Brucatos Italy France Belgium 2015: A museum kind of day!

Bonjour on Wednesday!

Up about the usual time (6-ish) and R went down for breakfast – croissants for him, and pain au chocolat for me, with good small bottles of orange juice. Then, out the door about 8:45 a.m. for the bus ride on the 84 bus to Musee d’Orsay. Many fewer people there than when we stopped by yesterday, and we arrived about 9:20 a.m. for their 9:30 opening. We only had to wait a few minutes to get in.

Looking from Museum's cafe out old train station clock window

One of R's favorite Monet's

Getting to use Entrance C with pre-purchased tickets is really a good idea!

Once inside the very impressive museum – it started life as a train station, so it is huge and barnlike, with lots of exposed iron beams, we headed directly up to the 5^th floor, which is where the majority of the Impressionist paintings and sculpture are. What is nice is that most people start from the ground floor and work up, so it takes them some time to reach our location. I’d estimate we had very few crowds to deal with for about an hour – and by that time, between tourists and school kids, wow! We had a nice, leisurely study of the Impressionists – beautiful Degas sculpture, including a life-size dancer and lots of Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne and others. Robert is particularly partial to Monet’s paintings of London’s Parliament building, and they do have a beauty. The other nice thing about having the Impressionist work on the 5^th (top) floor is that there is so much natural light from windows and sky lights; absolutely excellent museum, and certainly worth our trip to FNAC yesterday to pick up tickets!

Stunning Degas dancer

Looking out clock window to Sacre Coeur on hill

Lots of hardware from the train station

After the top floor, we headed down to the second floor, as I wanted to show Robert the section of furniture and furnishings that I had discovered when I was there last November. It was labeled “Art Nouveau “(New Art) from France, Belgium, Italy and Spain. I am including some of the photographs from this section. The time seemed to be about the end of the 1800’s-beginning of the 1900’s, and includes several absolutely stunning jewelry pieces by Lalique – whew!

Old station clock inside the building

Stunning turn of the century furniture

Love the screen...

By this time, it was actually lunchtime, and we decided that as we’re heading to the Louvre tonight (they’re open until 9:30 p.m.) we should eat a substantial lunch so that we don’t need to have dinner. So, we headed to Musee D’Orsay’s restaurant, which originally dates from 1900. (We have eaten several times in their Café, which is on the 5^th floor and right behind one of their huge clocks left over from the train station days, but we have never eaten in their incredibly beautiful restaurant.) A queue was already forming, and we had to wait for a few minutes, but wow, it was SO worth it!

Amazing art glass from same period

Our restaurant!

Handsome guy I had lunch with!

We were seated at a nice table for two near the window. For starters, R ordered their shrimp with avocado salad; it was FANTASTIC! The shrimp were deep-fried in a very light batter, and came with a very tasty red sauce. Then, what we believe to be romaine lettuce was shredded and mixed with something like Green Goddess salad dressing, avocado and finely diced tomato, and served in a very neat square. There were also several sections of whole romaine served with a balsamic dressing. I ordered a demi-portion (half portion) of their marinated mushrooms, which came with a slice of bacon. It was good, but not nearly as good as R’s starter! For mains, R ordered their Red Label (very good type) chicken which came with a shredded, cooked cabbage and pear accompaniment. I ordered their braised beef, for which I didn’t need a knife, along with gnocchi and mushrooms. Amazing…if we don’t leave France soon, I’m not going to be able to sit in my airplane seat…R declined dessert, but I had a great chocolate éclair, all washed down with a wonderful bottle of white Graves wine.

My mushroom salad

R's wonderful shrimp with avocado plate

My braised beef with gnocchi

After this repast, we were definitely ready for some down (ie. Nap) time, so caught the 84 bus back to the flat (although the 84 sort of went off course on its own along Rue Saint Germain, where it wasn’t supposed to be!) and we finally got off at Cluny and caught a 38 to get us up the hill to the Luxembourg. Back into the flat about 2:30 p.m. and had some wonderful nap time. Up now and blogging! Later this afternoon we will head to the Louvre to finish our tour of their recently completed Near Eastern section, and from there to the Tour Eiffel to (hopefully) see it sparkle – if we can stay up that late!

Tomorrow we pack up and bid au revoir to this beautiful city, as we are picking up a car back at Orly Airport and heading north towards Arras, Lille and WWI battle sites!