Paris Day 3

Today's adventures started with us walking the short distance from our hotel, across Tuileries Gardens, over the Seine river by bridge, and up to the Musee d'Orsay.  This museum's art begins chronologically where the Louvre left off, 1848, and continues through WWI time.  It displays Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work.

The museum building was once a train station, and was remodeled in 1986 to house the plethora of art around Paris that needed a home.

They left the giant clock that adorned the train station, and it remains a focal point in the large main gallery.

The most famous artists here: Cezanne, Manet, Ingres, Renoir, Monet, and Van Gogh.  Here were some of our favorite pieces of art.  I've tried to make notes of the names and artists of the paintings, but if they're missing...just assume we liked it but I'm not sure what it was!  LOL.

The Etretat Cliffs After a Storm by Gustave Courbet

I believe this is an Auguste Renoir painting but I'll be darned if I can find it.

Chasse-Maree by Claude Monet

Dance At Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Claude Monet's Bridge Over Pond with Water Lillies - one of my favorites

The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet - part of the first movement to paint the common man as the subject.

Detail of some fabulous pointillism in a painting

Thatched Cottages at Cordeville by Vincent Van Gogh

Floating Ice by Claude Monet

The Dance of the Hours by Gaetano Previati - very beautiful

The Siesta by Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh

Camille Claudel's Maturity - Depicts how she longed after her lover who was married.

I didn't make note of who this is but it's beautiful pointillism work

The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin

After the museum, we hopped on an RER train, whose station was right outside the museum, and rode it a few stops to the Eiffel tower.  We didn't have advance tickets (I'd tried 3 months ahead of time and was too late), so we waited in line for tickets.  We waited about an hour and a half, and it seemed like that was a mild day.

We bought tickets to go up to the second level only, as we were told the wait to go up to the top is an additional hour wait, because you went up to second level, then waited in line again for the elevator to the top.  Regardless, we got some great views.  Eiffel tower is just something you can't miss when in Paris.  But after Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe, there was NO WAY I was taking the stairs...

A nice couple took our picture, we didn't do this often, as we were warned people would offer to take your photo then run off with your phone or camera.

Looking NW, over the Seine river

Looking N/NE toward the Sacre-Coeur Basilica

Looking east over Champs de Mars and Ecole Militaire

Me and my sweetie

Chris on level one, me on level two looking up.

Just lovely.

Whew.  Now with that touristy job out of the way, I directed us to the Opera Garnier.  We took a couple wrong turns coming out of the metro, but finally found it.  Now the Opera Garnier is a functioning opera house.  But historically, it's significant because it is the setting for the Phantom of the Opera.  Charles Garnier built it in the late 1800's, and the building is ornate and over-the-top.  It is decorated with real gold leaf, colored marble, paintings and sculptures from the top artists of the day.

We toured through, but were slightly disappointed in the whole experience, mostly because of the cost of admission (20 euros).  But it was undeniably beautiful.

We finished up in early afternoon, earlier than I anticipated.  We decided to stop at a cafe and refresh, so we ordered some Cokes and shared a ravioli.  We had dinner reservations at the Opera Restaurant at 6:30, but didn't want to wait around, so we decided to return to the hotel, do some in-sink laundry, and go on an evening river cruise.

The Bateaux Parisiens river cruise left from just under the Eiffel tower, we boarded at 7pm.  We were able to watch the sun set on Paris from the Seine.  Most of my photos didn't turn out due to low light and haze, but here were two good ones:

The cruise was nice, informative, and relaxing.  Kinda what we needed after a busy day!

At night, of course, the Eiffel tower lights up.  But as a special treat, at the top of each hour for about 5 minutes, it sparkles with a million little lights.  It was beautiful.  We were on the river out near Notre Dame at the time, so I didn't have a good shot of it, but it was amazing.

We walked back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow (our last in Paris): A day trip out of town to see the Chateau de Versailles.