Thursday, May 28, 2015

France Travel: Paris, Sainte-Chapelle and Musee d'Orsay


To avoid the crowd of tourists, we went early to Sainte-Chapelle. Even at 9:30, there was already a line although the wait to get in wasn't that bad. People entered in batches. We went through a metal detector and security check, after which we bought our tickets and entered the royal medieval chapel built by St. Louis (King Louis IX) in the 13th century. The Gothic chapel was intended to house Jesus' crown of thorns and other relics.





Sainte Chapelle is one of my beloved places in Paris. The stained glass windows are breathtaking. The chapel itself is small, intimate, and serene. There is a ground floor with an altar, some stained glass windows, and a shop. This is not the heart of Sainte Chapelle. The second story is, so one has to go up the circular stairs to ascend to some kind of heaven.

When I enter the chapel I feel as if I'm walking into a kaleidoscope. The different panels of stained glass depict scenes from the bible (Old and New Testament).



When I last visited in October, they were restoring the left stained glass panels of the chapel. Now, the windows are all in order and it was special to see the chapel in that way.


We visited another favorite place in Paris, the Musee d'Orsay. The museum building used to be a train station that was no longer used and which was converted into this art museum that houses a fabuous collection of art by impressionsts including Gauguin, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, and others.

There were students at the museum and I took a picture of them sitting on the floor, in front of paintings, listening to their teacher talk about the artists.  What a wonderful way to learn!

Lauren striking a pose with large poster at the museum




Here's the dome of this former train station. Note the clock at the end.


Teacher talking to schoolchildren about the painters and their work.

Lauren with a painting by Cezanne. The museum allows picture-taking but forbids the use of selfie-sticks.

 I love the "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" by Edgar Degas. She has an attitude, and maybe if I had become a dancer, I might have had the same.

The huge clock at the other end of the building. That's me in silhouette; You can see the other side of Paris through the glass.

Lauren with "Haystack" by Monet



I love this Van Gogh picture called "The Room at Arles." We had seen the actual room in the past.

This self-portrait of Paul Cezanne looks like someone we know!

Cecilia

This should be titled "The First Selfie."


Lauren with outside sculptures depicting the continents.

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