Impressionism!

I finally managed to get Steve to a museum, and we visited Musée d'Orsay on Wednesday afternoon (July 6), arriving just after 4:30 when it gets a little cheaper, and leaving us just enough time to see the upper floors of the museum.

Musée d'Orsay used to be Gare d'Orsay, a train station, and luckily someone realized it would make a great museum before they tore it down in the 1970s. We hustled up to the 5th floor to see the world's largest collection of impressionist art. As usual, here are some favorites:

 Degas sculptures. I'm on a mission to find a miniature version of the horse on the left...

Monet 

Renoir 

 our favorite of Monet's Rouen Cathedral studies 

Monet's garden at Giverny. I'll get to see it in about a week and a half! 

 Degas' dancers. Love that shade of blue. 

Cezanne 

 view of the Seine, the Tuileries, Montmartre from the top floor of the museum

 :) 

Van Gogh - not quite the Starry Night, but close! 

 Van Gogh

 famous Van Gogh self portrait

a last Monet for good measure - Parliament building in London

On Thursday morning, I trekked off to Musée Marmatton de Monet, which I believe has the largest collection of Monet in the world. It's almost in the suburbs, off to the west of Central Paris. While they did have some important and beautiful Monets that I wasn't allowed to take pictures of, they also had some incredible paintings by woman I had never heard of:

 Berthe Morisot (painted here by Édouard Manet in 1873)

 She is amazing! She painted in oils like the other impressionists, but she also was a strong watercolorist. I would love to have even this sketch/study in a frame in my house!

 Bergere Couchée (1891)

When I walked into the room with her works, I felt overwhelmed and actually filled up with tears. I'm not totally sure why, but I certainly don't like the fact that an artist with such beautiful work was largely ignored during her time because she's a woman.

 My favorite. Le Jardin a Bougival (1884)

 Very close second favorite. Eugene Manet et sa fille dans le Jardin de Bougival (1881)

After spending an hour or two in the museum, I made my way back toward Schola Cantorum for chorale. I stopped to pick up a sandwich for lunch and ate it at the Trocadéro, which is across the Seine from: 

 First good view of the Eiffel Tower. That's a soccer ball hanging for Euro Cup; there's a fan zone around the base of the tower. The French played Germany in the semi-finals that night, so preparations for crowds were underway. They did win, by the way, as we could tell from all the cheering in our neighborhood that evening!

One other update: Mom did make it here, just a day late thanks to her flight being canceled (air conditioning broken on the plane... not great). We had a crazy day (car rental place closed at noon when our reservation was at noon, hotel lost our reservation and was completely booked...), but more on that when I get caught up!