Le Musee D’Orsay, or Thank you Jacko!

Jacques Chirac, the current president of France, was at one point the mayor of Paris as well. Perhaps his greatest achievement in that office was the transformation of the Gare D’Orsay, on the south side of the Seine from the Louvre, from the abandoned train station that once housed the Paris-Orleans line, into the museum that picks up where the Louvre leaves off – namely 1850.

The museum’s claim to fame, and very rightly so, is its unbelievably spectacular collection of impressionist masterpieces from the likes of Manet, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. I realize that I do not usually lend myself to such ostensible hyperbole, but the Musee clearly warrants it. Thank you Jacko, indeed.

Certainly, for many years while growing up, I could not fit my mind around the idea of art collections. Why not spend the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars on houses, cars, and supermodels? Why waste it on a painting that’s only good for looking at? Touring the top floor of the Musee D’Orsay, however, afflicts one with a nearly overwhelming desire to take each tableau with you for fear that you will lose the feeling you get by looking at it. To say that I was pleased with my visit is perhaps the understatement of a millennium that is only just five years old. I think I might live there if I could.

Interestingly enough, the print that is hanging in my room at the Burgundy is Monet’s “The Water Lilly Pond,” from 1900, a masterpiece that I was privileged enough to see in person only 20 minutes and a walk across the Seine away.

I’ll be going to Giverny next week, actually. About 100 miles northwest of Paris, this was Monet’s old haunt, and the site of the Japanese bridge and water lilies that he so loved to paint. Look for that update soon.