Musee d’Orsay
I love Victorian railway stations – the immense size and the skeletal structure and the knowledge that their prominence in both size and the public imagination was so short-lived, so I’m very taken with the Musee d’Orsay, an art museum in a converted railway station. The Orsay train station was built on the eve of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1890, service was inaugurated in 1900 and only continued for some 30 years before the station was abandoned as the platforms were too short for long-distance trains. In its day the station and its hotel were absolutely luxurious and train stations around the world (Grand Central in NYC and Union Station in DC) were modeled after it.
After its abandonment it served a variety of purposes (movie set, holding center for returning prisoners of war, etc) and was slated for the wrecking ball until it was saved in 1977 with a proposal to transform it into a museum devoted to 19th century art (from 1848 to 1915..well, sort of).
So not only does it have a wonderful building, but also a wonderful collection. And it is much, much smaller than the Louvre so we should be able to handle it. The website is very sophisticated And even if you’re not coming along you’ll be able to visit the museum online. There are a number of videos which I will watch myself when I’m on a better computer.
How will we get there? We’ll take the 69 bus or just walk. And how much will we pay? 8 Euros. There is a lunchtime concert on Tues, March 8 at noon-thirty. I wonder if that’s included in the admission. (No, 12 Euros regular, 6 reduced rate, but that allows admission to the permanent collection) Oh this is confusing. My next job will be studying up on the museum pass.
I love Victorian railway stations – the immense size and the skeletal structure and the knowledge that their prominence in both size and the public imagination was so short-lived, so I’m very taken with the Musee d’Orsay, an art museum in a converted railway station. The Orsay train station was built on the eve of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1890, service was inaugurated in 1900 and only continued for some 30 years before the station was abandoned as the platforms were too short for long-distance trains. In its day the station and its hotel were absolutely luxurious and train stations around the world (Grand Central in NYC and Union Station in DC) were modeled after it.
After its abandonment it served a variety of purposes (movie set, holding center for returning prisoners of war, etc) and was slated for the wrecking ball until it was saved in 1977 with a proposal to transform it into a museum devoted to 19th century art (from 1848 to 1915..well, sort of).
So not only does it have a wonderful building, but also a wonderful collection. And it is much, much smaller than the Louvre so we should be able to handle it. The website is very sophisticated And even if you’re not coming along you’ll be able to visit the museum online. There are a number of videos which I will watch myself when I’m on a better computer.
How will we get there? We’ll take the 69 bus or just walk. And how much will we pay? 8 Euros. There is a lunchtime concert on Tues, March 8 at noon-thirty. I wonder if that’s included in the admission. (No, 12 Euros regular, 6 reduced rate, but that allows admission to the permanent collection) Oh this is confusing. My next job will be studying up on the museum pass.
And there is also a concert there at 12:30 noon that same Tuesday, March 8th: "Cantabile – The London Quartet,
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Martineau, piano
Songs of Love and Death
From Medieval polyphony to the great English choral repertoire of Vaughan Williams, Pearsall, Elgar and Sullivan, and including the poetry of Tennyson, one of the top vocal groups in Great Britain, Cantabile – The London Quartet, and the pianist Malcolm Martineau, present a wide selection of music associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and their era."