From Gare to Degas (Musée d'Orsay)

Member Name: peel.rebekah

Product:	Musée d'Orsay
Date:	22/02/01 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Calmer than the alternatives

Disadvantages: No Mona Lisa

Everybody knows about the Louvre and the Pompidou centre, but there is another major art gallery in Paris that just doen't seem to get the attention it deserves - the Musee d'Orsay.

This museum was built at the end of the 19th century (by Victor Laloux), as a very high-class train station, its services fell into decline in the mid 20th century as the services at Gare du Nord and Austerlitz improved. In 1973 Georges Pompidou decided that the Gare d'Orsay should have a rather major face lift - and so it became an art gallery.

I know the Louvre has the Mona Lisa, but you can't even get close to it because of the crowds of tourists. This place, even though its busy, has a slighty calmer atmosphere. All the main architectural features of the station remain, which is part of the charm of the place. Whenever I go there, I seem to meet nice, relaxing people, not the normal uptight Parisian.

Your main reason for visiting this place is the art - and it is spectacular: There is a great Impressionists section containing Monet (of course), Renoir, Degas, Manet, Pissarro - you get the picture, also Neo- Impressionists - Seurat, Gauguin, Redon, Signac etc. There is also a section of the gallery devoted to the birth of cinema that is definitely worth a visit.

The salons are seperated and marked clearly, so you can go straight to 1880-90 foreign school of symbolism - painting - if you wanted to.

I always think I can get around a museum without a guidebook, and I'm always wrong. The guidebooks here are excellent and well worth the money.

I can't emphasis enough how underated this place is; There are some beautiful works of art here and the should be honoured by your visit.

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