The two "O" museums, the Tuileries, and plans finalized for Normandy!

     We walked less today - only about 3.5 miles. We visited the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de L'Orangerie, which are on opposite sides of the Seine river. It was a lot cooler today - so we decided to hang out inside more than outside. We've seen so many museums, so many masterpieces, so many familiar and unfamiliar names that I'm glad we have gone to all the museums we'd chosen. It's awesome, yet overwhelming, to try to take in all of this - I can only imagine how people who fit more into each day than we're doing must feel. I love writing this, because it feels like I'm emptying my head to get ready for tomorrow - haha :) - but by no means complaining!!
      Le Musée d'Orsay is in a former train station, and has a beautiful glass roof and huge, ornate clocks, at each end. I know at least one is golden, I can't remember if both are - but both are beautiful. There are actually five levels - and on the first is the French scuplture that matches our Statue of Liberty - actually, a gift to US from France. We have a lot of pictures that are in the camera - those require uploading to the computer, and I'm doing this from the iPad, so these are not the best of the best photos - especially today. Lots of Impressionist works in Orsay, many well-known, but I think the most famous must be in the Louvre. Or somewhere else in the world. We recognized a lot of what we saw, and it was beautiful!

This is one of Manet's (very easy to confuse with Monet, but distinctive styles) most famous - "Sur la Plage" - "On the Beach." That's the thing about the Impressionists - they wanted to allow the viewer to have his/her own impression, so they often named their works so it was easier to know what was actually painted, I think. We used this one in our intro French classes, and in our Global Studies classes - it was interesting to see what others saw first in the photo. How about you? It's really small (here); I didn't notice the boats first, but some of the students did - and then I saw them...I noticed the lady's dress. Impressions!

     On almost every pedestrian bridge that we've seen that goes over the Seine, there are locks attached to the bridge sides. There's even one that's been in the news that had the locks removed, and the wire sides replaced with plexiglass (it's not very attractive), because the structure of the bridge was compromised, since that bridge was built of wood. The weight of all the locks was becoming too much and the bridge was unsafe. The story behind the locks is that people place a lock on the bridge, and throw the key in the river, so their love is locked for all time. We had to cross a bridge to get to the Tuileries and the Orangerie - and there were two people selling locks - with use of markers - right on the bridge. We hadn't seen this before, and had actually looked at locks in Monoprix (just in case we decided to join then legions of forevers whilst we are here) but they seemed overpriced at €15, and then we'd also need a marker. It was fate - we bought a lock for only €5 (it was the second smallest), and wrote on it with the date and our initials, and last name. It was hard, but we found a spot in the middle of the bridge, locked the lock, and threw one of the three keys into the Seine. Ah...such tourists! (I wonder if they came with three keys so that if one of the two changes their mind about the "forever" they can go back and unlock it and take it off and get rid of it - hahaha!) I doubt anyone can find their lock on a return, and if we do return, we might just try to find ours. I looked up the name of "our" bridge - it was "Pont d'Orsay" - the Orsay Bridge.
       The Musée de l'Orangerie (it was first built to shelter the orange trees in the Tuileries Gardens), is inside of the Tuileries, so we took a walk through the quadrant of the Tuileries Gardens where it's located. It was cool, breezy, and a blue, cloudless sky was overhead. I'd imagine that was a perfect day if an artist wanted to paint - maybe except for the breeze. We found buckeyes - yep, buckeyes, and I picked up a few from the ground, hoping to bring them home...restrictions on bringing "vegetation" through customs. Ohio (and The Ohio State University nickname "Buckeyes") found in France! There were a lot of people in the gardens - and we could only imagine how busy it would have been in the summer. Unfortunately, the fountains have been turned off - but agreed that was a fair give-up for freedom to wander without mobs of other tourists!
        The Orangerie has a permanent exhibit of eight of Monet's "Water Lilies" paintings - and we have one in the Cleveland Museum of Art - two O-H-I-O connections!! (Those pictures are in the other camera.) That was the entire first level of the museum; we went downstairs and saw Degas, Renoir, Gaugin, Seurat, and a lot of other artists' works. We are now art experts.

           Monet's Japanese-style bridge, at his home in Giverny - which we're planning to visit on Saturday on our way to Normandy - this one is pretty well-known.







Van Gogh's self-portrait:

        As planned, we did return to the crêperie from the other day - I researched it a little, and found it is a small family business, started by the owner's grandfather, and they are from Normandy, so that's why their food is so good. Galettes (buckwheat crêpes) filled with so many wonderful choices. We didn't share the main course this time (I have 1/2 of mine left for breakfast), and chose the dessert of the day - a crêpe made into a shape of a coin purse (called a an "aumonière) filled with warm apples, spices, and a small, simple scoop of very good vanilla ice cream, sitting in a pool of home-made salted butter caramel sauce. Obviously, I was too anxious to eat it to take a picture...it was soooo good.
        Once back, I finalized hotels for two nights in Normandy - one actually ON Mont Saint Michel and the other in Bayeux. A full day - time for bed. I need to recharge for tomorrow...and the Eiffel Tower just turned off its lights.