Paris, Texas France

She's holding it up while they do some renovations.



The centerpieces of the Musee de l'Orangerie, which was built to house these large-format works by Monet, are two oval-shaped rooms, one of which you partially see here. There are four paintings in each room, two shorter and two longer. The great innovation here is essentially a giant diffuse skylight running the length of each room, which bathes the paintings in a perfectly even light with no harsh highlights and no shadows. Apparently it mimics the lighting situation in Monet's studio where he painted the pieces, so we're seeing them exactly as he did when they were created. Pretty cool.





The museum also housed a variety of other works, some of which had a real attitude.





This may have been my favorite painting in the museum. It's just so strange. Why are they in the desert? Will they survive? Or have they already been driven mad with dehydration and head stroke? Why do they play music and wear clown outfits if they hate it so much? Do they sew their own clothes?




Some various artworks outside of the museum:


On the train platform near our rented apartment.


I have no idea.


They were still building out the inside of this place, so it was hard to tell what it would eventually be.




These gold diagrams are embedded into the base of an obelisk which was taken from Egypt. They explain how the obelisk was taken down and shipped to France.


View from outside the Musee de l'Orangerie



At the Louvre with our British tour guide, who also speaks fluent French, and with whom Kseniya is going to run away.


Looking north from the south side of the Jardin des Tuileries at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in the distance. It's also known as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris, which is helpful so you don't get it mixed up with the Jesuses of other places. Those guys of are so of territorial.

But also, look at the perfectly straight line along the tops of those trees (same goes for the sides). There were lines of trees like these all over the place, which means that there are people trimming them on a near-constant basis. I guess it's good for employment? But really there must be some other jobs to do.


The Rodin garden was a really great find. You can pay 15 Euros to see the original sculptures inside the museum, or you can pay just one Euro to walk around the beautiful gardens and see replicas (hint: they look the same!) of those sculptures, including The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. There were some winding paths and a nicely sculpted landscape, and it was big enough that you could sometimes feel alone in the place. Plus, there were adorable, well-behaved French children everywhere. What a deal!

White lady can sort of jump.








This guy had a weird stance and facial expression. He's called The Artist, I think. er.




On our last (half) day, we walked around the city a bit and then up the stairs to Montmartre. It was a lot of stairs for a couple of fatties.




Once there, we realized we were essentially in a smaller, Frencher, less electrified version of Times Square, so we walked a few blocks away from the hubbub and had some nice views.


It was a little foggy though.






Finally, here is a room filled with art at the Musee de l'Orangerie...


...except it's not! Watch out, tiny room!