Paris - Day 3

Today I started the day solo as Bridget was tired and wanted to stay in longer. So, I headed to the metro and on to Musee d'Orsay.  When I arrived at the Musee it was about 9:35, and I found out that they open at 9:30.  The wait to get in was not bad - only about 12 minutes.  I quickly bought a ticket once inside and made my way into the museum.  The space was incredible - it is an old train station that was proposed for demolition, but was extensively renovated into a museum that opened in 1986.  There are many incredible sculptures and paintings from several movements, but the d'Orsay is best known for its collection of Impressionism works.  Many, many iconic pieces from Monet, Degas, Renoir and others.  Additionally, they house several key works from Van Gogh.

After taking in the full expanse of the space, I noticed huge signs indicating that no photography was allowed.  That was very different than the Louvre.  While I was initially upset that no pictures were allowed, it was actually quite nice to just enjoy the works of art and not worry about trying to get a great picture or trying to avoid other people taking pictures.

I meandered through the first two floors and was shocked by the few number of people compared to the Louvre.  Then I headed to the top floor for the Impressionism exhibit...this is where everyone was viewing!  It was a struggle to see almost every painting.  Sometimes, I just gave up because I wasn't interested in that much effort.  Luckily, the crowds seemed to go in waves, so I just waited out one wave and the experience was much better.

The Monet pieces were amazing and I would stand in front of many of them for several minutes.  They had at least 50+ of his works.  Then Renoir was next...Renoir is in the top 5 of my favorite artists and I had a huge framed poster of his "Bal du moulin de la Galette" (Garden Party) in my dorm room for 3 years in college (and that same poster still hangs in my room at my parent's house).  The original of that work hit me head on...it was amazing!!  I stood and admired for a while...then I sat down and admired for even longer.  

Image compliments of Google since I could not take a picture of it:

I moved on to the rest of the exhibits, enjoying it more and more.  I was disappointed by the end.  However, at the end was a wonderfully stylish cafe with a very cool clock and then an exit to the balcony area which had wonderful views across the Seine River.  

Rather than go down the suggested stairs, I headed back through the Impressionism rooms, revisiting all of my favorites. As I headed down, I stopped on floors 4 and 3 to see several furniture exhibits.  Finally down to the 2nd floor, then I started to look for the Van Gogh exhibit (Van Gogh is also in my top 5 favorite artists).  After asking a few guides and ease-dropping on a few guided tours, I found the Van Gogh works.  Van Gogh crossed 3 rooms and each one was extremely crowded.  The Van Gogh highlights were "The Starry Night" and "Self-Portrait"

After covering all of the d'Orsay, I headed to the gift shop for postcards of my favorite pieces.  Some quick retail therapy at a chocolate and macaroon shop and then I headed back to the hotel to pick-up Bridget and venture out for lunch.  We stopped at the concierge and got a few lunch suggestions.  We walked a few blocks to the first suggestion, but it was pricier than we wanted to pay for lunch, so we strolled back to a cluster of cafes we had passed.  I had steak frites again.  The steak was rather disappointing, but the frites were great with a Roquefort sauce. We had a long discussion about work issues, employee management concerns and what the future might hold for each of us.

After our very late lunch - leaving the cafe around 3:30 PM, we hopped the subway for Cemetery du Pere-Lachaise.  After a few subways transfers, we were at the entrance for the cemetery.  This cemetery is known as the final resting place for many hundreds of very famous Frenchmen/women...however, they are several famous non-Frenchmen including Jimmi Hendrix.  The cemetery has very poor signage, so we never found of any famous folks we were searching for - Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Hendrix and others.  Overall we felt that the cemetery was not well maintained, had very poor walking paths and overall was disappointing - I would not recommend it.  Nonetheless, there were some beautiful pictures:

From the cemetery we headed for a small, local cafe and enjoyed a late afternoon glass of wine.  

Following our short rest, we were ready to head to the Montmartre area and to see the Baslique de Scre-Caeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart).  As soon as we stepped off the metro, it started raining - our first rain in Paris.  No rain had been forecasted, so we didn't have umbrellas.  We scurried under vendor tents to wait out the short rainfall.  

After a few minutes, we continued on up the hill towards Montmartre. Stopping in a few gift shops along the way, we made our way to the base of Scre-Caeur.  Luckily we found a rail system to go up the mountain.  At the top, we were presented with an incredible view across Paris:

We headed into the Basilica after admiring the view for a while.  

The Basilica was breath-taking, but didn't allow talking or photography.  I was appalled by the people that ignored both of these strong instructions.  I learned the importance of the Basilica and how a Basilica is blessed by the Pope...and that they are the holiest places for Catholics outside of the Vatican.  It was so disrespectful for some of the other visitors who were talking and snapping photos rather than appreciating the religious significance and importance of this place.

We started walking back down the mountain, took the tram and decided on dinner.  The dinner location was randomly picked by location and menu options.  Overall I thought it was OK - we both had pasta and shared a Bordeaux wine that was OK at best.  

Following dinner, we stopped at more gift shops, with both of us purchasing gifts.  We headed back to the hotel - about a 30 min subway ride.

Once back at the hotel, I changed clothes and researched a few bars to experience Paris nightlife.  After about 20 min, I headed out.  I took the subway to Hotel de Ville.  I quickly found the first bar.  It was packed outside and inside.  After getting inside, I fought my way to the bar at the front.  It was exhausting; I was hot and I didn't think I would enjoy myself...so I fought my way back to the door and left.  Finding the next few bars on the list was more difficult.  When I was close to giving up, I stumbled upon the next two on my list.  I tried one and stayed.  I ordered a Vodka Tonic - 5.50 euros and later discovered that I was jipped - he gave me 10.60 in change from a 20.  The drink was mediocre.  The music was pretty good - but all American, English-speaking dance mixes.  The crowd was light at first, but filled in.  No one was talking to anyone else unless they came together.  I finished my drink then left quickly thereafter.

From the second bar, I headed to a popular Cafe.  I grabbed a table inside since all of the outside tables were taken with smokers.  I ordered a glass of wine and settled into my table.  It was about 12:15 and I knew that the subway closed at 1, so that would be last stop.  When finishing my drink, I headed for the subway and luckily one arrived very quickly.

Not the most exciting of Paris nightlife....but a long day and another big day ahead.