Museum Day

Today was Museum Day!

I decided that, in light of my day of complete leisure yesterday (I woke up late, got tickets to Strausbourg, and then sat in an Indiana for their WiFi for about 4 hours... I topped it off by going out, getting free drinks from the manager who's friends with everyone we know at Chez Justine, and then getting back rather early this morning), I would do something worthwhile.

I brought my camera, too, because I've been extremely lax on the picture front since I've been here. My Paris pictures suck.

The Orangerie was first and eek was it pretty! I love getting into museums for free with my art history ID. I can just run through and see what I want, and not feel obligated to stay because I paid so much. I wandered past the looong beautiful paintings, which are all lit by filtered sunlight from the windows: I was just amazed. I feel lucky because I've seen Giverny. I know what and where Monet was painting, and today I saw the finished product.

I got distracted by the Pont Alexandre III, so I walked down and took some pictures over there. It really is a ridiculously photogenic area. It warms my cold heart when I see peoples' shock at the Eiffel Tower or the bridge for the first time. I think the best place to stand is right by the Concorde metro stop. When people get out, their faces just change-- it's really really cool.

I walked down to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs for the Christian Lacroix retrospective, and it was. Amazing. Seriously. He curated it himself, adding in pieces from the museum's archives. The result is this awesome mélange of colors, patterns, textures, and every time period starting around the late 1600s. The Lacroix couture is mind boggling up close-- I saw some of his work in Boston last year, when they had some of his last collection on display at the Museum of Fine Arts. But this exhibit was about 300 times cooler, and I'm so sad I couldn't take pictures. (from Reuters.com)

I went into the jewelry room and, from across the room, spotted a camelia diamond ring and said out loud, "ooh! Chanel!" And I was right. I sort of have all these super powers that are completely useless without an enormous disposable income.

I was heading out to the metro and decided to pop into the Louvre because I had my camera and everything. I have to say, having a "laissez passer" and free time to go to one of the best museums in the world anytime I want is very nice. I sort of ran through to the large formats (my favorite), and then spent a good amount of time exploring the second floor (3rd floor, for Americans), which I had never seen before.

Metro back home, and now I am uploading all the pictures. It's a total pain in the ass to think about the paper and laundry I have to do: I think I will hold off on laundry (I literally have no clothes left, so maybe I'll show up at work tomorrow looking like a bum) but try to finish my paper. Because it's uh, due Thursday.