Photos of Musée d’Orsay
by Arthur
Posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 pm CET
One year ago, on 23 June 2007, we were in Paris and visited the beautiful Musée d’Orsay. The museum holds French art dating from 1948 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. Here’s a view of the museum from a bridge over the Seine:
There was a huge line outside in front of the ticket office, but we had just been to Disneyland Paris so this was nothing for us. We waited for about 90 minutes and the whole time it was threatening to rain. Several times a few drops would fall and everybody in line would put on their raincoats and get out their umbrellas, but then it would stop right away and everybody would feel silly and put their stuff away again.
The museum is housed in the former railway station of Gare d’Orsay. The large building was finished in 1900 and served as a terminus for the Paris-Orléans Railway until 1939, by which time the station’s short platforms had become unsuitable for the newer longer trains. It closed to long-distance traffic in 1939 and some suburban trains continued to use it until 1973. Then in 1977 the French Government decided to convert the station to a museum. What a great idea. The building was re-opened as Musée d’Orsay in December 1986, and what a fine job they did!
My favorite piece at the museum was this large and incredibly detailed six-meter-long cross-section model of the Paris Opera House. I love models and every time I see one in a museum I make a bee-line for it. These pictures don’t really do it justice:
Here are some more pictures of the nice things we saw:
There are some nice panoramic views from an outside walking gallery at the top floor. Here we could see the Sacre Coeur:
One year ago, on 23 June 2007, we were in Paris and visited the beautiful Musée d’Orsay. The museum holds French art dating from 1948 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. Here’s a view of the museum from a bridge over the Seine:
There was a huge line outside in front of the ticket office, but we had just been to Disneyland Paris so this was nothing for us. We waited for about 90 minutes and the whole time it was threatening to rain. Several times a few drops would fall and everybody in line would put on their raincoats and get out their umbrellas, but then it would stop right away and everybody would feel silly and put their stuff away again.
The museum is housed in the former railway station of Gare d’Orsay. The large building was finished in 1900 and served as a terminus for the Paris-Orléans Railway until 1939, by which time the station’s short platforms had become unsuitable for the newer longer trains. It closed to long-distance traffic in 1939 and some suburban trains continued to use it until 1973. Then in 1977 the French Government decided to convert the station to a museum. What a great idea. The building was re-opened as Musée d’Orsay in December 1986, and what a fine job they did!
My favorite piece at the museum was this large and incredibly detailed six-meter-long cross-section model of the Paris Opera House. I love models and every time I see one in a museum I make a bee-line for it. These pictures don’t really do it justice:
Here are some more pictures of the nice things we saw:
There are some nice panoramic views from an outside walking gallery at the top floor. Here we could see the Sacre Coeur: