A weekend in Paris

From http://www.artforums.co.uk

[img]http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/rouen/monet.rouen-cathedral.jpg[/img]My wife decided that we would take advantage of the bank holiday by having a long weekend in Paris. Spring is supposed to be a good time to visit, and so it turned out, though we did experience some showers. We have both been before so we were not out to see the obvious, we were in search of Monet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet .[img]http://www.railart.co.uk/images/monet.jpg[/img]
Firstly the sordid matter of cost. For the two of us flying from Birmingham and staying in a 3 star hotel for three nights, giving us 4 days in Paris, the cost was £340 http://www.lastminute.com/ . So just over £40 a day each before food, local transport etc.
On friday morning we were up at 3AM in order to make the silly 2 hour check in requirements. Our flight was a little late http://www.flybe.com/ and we caught the bus http://www.paris.org/Expos/ParisTickets/AirFranceBus/ from the airport into central Paris which promply got stuck in a traffic jam for nearly an hour, next time we will take the train. So we were behind schedule when we checked into our hotel. The Metro station http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Paris_metro.shtml was just outside so we bought our 3 day tourist passes (great value) and went to the Bastille for lunch at the famous Brasserie Bofinger http://www.bofingerparis.com/en/ [img]http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/bofinger.jpg[/img] a must do on every trip to Paris. We had their amazing seafood platter which is a fantastic dining experience.[img]http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/3gbofinger-2.jpg[/img]
After lunch we went to Musee d'Orsay http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html to enjoy the greatest collection of impressionist works under one roof in the world. There was a very short queue and we were in. The works here make this one of the world's greatest art museums, however the way they are presented is a disaster. Museum curators from all over the world must come here and weep. Major, highly significant works of art are universally badly lit, there are pointless lumps of granite set up to make the place a maze and there is no rhyme or reason to the way the art is arranged. Monets are scattered everywhere and on the top floor you can go in the direction of the impressionists or the direction of the post impressionists, clearly signposted. In the impressionist direction you will find the works of Vincent Van Gogh!
As Monet was our focus it was so good to see three of the Rouen Cathederal series (out of 30 that he painted) side by side. Other famous Monets there include Poppies, Woman Holding an Umbrella, Saint Lazere and various works from Giverny.[img]http://www.mystudios.com/art/impress/monet/monet-woman-with-parasol-1875.jpg[/img]As time passes I am appreciating Renoir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir more and Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette is a lovely painting. [img]http://www.lannaronca.it/Renoir/Bal%20au%20Moulin%20de%20la%20Galette.jpg[/img]There is just so much good art at the Orsay, significant works by Rodin, Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Cassatt and so many more. You could spend days there, the bad lighting, however, is pure sacrilege. We had a quick supper and were off to bed early, tired by the early start and hectic day.
Saturday morning we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie but it was only open for groups till the afternoon! So we went to the king's chapel that is Sainte-Chapelle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle to admire the decor and the amazing stained glass.[img]http://www.terragalleria.com/images/france/fran10967.jpeg[/img] It is considered to be one of the greatest architectural masterpieces in the world. The stained glass seems to be the entire walls, so slender are the columns and they portray over 1,000 religious scenes. Magic. After this we went for a long, lazy lunch.
Saturday afternoon we went to Giverny http://giverny.org/monet/welcome.htm . You can arrange this bus tour at any hotel. This is a very good trip for anyone interested in Monet, in fact for anyone interested in art. Once we did a complete tour of the lilly pond we did it again, so special is the ambiance of the place.[img]http://www.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~sheu/Images/Monet.jpg[/img] The house is pretty much as Monet left it and one of his studios has been converted into a shop. We returned to Paris and walked to the Eiffel tower http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/ only to find queues of what must have been thousands of people. The view from the top is good, but not worth wasting several hours in a queue for. So we went off for a meal.
Sunday we got the Metro out to the pleasant, leafy suburbs and visited Musee Marmottan http://www.marmottan.com/uk/ , when we arrived there was a very short queue, but mostly there is no queue at all to get in. The Marmottan houses the biggest collection of Monets under one roof in the world (well over 60!). In fact the bequest by Monet's son Michael also includes Monet's private collection of works by many other artists. This is a fantastic museum, one of my favourite. It has a lovely ambiance and the works are well presented and well lit. Impression Sunrise is there, the work that Impressionism is named after.[img]http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/images/monet_sunrise_l.jpg[/img]In fact there are Monet paintings from the carictatures of his youth through to the almost abstract colour of his last years. Also at the Marmottan is a very fine collection of over seventy works by Berthe Morisot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthe_Morisot , the beautiful female artist who was at the centre of the impressionist movement.[img]http://www.humanitiesweb.org/gallery/31/7.jpg[/img]Her private collection is also here and includes works by Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir and others. It is amazing to have two of the private collections of the original Impressionist group together in one place. This museum is an essential must do if you visit Paris.
For luch we went to the left bank at the bottom of Boulevard Saint Michel were there are what seems like hundreds of restaurants with fixed price menus.[img]http://malone.ba.ttu.edu/Paris-Left%20Bank.JPG[/img] The competition is so fierce that the value for money is fantastic. You can eat well and cheaply here. After lunch we visited Notre Dame before making our way to Musee de l'Orangerie http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/documents/anglais2.pdf to see the vast oval paintings that Monet created for the French nation at the request of the president.[img]http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/19th/painting/cc_monet012.jpg[/img]This time the queue was about 20 minutes, they have completely rebuilt the Orangerie and the two oval rooms now get daylight which is much better. The effect of being surrounded by Monet water lillies is fantastic. Don't just come to the Orangerie for these, there are 14 Cezannes, 24 Renoirs, some early Picassos and a wide range of other, excellent, work. After this we went to Angelina's on the Rue de Rivoli http://parisdaily.hi-fipop.com/2005/05/angelina.html , a Paris institution, for their famous hot chocolate.[img]http://newyorkette.com/wp-content/AngelinaCafe_450.jpg[/img]
Monday we took it easy. A trip to the supermarket loaded our suitcase with fromage http://www.fromages.com/ , pate and a range of goodies that are nowhere near as good when bought outside France. We had a long and leisurely lunch and then in late afternoon flew back to the UK.
So a fantastic and memorable weekend. We certainly spent more on food and wine than on airfares and hotel, but you don't have to. There is a lot that we didn't do, the Louvre http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home_flash.jsp?bmLocale=en for instance, but that was deliberate. We went on a mission and we saw everything we wanted to. Paris is a great city for French art. It doesn't have the breadth of the great collections in London, New York or even St Petersberg, but if you want to see the Impressionists there is only one place to go.[img]http://p.vtourist.com/2577288-Paris_panorama_from_Arc_de_Triomphe-Paris.jpg[/img]