Thursday Night at Musée D'Orsay

I wanted to take the kids to Musée D'Orsay and hoped to beat the crowds by going on Thursday night, when the museum is open until 9:45 pm. Alas, like all my other schemes to beat the crowds this summer, it was not to be. We arrived at the museum at 6 pm to find a line of about 80 people waiting to go in. The line didn't end up taking too long though.

This is possibly my favorite museum in Europe, beating out even the Uffizi. This is partly due to the 19th/20th century period that it covers, and greatly due to the building itself, which used to be a train station. I find it to be light and airy, with none of the oppressiveness that you find in many old museums.

We stopped by the gift shop in the way in and picked up the children's guide to the museum - I'd highly recommend this if you're visiting with kids. It provides a map and treasure hunt for particular works of art, and includes background details that kids would find of interest. There is a similar guide for the Louvre (to be visited on our next trip). If you don't buy the guide, the 2nd best museum technique is to let the kids pick out 2-3 cards on the way in, and have them hunt for those works of art. Having a quest always keeps my kids happy.

We looked at a lot of art and I showed them my favorite painting from my childhood visits - Renoir's Jeunes Filles au Piano. I still remember seeing it for the first time when it was housed at the Jeu de Paume museum in the Tuileries (this was before D'Orsay was renovated to become a museum).

We had dinner in the cafe behind the large clock - I had told Mei about this cafe and she became somewhat fixated on eating there!








Amara decided her favorite piece was Pompon's polar bear while Mei vacillated between the Degas ballerina bronze and Jeunes Filles au Piano.


All in all, a lovely way to spend our last evening in Paris!