The museum update. I'm not going to break it down day by day but rather by museum.

The Orsay - It is set in an old train station. Todd read that it was going to be torn down but Orson Welles was here shooting a film and wanted to use it. The time it took him to shoot the movie gave people the chance to get it registered as an historical site and saved. It has been beautifully renovated. It is a living museum. The huge train clock and the beautifully detailed ceilings cause you to just pause and take in the setting before you even begin to look at the art. The Orsay picks up where The Louvre leaves off, historically speaking. It has some of the conservative, romantic art of the past, but most of the museum is filled with realism, sculptures and the impressionists. The impressionists are the stars in this museum and we saw a lot of the classics. They were amazing. Griffin's favorite was Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles. We were surprised by the beautiful works of Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissaro; artists that we'd never even heard of! My favorite was the sculptured caricatures by Daumier. He made 8-10 inch high busts of all the people in the Academy and Salon, accentuating their most pronounced feature. These were the conservatives who controlled the art scene at the time. Todd enjoyed Rodin's "Gates of Hell". It took 35 years to sculpt and he wasn't able to complete it. We laughed at the conversation between Rodin and his wife/and or mistresses - "Are you still working on that Gates of Hell thing?", "Yes, almost done...".

We spent two half days at the Orsay and we think we saw it all. The second time around we took some goofy pictures of Griffin "being" the art. I'll try to post them. I'm in the process of figuring out how to put on some pictures.

L'Orangerie - or L'ingerie as I kept pronouncing it, much to Griffin's chagrin.
This musuem was designed to house Claude Monet's Water Lilly's. He painted them especially for it. He worked on them, in his later years, out at his house in Giverny. He never lived to see them put up. They are huge and awe inspiring. We spent a good deal of time just sitting and absorbing them. On the lower floor, the exhibit is Paul Guillaume's personal collection, an art dealer from that time. It contained Cezanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, and Rousseau. Griffin completed a work book, in french, for kids visiting the musee. It asked her to reflect on the art and do some sketching of her own. She had fun doing it.

Rodin - Rodin's museum is set on the grounds where he lived. You can walk through his beautiful gardens and mansion. It was one of my favorite museums (we were a bit over paintings at that point!) and sculpture is a medium I love. It was an indoor/outdoor experience. The Thinker was in the garden as well as many other well-known Rodin's. It truly is amazing the feeling and motion that his sculptures evoke. He would work on many different versions before he would create a final product. One of his sculptures was so realistic that he was accused of putting a mold onto the human body. Critics didn't believe that he could have sculpted it. That's probably the best compliment he could receive.

Musee D'Armee at Invalides - This is where Napoleon's tomb is housed. It was interesting to see. We also visited the WWI and WWII exhibits. We sped through WWI, as it was really just a precursor to WWII, and then spent some time absorbing all the primary sources recounting the events. The exhibit was from the french perspective so there was a lot of information that we hadn't learned. I didn't really know the importance of Charles De Galle's role in it. We also saw the uniforms of the time and the different ammunition used. There was a mini motorcycle in a case that was parachuted down so that when soldiers landed they would find the suitcase and be able to go off on the motorcycle. It was very cool.

We are attempting the beast of museums tomorrow; The Louvre. We have planned the entire day, with a substantial break in the middle of the day for lunch and relaxing. It is open until 9:00 tomorrow evening.

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