I’ll be honest: I’ve traveled across much of Europe without visiting some of the world’s best and most appreciated museums. Emily, on the other hand, could spend countless hours in them and has a much greater appreciation for the masterpieces of art on display. For this reason, we dedicated a full day of our trip to wondering through a few of Paris’s best and most renowned art museums. Emily was so excited; I was not so exhilarated. But the thrill of the chase took hold of me, and I was hooked by the challenge of trying to find each masterpiece among thousands of square feet of museum space. We had an awesome day, in part for completely different reasons, but we will definitely be checking out more museums in the future!
On our morning walk over to the Left Bank we stopped to do something spontaneous and silly. The Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge famous for the love locks that many lovers have placed on the bridge, attaching their lock and then throwing away the key into the Seine. We were surprised to find that these locks were somewhat controversially removed from the bridge several years ago due to the weight they added to the structure. Interestingly, though, people have started attaching locks to a different bridge (the name of which I cannot even recall). Being that we had a lock with us and we happened to be crossing this “new” lock bridge, we joined in on the trend and attached a lock, throwing the key into the Seine and locking in our love forever – or at least until the city decides to once again remove the locks!
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d’Orsay is a beautiful museum house in a former railway station on the Left Bank of the Seine originally constructed for the 1900 Paris Exposition world’s fair. It is very popular because it houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist work in the world. Yes, my wife had to explain these terms to me. The museum’s main hall is massive, as you’d expect from a former rail station, which gives it a very distinct feel from other museums. There is a large clock located on the top floor of the museum that is a popular spot to stop for a photo, and the views of the Right Bank from the Musée d’Orsay’s top floor are incredible.
We purchased a combination ticket that included both the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie. My biggest piece of advice would be to do a little research ahead of your trip and decide which of the many famous Parisian museums you’d most like to visit. There are many different combination tickets that combine museums for a single entry price, so you’ll likely be able to find a ticket that includes those that you’re hoping to see without making you pay for some others that you’re less interested in. We arrived at the Musée d’Orsay at its opening hour but had to wait for about 45 minutes to enter due to the transportation difficulties related to the pension strike that many staff members experienced during their morning commute. Since we were anticipating this, though, the wait was manageable and not a large nuisance for us.
Musée de l'Orangerie
Emily chose the Musée de l’Orangerie as the next Parisian art museum for us to visit primarily due to her favorite painter, Claude Monet. While Paris does actually have an entire museum dedicated to Monet, the Musée Marmottan Monet, it is not located within walking distance of Central Paris and would have been quite difficult for us given the transportation shut downs. Instead, the Musée de l’Orangerie was a great option because it was located close by, at the far corner of the Tuileries Garden, and, more importantly, houses one of Monet’s most famous works of art, the Water Lilies murals. Truthfully, the Water Lilies were about the only thing that we and every other visitor were interested in seeing. They were very impressive, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Emily so giddy in realizing that she was living a “bucket list moment”.
We walked through the Tuileries Garden, formerly the royal garden of the Louvre but made into a public park following the French Revolution, back toward our next museum stop. We both decided we’d love to see the garden during warmer weather, as I’m sure its spectacular when lush and green. Drawn in by the beautiful patio of its restaurant, we stopped for lunch at Le Musset for lunch and enjoyed handsomely prepared smoked salmon and avocado toast and a chicken Caesar salad.
Musée du Louvre
When spending a full day visiting Paris’s finest art museums, how could we not visit the Louvre? The Musée du Louvre was originally a castle, then a palace, and is now the world’s largest art museum. Interestingly, it does not have a great collection of French art, rather showcases works from various places and cultures around the world. For this reason, we were told by many to make the Louvre less of a priority if we truly wanted to gain an understanding for French art and culture. Since the Louvre is so massive and popular, it requires some true planning before walking in and tackling this beast. First, buying tickets online ahead of time is imperative. When you do so, you will pick an assigned date and time window which allows you to skip the gargantuan line that forms outside the museum. We were told by several others that this line can grow to be several hours long during the peak travel weeks of the summer. Buying tickets in advance was a savior for us because the museum was limiting the number of day-of purchases due to the strikes.
Equally as important as buying tickets in advance is to formulate some type of plan for what you’d like to see and in what order. This forward thinking will save you so much time trying to find your way around and deciding what to do next. That being said, for me, trying to find the masterpieces within the maze of rooms throughout the former palace was absolutely part of the adventure. We really enjoyed seeing the remnants from the Louvre’s past as a castle in the lowest floor of the museum. There is an impressive collection of Egyptian art, and the Napoleon Apartments were another favorite of ours. As everyone knows, the Mona Lisa is completely overrated; we surely did not wait in line to take a closer photo. Unfortunately many of the exhibits in the Louvre were closed due to the pension strikes, but there was still plenty to see. All in all, the Louvre was fun, but despite how famous it may be, for some, it may be more stress than it’s worth. Here are some photos of some cool things and some famous things. You can decide which is which.
