Art in Paris
I had a chance to participate football tour to Paris. Instead the game, my tour highlights were museums and handcraft stores. I had planned visiting art supplies store, but there was no time for that.
Eiffel tower was of course must place to visit. Weather was colder than in Finland, but we climbed half way up in freezing weather. Last half was done by elevator.
Louvre
The most visited museum Louvre was our main destination. This huge museum is 160 000 square metres large and there were of course no change to see it all. This time we chose ancient Egypt and the most famous art works of the museum.
We arrived just before doors were opened and there were no crowds yet. When we left people were queuing outside to enter. Most of items had their own glass vitrines. Painting halls walls were more crowded. Glass pyramid was surprisingly fine and did not spoil the look of the yard.
Paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci
It was amazing how different style Da Vinci has compared to other artists. His works were easy to spot even if I have seen only couple of his paintings before in Hermitage. Mona Lisa had its own wall and four security guards of its own.
d’Orsay
This museum is dedicated to French impressionism. It was built in to old train station along Seine River. Its three exhibition floors had good collection of paintings and sculpture. Most famous were Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Renoir and Edgar Degas. One floor had art nouveau furniture that I liked a lot. Photographing was unfortunately not allowed.
Mont Marte hill has an avenue called Place de la Tertre where painters and drawers make their work and sell paintings. Most of painters made just mechanical paintings but some were really good. Most interesting was seeing French easels at use. They seemed to be very practical.
