Thursday morning. Tour of Marais district is scheduled for the afternoon so we decided to go to the Musee D'Orsay to see some of the impressionists. For this visit we picked up the audio guides and they worked out very well. We have seen many of these paintings before but now we are seeing them with a little more knowledge and appreciation.
This picture is taken from the D'Orsay looking back across the Seine. The large building is the Louvre and a second tower corner of the Louvre can be seen just to the right of the ferris wheel. Our hotel room is across the street from that second tower. Although it is just across the river, it was still way to far for us to walk.
Monet - Le Pont d'Argenteuil'
1874
Vuillard - La Meule
1907-1908
Renoir - Jeunes filles au piano
1892
Monet - Essai de figure en plein-air
1886
Renoir - Bal du moulin de la Galette
1876
Renoir - Chemin montant dans les hautes herbes
1876-77
In addition to the paintings and sculpture, there are many other art forms exhibited. I especially liked some of the glass as seen on the left.
The D'Orsay space used to be a train station. You can get some idea from the picture on the right that even then it was a beautiful structure.
We had a Jewish tour of the Marais district scheduled for Thursday afternoon. However there was a message waiting for us on Wednesday afternoon that our guide for Thursday afternoon wouldn't be able to conduct the tour. We contacted "Tours by Locals" and they were able to get Vernoica to fill in. It would up being a regular tour of the Marais rather than a "Jewish" tour.
This is a typical street in Paris and the Marais. It is much wider than a lot of the streets but still fairly narrow. The building on the left is typical with the upper floors overhanging the street. Also notice the gargoyles on the roof of the building on the right. I tried for a closeup picture of the gargoyles but it's a little dark.
A little farther on our walk, we came to what was once one of the mansions. Once through the front entry, you enter a courtyard. We were told that this particular "mansion" had been taken over and remodeled inside and now houses some legal offices. The exterior had to stay in its original form which can be seen by these pictures.
I guess this section didn't count on the no exterior modifications rule. It looks like a pretty modern walkway connecting two parts of the building.
On the left is a brief explanation of the building.
I took the picture on the right because I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of the old door and the new push-button lock.
In case you hadn't guessed by now, we knew this was going to be quite a "foodie" tour. So, you will be seeing quite a bit about our meals. Especially in Paris and on the barge trip. Who knows after that.
Dinner this evening was at Violon d'Ingres. I found this restaurant after some exhaustive searching for a good restaurant that was not on August holiday. Fortunately not ALL the very good restaurants were closed.
Violon turned out to be a winner. We were treated to a little appetizer plate to start. On the right, Granny started with a caesar salad followed by lobster ravioli. I had a wonderful mille feuille that consisted of tomato on top with crab and an avocado sauce. For a main course I had whiting which was also very good.
To finish, we shared their special chocolate dessert and then they brought carmelized sugar "cookie" wih a couple of black berries.
