The Sawyer Stories

For the next two days, we had the Paris Pass. I spent MANY hours (months ago) picking and arranging the next two days. I called today, my birthday (even though I turned 40 weeks ago) because our morning was filled with art museums. I had printed off the maps and created a plan for what I wanted to see at our stops: first D’Orsay, then the Louvre, and last the Orangerie (again a nod to Joani for helping us make the best plans). I was mostly excited about seeing the impressionists at D’Orsay. We woke up early and made our way to the metro, stopping only for a croissant (because Paris).

We walked up to see many different lines forming, some very long and others quite short. We brushed off our French to read the queue signs. “Visiteurs avec billet horodaté” was marked for a shorter line. That’s us! We have tickets for a time slot! We proudly walked toward this line (avoiding all the wait) when we saw the small print below “sans baggage”. Did my giant purse count as having baggage? Yes, yes it did. To the long line we went. Oh well, this gave us to eat our croissants, inadvertently feed the birds, and watch the kids and teacher on a field trip waiting in line. Let me tell you from experience, teachers and students around the world are the same. Same silliness and same teacher stares. I almost joined in out of instinct.

When we entered we worked to make our way straight to the top floor and were instantly greeted by painting after painting that we knew and had ‘seen’, but let me tell you had not really seen. There was magic in the brush strokes.

At the risk of getting lost in it, I’ll keep it brief. Van Gogh was by far the most intriguing and impressive in person. The lighting, color, and depth of each painting was truly incredible. His works were our favorite and we could have easily stayed in that one room for hours.

Monet made my whole face break out in a smile. It was dreamy and wistful. I made sure to find the Haystacks that high school me attempted to recreate with chalk pastels 20+ years ago.

And Degas gave me instant goose bumps and made me tear up a bit. His representation of character through storytelling, and depiction of movement was so real and authentic. On display were 3D clay models that Degas created to help him better represent movement in his paintings.

There were definitely many more, Renoir, Matisse, Manet, and some new to us artists as well, but that’s the highlights. We made a quick drive by Whistler’s Mother down below and then headed out to have lunch outside at a cafe.

From what we can see, this is what it means to be Parisian: sit outside a cafe, drink coffee or wine (depending on time), smoke, and talk for hours. Minus the constant smell of smoke, it really is quite lovely. It also means you always have to work hard to pay the check because the patrons assume you’ll be there for hours.

After enjoying our leisure lunch, we headed to the Louvre. Our bike guide had let us know there were side entrances for people with timed tickets, so we were able to avoid the main line this time. Our amazing insider (Joani) prepped us for the world’s largest museum. I had a handful of works for us mapped out to see. What I didn’t account for is how hard it would be to orient ourselves with where we were and where we wanted to go. This place is truly HUGE!

We decided to start with the work most clearly marked! The Mona Lisa. We followed the signs (and people) to find this amazing work by Da Vinci. Well, I assume it’s amazing. Due to the sea of people, you really can’t get close enough or linger long enough to really take her in. We will have to take everyone else’s word for it that she’s impressive and important.

We then clumsily found our way to The Winged Victory, Venus d’Milo, and the Sphinx. We did love looking at the architecture of the building along the way.

The last painting I wanted to see came from my Spring Break book, Mona’s Eyes by —. This book centers on a grandfather taking his granddaughter through major works of art in Paris museums before she potentially loses her sight forever.

From this book, I really wanted to see The Astronomer by Veneer. Trouble was, it was on the top floor. Why is that a problem you ask?  Because finding a staircase to go up to the 3 floor was impossible. We traveled in all directions (even went all the way down which seems counter intuitive). We finally found those magical stairs and get to the top and were filled a new since of misplaced confidence. We made our way from room to room checking each number. Each way we went the rooms seemed to go up when we needed them to go down or total chunks would be skipped all together. We stopped to look at the map time and time again. We blazed past painting after painting with our eyes peeled.

While I was fine to let it go, Michael was now on a self proclaimed scavenger hunt that he was determined to ‘win’ (for a painting he knew nothing about and had never seen). We narrowed in, turned the corner, and finally found… a set of stairs gated off for a wing that was currently under renovation. Failure.

Exhale and move on was our attitude! Let’s get ourselves out of the Louvre and over to the Orangerie before our tickets at 3. I said…let’s get out of the Louvre. Yeah, that’s not such an easy task. Even though every direction is marked with Sortie (exit), no such escape was to be found. We walked and walked until finally finding the sweet exit doors. What we were hoping to find on the other side was a return outside to the gardens. What we actually found on the other side was a whole under ground mall that again went on forever. Pause for celebration at the return to the above ground world.

Luckily the Orangerie isn’t far. It’s just beyond the gardens. Turns out,
 the Tuileries Gardens give the same false illusion as the National Mall walk from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial. You think it’s ’just right over there’ when the path is actually quite long. More power walking took us to the line of the Orangerie  just minutes after 3. Success.

The main draw for this museum is the Water Lily rooms painted there by Monet in the round. This space was/is intended (by Monet) to be a place for meditation and contemplation.

It would be the perfect setting for such things, if the room wasn’t filled with a whole class of kindergartners sketching (which I secretly adored), a sea of 15-25 somethings doing social media photo shoots, and a couple adamantly arguing next to us. The icing on the cake was the museum attendant desperate to keep the calm, quiet intent of the room. He circled like a shark constantly shushing visitors…just a steady stream of shhhh. Michael added that to his list of possible jobs in retirement.

When you blocked out all the noise, and walked the room in circles, it really was a wonderful experience. My favorite part was zooming in close on a water lily and zooming out to the whole scene.

While the plan had originally been to travel to Montmartre for the evening, our bodies screamed that they were done. So we headed back to the Tuileries Gardens, found a spot on a hill near the Louvre and laid in the grass. Michael instantly fell asleep while I soaked up the sun and listened to the kids around us play. It was the perfect ending to an incredible day.

We slowly made our way back to the apartment and found a yummy Indian restaurant for dinner. We chatted with the family back home before headed to bed. Tomorrow will come early!