A Spoonful of A Night at the Museum

...the Orsay Museum (musée d'Orsay) to be exact.

Orsay Museum from the other side of the seine. Photo by Dittmeyer (Available under a Creative Commons Attributin-NoDerivs license).

Saturday night was the European night of museums where museums allover the European continent opened their doors for free! My friend and I decided to head to this museum because it's one of the best in Paris, and because we can get into the Louvre free any Friday night. It was pretty neat seeing the artworks that I've studied in my Humanties class in real life. They have an amazing collection of Impressionist art from artists such as Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, Monet, and more. It was pretty crowded for a museum, but proof that Paris can be a small world: We ran into Americans we knew there!

My friend, Ariel, and me in front of the museum. We weren't able to take pictures inside, so this is the only picture of the evening I have.

Of all the artwork there, there were 2 that really impressed me, and that's not just because they were found in the Impressionist section. There was one painting of a woman in which her eyes were incredibly realistic and piercing even. I found myself returning to the painting over and over again because of how the poignant the eyes were. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the artwork or the artist, so I can't just say go look "Said artwork" up so you could see yourself. Ah, well, maybe you'll just have to the museum. There was another painting that struck me. Again, it was depicting a woman, but what was so fantastic about this one was the dress she was wearing--it was incredibly realistic looking. The way the artist had done the lighting and the texture made me feel like she could have been in the same room as us, even being stuck in a different era.

We got through most of the museum in the short time we had there, and then when we decided we couldn't look at another piece of artwork, we left and walked across one of the nearest bridges to check out Paris at night because we could. It is definitely beautiful by night. It was also pretty cold, so we didn't stay long. Plus, it was pretty late.

I'm hoping the next time I'm in Paris, I have a visa and I'm under 26, because then I can get into almost all of the museums for FREE! Yeah, I found out all the American exchange students (and missionaries) could get in free to a lot of places I would have to pay anywhere from  8-15 euro to get into. France, and Europe in general, have a great system for youth and I hope I can benefit from it again before I'm too old too!