Giant Clock of Paris
Welcome to Musée d'Osray
My good friend, Ili, had
specifically requested to tag her if I ever went to Musee d’Orsay. All due to her obsession to Gossip Girl.
So, here it goes.
On the Musée d’Orsay website, one can find
this bit of history:
In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from period 1848 to 1914.
When I got there, the line was hundreds of
people deep... no exaggeration.
I thought, there
was no way in heaven we would manage to snag tickets now. And it was not how I wanted to spend my day with- being stuck in the big line and squashed like a pumpkin by all those giants who stand two feel taller than I am, and risk suffocating myself with the crowd's stinking body odour.
No offense. Even it's pretty chill during this season, but with such crowd, there was remnants of body odour lingering in the air.
Perhaps, I should fake illness and faint.... No?
Well, my superdad had wisely made ticket reservations in advanced. He had proudly announced, “Fret not. I have got it taken care of. Again.” with that cocky smirk of his.
So, we skipped the snaky queue of approximately half a
kilometre and went straight in. I was beyond relieved.
All I had been doing
in Paris was lining up in the big line to buy tickets, which sometimes could
take more than half a day. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but you catch my drift, ay?
One thing Parisians taught me is, to be extremely
patient.
Let’s get inside shall we?
Unlike Lourve, unfortunately, they would
not allow picture taking in the museum, but I was a rebel, so here are some of
the photos that I managed to sneakily too in the common areas, before the guard came up to me and asked me stop doing even that, otherwise he might have to confiscate my phone and camera.
Great. NOT.
Musée d’Orsay was a former massive railway station, known as Gare d'Orsay, constructed for the 1900 World’s Fair. One of the scenes from Gossip Girl was filmed here, so now you understand the hype my friend, Ili, has going on. Lol.
The railway station was made of beautiful internal sandstone and has huge high transparent ceiling that floods light into the main atrium. Those people responsible turning this century's old railway station into a museum have done a terrific job at it.
Note the gorgeous and gigantic “horolges” (clocks). It was once, part of the train depot, is now the main attraction of the building. Of course, trains needed to be on time, and horloges such as these gigantic ones helped travellers but also Parisians check the time.
Looking through the clock, out towards the river, and the building across the river, you may see Montmartre hill with the Sacra Coeur on top.
There are 5 levels in the museum. The
impressionists gallery is on the 5th level, where the famous
paintings from Renoir, Monet and Degas and all other great artists were
displayed. The lower levels of the museum were filled
with paintings from earlier and later eras.
Do you know the painting 'Whistler's Mother'? The one Mr Bean always messes with in his series? Yeah, it's there too.
Well, we were not allowed to take photos of the arts, but it is well worth detour next time you are in Paris.
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