More Museums, More Culture

We started our day walking through Jardin du Luxembourg while we pondered what to do for the day...eventually settling on visiting Musée Rodin. Located in the Hôtel Biron where Rodin lived, the museum was set up in 1916 when Rodin donated his works to the state in return for the for the state undertaking to preserve the building. It was a fascinating place to walk around with Rodin's major works throughout the gardens and smaller works housed inside.

The gardens of Hôtel Biron

Le Pensevr...The Thinker...perhaps the best known of Rodin's works

The original le Pensevr...part of la Porte de l'Enfer

The complete la Porte de l'Enfer...Gate of Hell

Other works by Rodin

We left Musée Rodin and made our way past the Hôtel des Invalides...which houses the Army Museum...to la Seine where we turned towards Musée d'Orsay. Our objective was to make another attempt to see the Impressionist galleries up on Level 5...and this time we were successful...just. Not long after we arrived, multi-ligual announcements started about some property left somewhere in the museum. These were repeated continuously for about 15 minutes before they stopped to ...and all the time we were half expecting the announcement to change "please leave the building". Fortunately they didn't so we were able to see everything that we wanted to.

Outside Hôtel des Invalides

Musée du Louvre from the roof of Musée d'Orsay

Jardin des Tuileries from the roof of Musée d'Orsay

A sneaky inside shot of Musée d'Orsay...sneaky because you aren't allowed to use a camera inside

The crowd in the Musée d'Orsay was much smaller than we expected so...somewhat foolishly perhaps...we decided to drop into Musée du Louvre. We had spent the entire day here three years ago and so this time went for a quick visit...not that any visit can really be quick as the place is so big...to see the Madonna again. Even though the museum wasn't particularly crowded, the Madonna is such a popular exhibit, it was still a "bun fight". After visiting that gallery, we then went to the other side of the museum to visit the Napoleon III Apartments.

Madonna...

...attracts a large crowd at any time

The Napoleon III Apartments

Having ended up walking further than we probably should have, we found our way back to our hotel for a much needed rest before going out to find dinner.