The expression on this woman's face pretty much says it all...Place de la Concorde is a mess! There are fairground rides & seating & staging all getting ready for the big 14 July event (Bastille day). Consequently a simple route from A to B is no longer simple! We wanted to get to the Orangerie & in the end...had to resort to google maps, we had got turned around so many times by the pedestrian direction arrows. It was a miracle we actually got there!
Way way back in 1990, (pre-children), we came to the Orangerie & I had one of THOSE experiences that stick with you forever. We had been fortunate to get there when there weren't many other people around. It was winter & freezing, so intelligent people were clearly somewhere else. The large paintings of Monet's waterlilies curving around the two rooms, created a chapel-like experience for me. They were exquisite. When we were here in 2015 with our children, the Orangerie was closed, so it was one of the places I REALLY wanted to revisit this time.
I did have to share the space with numerous other people, many of whom needed to have selfies taken with every square inch of Monet painting!
Never the less...I was still immediately enraptured with the size of the work, the large brush strokes & the layer upon layer of colour. He wove with paint. Monet isn't the only artist represented in the Orangerie & we enjoyed the collection displayed in the lower galleries as well.
After an expensive & non descript lunch in the Tuileries, we made our way to another blast from the past, the Rodin Museum. This was another Museum we visited in 1990 when all was freezing & bleak, so to see this Museum when the garden was green & lush & wander amidst the sculptures displayed here was a genuine treat.
Rodin's hands are one of my favourite aspects of his work. They are always big, powerful & tender at the same time. They are wonderful.
It is no wonder that he was so good at hands, as he collected them! The Museum displays his collection of hand fragments from antiquity, which we could see he would have used as inspirational resources in his own work.
The Cluny Museum ( Museum of the Middle Ages) is one of my favourite in the world. I love the building in which it is housed, & the variety of objects on display, & I love the focus on tapestries. The most famous being the 'Lady & The Unicorn' series. It is truly a gift (as an artist) to be able to photograph art works with digital cameras, a zoom lens & no flash! However, the dull light in the room in which they are displayed, meant that no many of my photos came out!
It is also one of those realities, that a photograph is ALWAYS a mere shadow of the real thing. It is inadequate at truly showing colour variations & the texture of the weave.
They are mesmerizing tapestries & it was a pleasure to see them again, especially after recently rereading Tracey Chevalier's book 'The lady & The Unicorn'.
I am well aware that I am very privileged to have seen each of these Museums twice now. I know I'm greedy, but twice is not enough. We couldn't help imagining just how amazing it would be to live in this city & just pop in to see any of the wonderful exhibits in these Museums, any time we want. Sigh...dreams are free! But my current reality is pretty darn good too!
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