Museum Day and a trip to the Opera

Today, was “Museum Day”. We were up early to get to the Musee d’Orsay at 9 am. After a short wait in line, we were able to get in without much drama. We spent a pleasant few hours in the Museum looking at the impressionist paintings, but preferred the sculpture collection and the Art Deco wing, which had some gorgeous furniture and objects d’art. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, so no pictures to post here.

From the Musee d’Orsay, we took a tour of the Paris Opera. Marianne (Antonia’s stepmother) had recommended this tour, and it was one of the highlights of our trip to Paris. Our tour guide was excellent. Half-French and half-American, he was thoughtful and witty while showing us around. He was also studying to be an opera singer, and his passion for the art form and for the building was palpable and infectious. The tour is quite extensive, although we were unable to go backstage because they were rehearsing a ballet for that evening (we were able to watch a bit of the rehearsal, though). For those going to Paris, this is a must-see.

After the Opera, we headed for the Louvre. A tip: The entrance fee for the Louvre goes down by two euros after 4 pm, and the Museum is open on Wednesdays until 10 pm. 4 pm on Wednesday is the time to go.

We stopped for a café au lait to fortify ourselves before heading in, and met two charming Canadians, Tina and Pamela, who were leaving Paris that day and gave us their Museum Passes, which gave us free and accelerated entry to the Louvre. (We liked the Canadians before this trip, but are HUGE fans now. They are the nicest people ever!)

The Louvre is enormous. Like the Smithsonian, if you looked at each exhibit for a few seconds, it would still take you a few years to get through the place. If you have a Museum Pass, you do not enter the museum through the glass pyramid, but through a side entrance. The museum has an excellent map that shows you were the highlights in each wing. At first, I rebelled against this map, thinking we would find our own highlights. We went through the lower level first, but soon realized that in fact the museum map was the right thing to follow.

We headed to the first of many Egyptian wings, where we checked out the mummies. But the highlights for us were the two “Captives” of Michaelangelo (There are six “Captives” in total, four in Florence and two in the Louvre. We were lucky to have seen all six), the Venus de Milo (flawless), Psyche and Cupid (romantic, with a real feeling of movement), the Winged Victory of Somothrace (which has powerful energy), and the Lacemaker by Vermeer. (The Smithsonian has a large collection of Vermeer in their 17th Century Dutch wing, and it was always Antonia’s favorite wing when she lived in D.C.)

We finally stumbled out of the glass pyramid and made our blurry way home to finish packing for our flight back to Los Angeles.