Musee d'Orsay

Saturday
The grey dismal weather continues, so we thought there were two options for the day - go and work out at the gym then spend a domestic afternoon at home, or go up to Paris and surround ourselves with beauty at one of the museums. Needless to say, we opted for the latter! We were choosing between the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay and we finally picked Musee d'Orsay. For any who may not be familiar with this wonderful museum, it opened in 1986, 47 years after it had closed as a mainline railway station and hotel. Originally commissioned by the Orleans railway company to be its terminus in the heart of Paris, it was built at the turn of the 20th century to a design by Victor Laloux. This was the first station designed for electrically powered trains. But in spite of its modernity, the Orsay station was soon rendered obsolete by developments in the railways. Its platforms were too short for the new, longer electric trains, and after 1939 it only served the suburbs. It narrowly avoided demolition in the 1970s to make way for a new international hotel, but was saved following the outcry over the destruction of Baltard's pavilions at Les Halles food market. The new museum was set up to present each of the arts of the period from 1848-1914. My blip is taken looking across the cafeteria to one of the original clocks, framing in the distance Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. I was glad I chose to take it before we had lunch, as by the time we had finished, the weather had closed in even more and Sacre Coeur was barely visible.