After a morning in Giverny, our train pulled in to Paris around 2. Plenty of times to go to three museums, some parks, and climb the Arc du Triomphe!
First up was Musée d'Orsay. We had intended to go the first night, but when it took longer than expected to find our hotel, we ended up getting there too late to be able to enjoy it, so we skipped it. I am so glad we decided to try again the next day! Not only was the building alone was beautiful, but it was filled with works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Seurat, Degas, Monet, Toulouse-Latrec....the list goes on. I did take some pictures of the statues outside though.
the continents
North America (note the names on the axe thing)
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After that, we headed to Musée Rodin. Shockingly, it contains countless of Rodin's sculptures. Rodin actually donated them to France, with the condition that he be allowed to live in part of the museum for the rest of his life. This was another "no-picture" museum, but much of the sculptures were in the garden out back. I do wish I could have taken pictures of "The Kiss." I like it a lot, and its much bigger than most of his other works.
Recognize this? IT'S THE THINKER!
This is how I feel during exams. He totally gets me!
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Once we had our fill of bronze and marble figures, we zipped over to Champs Elysées, to see what the big deal was (and the obelisk).
The Tour de France would be finishing up here on Sunday--it looks like they're setting up!
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Once we had found a reasonably priced restaurant for dinner (not so easy near Champs Elysées...) and I had the best French onion soup ever, we walked over to Jardin de Tuileries. I thought it translated to "Tulip Garden." After wandering around and seeing no tulips, I was reminded of how terrible my French is.
Well played, pigeon. Well played.
walking into the sun...
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We had reached the Louvre! Which fortunately for us, stays open late on Fridays. This museum is HUGE. We didn't even bother with an entire floor, and we were there for a looong time.
Winged Victory
February & Pieces
view from one of the second floor windows
Come at me, bro
This Twombly ceiling just doesn't quite fit with the crazy-detailed ones in the other rooms.
Even the stairways are decked out!
Golden Retriever?
This guy.
If it were possible for Michael Cera and Johnny Depp to have a child...
...it would look like this.
food people!
pandemoneum
THE MONA LISA!
note the facial expressions on the right
"This looks familiar."
"It was the cover of our copy of Oedipus Rex for Search class!"
Napoleon crowning Josephine
The Venus de Milo!
"...one of these things is not like the other..."
The Three Graces
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss
Hermes
Michelangelo's Dying Slave
Baaaaaaatter Up!
more Michelangelo
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We rounded out our evening with a leisurely sunset climb up 284 steps to the top of the 50 meter tall Arc du Triomphe.
the stairs down....
Memorial flame to the Unknown Soldier
On the way home, we got a pretty cool view of Sacre Coeur in the distance. Once back, I started examining my blisters. Big mistake.
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