Hobnobbing with Monet and van Gogh

Today was another gloomy day in Paris, though a lot less rainy and a bit warmer so it was an improvement over yesterday. We had planned to visit Versailles but decided that a lot of our motivation was to photograph the place and with the gloomy weather it wouldn't be worth it. So instead we bonded with the likes of Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Manet and Renoir. That's right, we finally made it to Musee d'Orsay and Musee l'Orangerie when they were open!

There's no photos allowed in either museum but I of course snuck a few. Below is the view from inside the clock at d'Orsay, you can see the Louvre across the Seine and Sacre Couer on Monmarte in the distance. 

Neither of us are really art addicts but we both know enough to get serious goose bumps when standing in front of an original Van Gogh like  'Thatched Cottages at Cordeville'. There were so many that caught our eye and since we couldn't take pictures we grabbed the names so we could remember later what really made impressions on us. Here is the list of our favorites:

- Self Portrait by van Gogh

- Starry Night by van Gogh

- The Rue Montorgueil in Paris by Monet

- Smaller Dancer age 14 by Degas

Next we went to l'Orangerie which had a special installment of art that Debussy liked, influenced etc. which was nice though we were both disappointed that they weren't playing Debussy in the exhibition hall. There was one piece in particular that was part of the exhibition that I really liked by John Mallord William Turner called Distant River. We found the best part of the museum by walking through an empty stark white room and into a large oval room which was like surround vision as the walls were plastered with panoramic of Monet's Water Lily's - two oval rooms full. Again, we're not experts but it was really cool to be surrounded, if I let my mind go blank it almost felt as if I were in a boat floating through this imaginary world in Monet's mind. When you went close it was just smudges and not impressive but when you went to the other end of the room it was just amazing....very much worth the treck across the river and the second trip and everything. Very cool. Oh and thank you Nancy from work for insisting that we go to this museum! 

A tip for next time, definitely by the Passport ticket for both museums. We waited about 30 min to go through security at d'Orsay, bought our ticket there and then when we went to l'Orangerie we skipped two long queues and went right in since we already had our tickets.