Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France

The Musée d'Orsay holds one of the most impressive collections of Impressionists in the world. This is a demanding museum. It is beautiful, but it is hard to find your way through it. Many stairs and long corridors will test your physical resistance and orientation. Take your time, wear comfortable shoes, and bring your camera: you can take photos (no flash!). Five hours would be a fair time, including a pause at the awesome restaurant on the first floor (or if you are visiting in the summer, at the terrace bar on the last floor with a unique view on Paris, Montmartre, and the Sacre Coeur.

Outside: The museum is hosted in a former belle époque train station, renovated and transformed by ACT architecture group, made up of Bardon, Colboc, and Philippon. The President of the Republic, François Mitterrand, inaugurated the new museum in December 1986.Originally the station, and hotel within it, were inaugurated for the World's Fair on July 14th, 1900. The architect Laloux chose to mask the modern metallic structures with the façade of the hotel, which, built in the academic style using finely cut stone, successfully blended in with its noble neighbors. Inside, all the modern techniques were used: ramps and lifts for luggage, elevators for passengers, sixteen underground railtracks, reception services on the ground floor, and electric traction. But, by 1939, the station was to serve only the suburbs, as its platforms had become too short for the modern, longer trains that appeared with the progressive electrification of the railroads.
Since then, the building has served various purposes. It was even used as a set for several films, including Kafka's The Trial, adapted by Orson Welles. The hotel closed its doors in 1973, but not before General de Gaulle held a press conference announcing his return to power in its Salle des Fêtes (now the posh restaurant of the museum). In 1979 the decision was made to transform the old train station into a museum.
Inside: The interior design of the museum was conceived by a team of scenographers and architects directed by the Italian architect and interior designer Gae Aulenti. With Italo Rota, Piero Castiglioni (lighting consultant) and Richard Peduzzi (architectural consultant), Gae Aulenti created a grandiose choreographic effect, that can be immediately perceived as you come in. It is understandable if you want to go straight to the Impressionists. They are somewhere on the second floor and you will get there after many escalators. The Van Gogh room almost made me cry. Everything is there! Among the others, the famous self-portrait with the dashing greenish-turquoise background (1889), “l'Eglise d'Auvers” (1890), “Chaumes a Cordeville” (1890), “Siesta” (1890), and the unforgettable “Van Gogh’s bedroom” (1889). Beside Van Gogh, my favorite paintings are Pissarro’s “Femme dans un clos” (1887), Gauguin’s “Vairumati” (1897) and “Paysage de Bretagne Le Moulin David” (1894), Signac’s “Les Andelys, la berge” (1886), Cezanne’s “Nature morte au panier” (1889), Monet’s “Le Jardin de Monet a Giverny” (1900), “Femmes a l'ombrelle” (1886), and “Regates a Argenteuil” (1872), Renoir’s “Bal du Moulin de la Galette” (1876) and “Torse effet de soleil” (1875), and Caillebotte’s “Raboteurs de parquets” (1875) with its sublime sense of perspective. I also loved a winter landscape by the Swiss Cuno Amiet (“Paysage de niege,” 1904) for its sense of calm and solitude. Of course, you should not skip the first floor with its collections of symbolists and traditionalists. As I said, you will need a good five-hour visit to get a good sense of the phenomenally extensive collection. It is a must for everyone who has a passion for modern art. (Last visited 10/2008)

Musée de l’Orangerie - Paris, France

Closed for renovation work since January 2000, completely reviewed and restructured, the Musée de l’Orangerie was reopened to the public in May 2006. Located in the Place de la Concorde, it is a little jewel in the Parisian museum landscape. If you love Impressionism and Monet (and you can’t love the former without the latter), you have to experience this museum, chosen and arranged by Claude Monet himself to showcase his eight “signature" masterpieces, the Nymphéas.

Inside: Two new rooms, oval shaped, host eight large Monet waterlillies. The rooms are aseptic, white walls, white veils covering the ceiling, it feels like a spaceship. But what is really extra-terrestrial is on the walls. Slightly curving following the oval shape of the rooms, in the first space four beautiful water reflections of lilies, trees, and leaves are the most impressive statement of the impressionist Master. Monet played with the color, each painting stressing a different reflection dominated at time by blue, green, or yellow. In the second room, you can admire the reflection of tree trunks on the water. This is amazing stuff. Just sit on one of the benches in the middle of the room and relax. The museum is a “haven of peaceful meditation,” which reminds one of the futuristic room at the end of time and space in 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you are short of time, a half an hour is enough. But one should not miss the remaining collection downstairs. On concrete walls, one can admire a fabulous concentration of masterpieces from the collection of art merchant Paul Guillaume, a highly original insight into modern art featuring Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Van Gogh, Rousseau, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani, Soutine, Utrillo and Laurencin. My favorites are: “Fraises” by Renoir (1905), “Portrait de M.elle Chanel” by Laurencin (1923), and “Odalisque a la culotte grise” by Matisse (1927). This museum is a gem. Don’t miss it. (Last visit 10/2008)

Musee Marmottan - Paris, France

Musee Marmottan is one of my favorites, not in Paris, but in the world. In the former hunting lodge of the Duke of Valmy (today located close to the Bois de Boulogne, in an elegant residential neighborhood), you can enjoy more than 60 paintings by Claude Monet, the world's largest collection of the famous impressionist. Monet wanted to paint something different, not what you see with your eyes, but what you feel. And he succeeded. He is the Master among the Masters.

In the Marmottan there is never too many people, especially when you compare with the huge crowd visiting Paris museums. Even if you are in Paris for a short weekend, you can still visit the Marmottan. It won't take you more than an hour or so. Of course, one can spend hours just sitting in front of the Waterlilies. No photos are allowed and every sign is strictly in French.

Inside: My suggestion is to go straight downstairs, where you can admire most of the collection in the same room. I got lost in front of the two London, The Parliament works (especially the sunset one) and I always get chills facing the famous Impression, Soleil Levant (the painting that gave the name to the movement Impressionism). Strawstuck is such an exercise in light and shadow through colors, while two of the numerous facades of the Cathedral de Rouen are real masterpieces. There is a lovely early Monet painting of a house reflected in a traditional way on water, when the Master was still drawing the line of the horizon. And then the series of Japanese bridges and Waterlilies from his garden in Giverny. Go close and you will see just layers of colors. The step back and squeeze your eyes, you will see the bridge surrounded by weeping willows. Magnifique!

On the upper level there some more Waterlilies. Here you can also admire the excellent work of Berthe Morisot. Undervalued for over a century, possibly because she was a woman, she should be considered among the top Impressionist painters. Her work focuses on domestic life, is fluid, 'legere', and colorful. Then, you should spend few more minutes strolling around the main rooms of the house which containts the original furniture. When you leave the museum, try to imagine this house in the wood with stags and deers running around, and the Duke’s party on horses ready for the hunting day. Not that hard, is it? (Last visited 10/2008)