This is THE museum in Paris. THE one they say you MUST visit and you MUST go and see Mona Lisa. Well. This is my fourth time in Paris, and the second time I live in the parisian area and only now I felt like I MUST visit Louvre (well, it was really more like "I guess I should go, especially since it's free, why not"). I went with Justine and Helena on a free sunday. The queue was pretty impressive, but it did advance and it took a little less than two hours to get in. We had some sandwiches and a friendly conversation with a canadian couple waiting in line behind us. When we got in, we obviously wanted to get the most important thing to do in the Louvre done: direction italian renaissance and Mona Lisa. And there it was. Behind a wall of holiday hats and cameras. A tight wall. No way to penetrate all the way to the painting. I would smile like that also if I caused such a commotion. Obviously it's a fine piece of art. But I did find da Vinci's transvestite-esque version of John the Baptist much more intriguing. It hangs close by and there's plenty of space around it.
I personnally found the Egypt and Greece -sections more interesting than the italian renaissance, but that's simply because it's not my favorite period at all and the style just doesn't really speak to me. Too much detail, too little color for me. But just a question of taste. Of course I have a huge admiration for the technique and all that. But just not my cup of tea.
The museum is HUGE, so there really is no way to see everything on one go.
Still not my favourite, and to be honest I prefer the British Museum when it comes to the historic objects, but I'm still very glad I went. The building in itself is worth the visit. Don't forget to peek out the windows, you just might get a perfect view over the Tuileries all the way over Arc de Triomphe to the Défense, ideally all bathing in the intense glow of a midsummer parisian sun.
Musée d'Orsay is my favorite of the "big" parisian art museums. The building is an old railway station situated right on the banks of Seine opposite Louvre and Tuileries. This museum holds some of my all time favorite paintings. I love impressionists and they're what Orsay is all about. Monét, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Manet, just to mention the biggest stars. The basic collection is already enough but they also have fantastic changing exhibitions that are always thoughtfully constructed and don't only showcase the masterpieces of an artist or of some theme, but also introduce the surrounding people and events as well as some less known works that showcase a whole new side of the artist in question. This is how I discovered the cigarette smoking gypsy woman by Manet. She's still hanging on my wall and probably will hang on the wall of my next home as well, I just wish she was in a poster format instead of a postcard. The shop is also full of treasures and the most fascinating books.
Tourists are a plenty, of course, but it's just an amusing little addition to the visit to observe how some people manage to visit an art museum in a way that they see the minimum of paintings. A good start is not to take off your sunglasses, now who would like to see the colours that impressionist paintings are all about? Also walk very fast in the middle of the corridor where you're as far as possible from the paintings on both sides, and if you have company, talk to them about something totally unrelated. If you are alone, type text messages. Best thing to do is to sit on a bench close to the entrance wearing sunglasses and typing text messages/going through the photos you've taken.
They also have the rudest people selling tickets. If they get confused using the credit card machine (Help! A foreign Visa card in a world renowned art museum!) then it's your fault. You broke it. You and your weird-ass card. Oh, here's the boss. Oh miracle, it works.
On the other hand the people in the shop are normal.
If Orsay is my favorite of the "big" parisian art museums, Orangerie is my favorite of all parisian art museums. Mostly because it's very calm and not too big, so you don't overdose.
The flow of visitors is controlled, so not too many people are inside at once. That's mostly because of the main attraction of the museum, Monét's Nymphéas , the 8 wall size paintings of the water-lilies of his garden in Giverny (that can also be visited, haven't, yet). They are exhibited in specially constructed oval rooms with skylights that filter in the natural light. This is the ideal way to exhibit these impressionist masterpieces, since the impressionists were the first ones to take their canvases and brushes and paint outside, in the landscape. And that's why I find them so magical. I've been here a few times and every time the water-lilies look a bit different and every time I like different ones. The rest of the collection is also vast and this is where I first discovered Marie Laurencin, who's portrait of Coco Chanel accompanies the Manet cigarette-gypsy in my room. She uses colors that speak to me only in her work. And I love nothing more than starting to like something that I thought I couldn't enjoy, like country music, mustard or as in Laurencin's case, pastels.
They sell a combination ticket for Orangerie and Orsay and it is very much worth it. But I recommend that if you're planning to do them both on a same day, go to Orangerie first, since after Orsay, you will suffer for sure of at least a mild case of art overdose.
I also love the statue of lovers all over each other right outside the entrance (see picture).
Quai Branly is a museum of cultures and of cultural history. It's also one of the most recent museums in Paris. The imposing modern building complex is a short walk from Tour Eiffel and only the building itself is worth a look. The permanent collection hosts all kinds of cultural artefacts from all over the world organized by continents and you visit them by following a "river". I've visited the permanent collection without audioguide but I thing it could be useful if you really like to know what the crazy masks and headrests are about. (I still don't know what headrests are about.) But the descriptions and videos along the "river" are pretty helpful and informative as well. And I always feel like they're not telling me everything on the audioguides and I can't stand the little "animation" they always put there "look, there comes the king for his dinner", music, king's footsteps, etc. No, I don't care about king's footsteps, tell me about the food he ate, the cutlery he used, the fabric of the chairs, etc. I want facts in a museum, for fiction I will go to the cinema or the theatre. So that's my problem with audioguides. Back to the subject of Quai Branly.
They also have changing exhibitions around a specific subject. I'm going tomorrow (it's the first sunday of august) to see a Maya exhibition and I'm pretty sure it will be great. I find the Mayas fascinating and I'm sure they've done a fantastic job at Quai Branly. But I will confirm this after tomorrow.
And for world culture fanatics (like me) the museum shop is a treasure cove. Obviously it has a lot of garbage trinkets and that (some of the garbage trinkets are actually pretty nice, since they're trinkets or jewelry fabricated by some people far away of recycled garbage) but it's also full of books, documentaries on dvd's and world music cd's. I know I will buy something again tomorrow. Last time I bought Karen Blixen's "Out of Africa" book and on dvd Mika Kaurismäki's "Moro No Brasil", a fantastic documentary about brazilian music. I also almost bought Bhagavad Gita, the 700-verse holy Hindu-script. And I might actually buy it tomorrow. That would make a great beach reading for Nice in a few weeks. I like the hindu philosophy a lot. But not enough to have a cow invade my living room though, I'm more into some of their ideas.
Also, the garden outside the museum with a restaurant is a great place to visit. A great place to read some Bhagavad Gita as well, I imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment