TRIP TO PARIS DAY 2

TRIP TO PARIS. 11th September. Day 2

Jill had reserved tickets for our visit at 10.30am to Orsay museum. We were there on time, very happy not to encounter the crowd we had to follow in the Louvre in June.

Not horde of children screaming

A few artists told me they preferred Orsay and I do!

There are several rooms with all kind of art. Statues, paintings of all kinds …

Given the time we had planned to stay, straight away we both decided to visit the impressionnistes…

What a treat that was. I noticed most people were mostly attracted by famous works seen in books etc… very little attention was given to other paintings… obviously they didn’t come to learn something… photos were taken even posing in front of paintings.

I did love a granddad showing his little one paintings, explaining how it was done.

What a great lesson printed on a small mind!

So we saw Renoir, Sisley, Gauguin, Cezanne and many more

Monet

Dégas Oil painting

Renoir… the music lesson

Renoir

I am going to stop on two paintings… le dejeuner sur l’herbe by Manet who produced an outcry when it was exhibited. A nude woman having a picnic with two fully dressed gentlemen. Actually it was exhibited in the Salon des Refusés.

What strucked me, it was a huge painting.

However not as big as the Luncheon sur l’herbe by Monet … a painting with two parts missing. Money had painted his friends in a landscape. He had to give his painting against a rent due to his landlord. When he went to retrieve it, it had been damaged,  hence the explanation about the missing parts.

Déjeuner sur l’herbe

We staid until 12am. I had heard about the shop Sennelier in Paris Quai Voltaire famous for obviously it’s products but also for the fact Picasso and Cezanne were clients there. They asked Sennelier to create colours they needed and they were created for them. I had read the shop had the original desktop, draws etc since their opening in late 1800!

We had 15 minutes walk knowing they were closing at 12.45am …

It did not disappoint! What a treat! À very small shop full with artists … I met and spoke to an American artist who had come to buy Oil paint. Shame I no longer can work with Pastels as they had an incredible collection of all colours! A dream.

As I already have sets of watercolour Sennelier, I had decided to buy some of their gouache. I came out with a set of gouache created in Japan for flower paintings…advised by their very helping staff…

I really felt like a child in a sweet shop!

I cannot thank enough daughter Jill for her help all along these visits…

It was time to come back to the flat where we had a beautiful lunch found in a shop nearby… after a well deserved rest, we headed for the Galleries Lafayette… We thought we would have a good look through all the différents floors. I gave up  while Jill went exploring on her own, I found a long seat where I could admire the fantastic ceiling in stained glass Windows.

I had not noticed opposite to me was a huge magnifying mirror. It distorted the passers by! I had to close by eyes as I could no longer absorb the distorsion and catastrophe, I fell asleep, dropped my water bottle on a person who had sat next to me!!!

They were young people who laughed as I was so embarrassed .…

If you need something while in Paris, the gallery Lafayette will have it!

I went there with my aunt when I was 11 years old. She wanted pure cristal glasses!!!

It was the first time I was using an escalator and fell backwards…

We needed to visit the grocery shop and it was a late evening before we headed to bed

I must admit Jill saved my life when I wanted to switch a light on in the flat.

I heard… STOP… plugs and switches were black, a bad colour for macular sufferers.

I was putting my finger in a plug🙄