Today was back to back museums - this was planned due to expected rain. We headed via the metro for Musee D'Orsay first. No cameras are allowed so you will have to look in books or web for the images. The main hall is filled with sculptures. It is a 4 story tall room so lots of natural light. The side rooms and halls have various themes. We finished most of the main level and headed to the second to see more sculptures but smaller ones by rodin and others. The side rooms were grouped again by themes but only covered 2-3 artists. It was a nice introduction for the children to see how a single painter could go through various stages in their art. They were also able to truly study the brush strokes of each style. The final room we visited on the second floor was Van Gogh - seeing his two self portraits in person was fun. We headed to the 5th floor to the impressionists.... wow! Monet, Manet, Cezzane, etc.... By this point we needed a break.
We headed down Rue de Bac to try to get into L'Atelier Saint Germain de Joe Robuchon but no luck - it looked like there may have been space but we were not dressed appropriately... we headed back up to Eric Kayser which was our fallback. I am so glad that we did - he does AMAZING breads and you all know that I am a nut about my breads. I had his quiche which was a salmon and broccoli, two children had pizza with a rosemary crust - oh my. One sandwhich and another quiche later and we were wanting more of his food. We decided to splurge for dessert of a nut covered brownie. I had no idea how much of a difference dark chocolate made for baking!
We continued along Rue d Bac to Varenne to go to the Musee Rodin. I could not wait to see the thinker in person. We had seen a portion of his back on one of our early days, but now to really study him. The problem is that his feet start 7 feet in the air.
It was fun to wander the gardens and see his other works. They had created a glass enclosed room filled with his marble statues on the side of the garden.
We also saw his gates to hell .... I could have spent some time studying all the details in that
In the "hotel" the townhouse in the middle of his museum are even more of his and his contemporaries works. They showed the process of creating a bronze piece. I have always enjoyed works of bronze since wandering Newbury Street in Boston but this took it to another level. His work shows the muscles of the back and leg like not many others do. Most of his works are of the human body - the busts he did on commission and otherwise were of such detail that you could imagine the personality of the person through his work. On the wall were works by Van Gogh too - not too bad for a friend. We saw his early clay creations and some of his works incorporated into others.
On the way home, we took a chance to stop by La Cerisaie to see if they had reservations either tonight or tomorrow - we will be there at 7pm tonight - Can't Wait!
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