 2012. 

The museums we visited in PARIS were the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée Marmottan, which displayed Claude Monet’s painting, “Impression at Sunrise,” which gave its name to the Impressionist movement.  Also on display at the Marmottan was a large exhibit of paintings by Berthe Morisot, the first woman painter to exhibit with the  Impressionists.  She married Eugene Manet, brother of the artist Edouard Manet.

I especially liked the Musée d’Orsay, a former train station, designed by female architect Gae Aulenti, which had many famous Impressionist masterpieces from early realism of the Barbizon School to Seurat’s later works.  We had lunch in the Musée d’Orsay’s large, beautiful restaurant decorated with marble statues, paintings on the ceiling, and lighted chandeliers the entire length of the ceiling along both sides.  The restaurant is as magnificent as it was when it opened in 1900, and is listed as a historic monument.

Two Renoir paintings of a couple dancing, loaned by the Musée d’Orsay, are currently on view at the MFA through September 3, 2012, alongside the MFA’s painting by Renoir of the couple dancing in “Bal a Bougival.”  It was wonderful seeing paintings I had seen only in art books.  Manet’s “Olympia,” painted in 1863, was larger than I expected.  Sylvie Moreau, our Paris guide, told us an amusing story about the painting, which shows a nude prostitute lying on a bed staring brazenly out at us.  Sylvie said the wife of one of the French presidents whacked the face of the prostitute with her gloves in disgust!  J

We walked all over Montmartre, the northern section of Paris, and saw the Moulin de la Galette, Moulin Rouge, Lapin Agile – cafes and cabarets frequented by famous artists of the past.  We had lunch at La Bonne Franquette, famous for having been the meeting place of Pissarro, Sisley, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Monet, Zola and Vincent Van Gogh.
One evening we attended a concert of classical music, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” at Sainte Chappelle, a former private church for the king -- the highest Gothic church without buttresses.  Most of the walls were covered with stained glass.

Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower were impressive.  We rode a funicular up to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.  I can see why Paris is considered one of the most beautiful cities -- with so many stone buildings and bridges decorated with figures, faces, horses, etc.

One evening after dinner we walked with our guide Geraldine to the “Place des Vosges”
on the Marais (ancient marshlands) built in the 17th century in the area near our hotel,
Villa Beaumarchais.  It’s the oldest square in Paris and one of the most beautiful; it became the most exclusive neighborhood in Paris.  It’s a symmetrical square surrounded by buildings with red brick and white stone facades and steep slate roofs, all constructed over arcades.  The two tallest pavilions were built for the king and queen, but never used.  Victor Hugo lived at #6 from 1832-1848 when he wrote his most important works, including his biggest hit, “Les Miserables.”  Geraldine told us jousting tournaments were held in that area in the 16th century and were watched by the queen from the 2nd floor of one of the buildings.  While jousting at a tournament in the square in 1559, King Henry II was mortally wounded by the Captain of the King’s Scottish Guard, whose lance slipped and struck the king in the eye.  His death days later ended the tournaments.  In 1800 Napoleon changed the square’s original name, “Place Royale,” to “Place des Vosges” to show his gratitude toward the Vosges department, the first department in France to pay taxes.  We walked by many contemporary art galleries in the arcades.

We rode through the underpass where Princess Diana died.

It rained off and on in Paris the first two days, but we had sunny weather on the third day for a relaxing boat ride on the Seine River, a source of inspiration for the Impressionist painters.

Carol Farmer 2012