Paris is for (art) lovers

The museums in Paris are amazing. We'll start with the Louvre. I think I spent a good 8 or 9 hours in this incredible place. If you were to spend 30 seconds looking at every piece of art in the Louvre it would take you 8 years to get through it all. I spent most of my time there looking at the paintings. Italian, Spanish, English, French, Flemish, and German paintings. Everything from Giotto and Caravaggio to David to Fragonard and Boucher to Vermeer and Durer. So many wonderful pieces. It was hard to decide what to spend my limited time on. My favorites were the Renoir and Degas in one of the special exhibits. Of the permanent collection I really enjoyed Vermeer, Cuisin, Bidauld, Prud'hon, and Watteau.

{giant gallery of Italian Renaissance paintings}

{La Lecture, Renoir}

{La Sortie du bain, Degas}

{Cuisin}

{Bidauld}

Also: the Mona Lisa just isn't that cool. It's a rather small painting behind like 5 inches of bullet proof glass surrounded by a hoard of people. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. It's certainly not the best piece in the museum. It's not even DaVinci's best work. seriously overrated.

The Pompidou is the modern and contemporary art museum. It's not really my kind of thing but it did have: Picasso, Mondrian, Chagall, Pollock, and Rothko, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

The L'Orangerie is a lot smaller than the other art museums in Paris, but it holds some of my favorite pieces of art. This is the place where Monet's water lily paintings reside. There are 8 total. They are in 2 rooms, one covering each wall. The walls and ceiling are white and the floor is pale wood. The effect is breathtaking. I could just sit there for hours looking at them. They are truly magnificent.

The Rodin museum was also quite lovely. We got to see The Kiss and The Thinker.

And last, but most certainly not least, is my favorite: the Musee d'Orsay. I fell in love with the fifth floor: Impressionism. All my favorites here, together. Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt. I could have spent forever up there, so much goodness.

It was so crazy to be able to see all these works of art in person after learning so much about them and seeing pictures of them. Being able to see the true color, texture, and size of a piece makes it that much better. It is amazing to see these paintings and think about the talent and time and hard work that it took to make them. These artists really put their heart and soul into their work and you can tell.

Bonus: gorgeous blue vase in the Napoleon III rooms in the Louvre