May 2, 2025: Step Aside

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We slept late yet again. We had tickets for the Musée d’Orsay at 2:30pm. Even though we arrived at our hotel last night at 2:00am, it would have been better to go to the museum first thing in the morning.

Our Uber driver didn’t speak much English, but he told us that the May 1 revelers had bashed in his window.

We learned that the Thursday “May Day” is actually a four-day holiday which translates to more crowds wherever we go. Today was no exception. I can only imagine what the summer crowds are like.

Pantheon

Rob wanted to stop by the Pantheon, but we didn’t have tickets and there was a long line. I didn’t think that we had time. Rob was able to buy tickets on his phone while we were in line. I wondered why others didn’t do that. They looked more tech savvy than us!!

The Pantheon is where all the famous French people like Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and Madam Curie are buried. It is massive and beautiful.

Clovis is losing in battle and he prayed to the God of his wife, Clotilde, to save him. He said that if God saved him, he would become a Catholic Christian and get baptized … and that’s how France became Catholic.

Clotilde is the patron saint of iniquitous husbands. I had to look that one up. It means wicked.

Musée d’Orsay

Musée d’Orsay was once a train station but now houses over six floors of art objects, mostly the Impressionists.

We had purchased audio guides, but they were useless as the crowds were so noisy that you could not hear anything even at the loudest setting. And in this room don’t even think about getting close to a painting. Even if you wait your turn, someone else elbows in. We had thought that the Louvre was crowded!!!

My mother-in-law who is an accomplished artist and art historian would have been disappointed and disgusted at not being able to get close enough to study and enjoy the paintings.

I will show you some art that we managed to see and reflect on.

Denis Homage to Cézanne

I liked this painting within a painting. These artists are discussing Paul Cézanne’s Still Life with Fruit Dish.

Rodin The Thinker

I wonder what Rodin would think of this crowd.

Bartholdi Liberty

A small bronze model of our Statue of Liberty. It was a gift from France to celebrate our 100th birthday in 1876. We would not have become a country if it hadn’t been for the French navy blocking the James River from the British ships with reinforcements and an escape route for Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Van Gogh Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy

Since we weren’t able to ponder many of Van Gogh’s most famous works, we found this lesser-known one on another floor.

Seurat The Circus

The museum placard said that this was Georges Seurat’s most famous painting. I respectfully disagree. I like the one in Chicago entitled A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte.