Musee Marmottan

Sunday, July 27

We can't get enough of Monet, so we thought that today we would expand on yesterday's Giverny adventure by viewing some of his actual work (the "Monets" on the walls in the Giverny house are copies--some good, some not so).

Paris has three major museum collections of Monet: L'Orangerie, D'Orsay, and Marmottan. Musee Marmottan is located on the far west side of Paris, almost to the Boulevard Peripherique, and an hour's walk from the Eiffel Tower. So we tried public transportation again, this time the Metro. The Paris Metro is similar to the London Underground and the New York Subway; it is very extensive and will take you close to almost any destination in the city but it is aging and showing the results of deferred maintenance. It is also complicated but can be very effective once you learn the details of the layout; the stations where several lines come together can be confusing and exiting on the street you want can be difficult if you're not careful. We got on Line 1 at St. Paul, transferred to Line 9 at Franklin D Roosevelt and got off at La Muette. The trip was fast, efficient and cheap.

The museum is housed in a mansion built by Jules Marmottan. His son, Paul, was a friend of Monet and other painters and he collected their works. When he died with no children, he bequeathed the house as a museum. The basement gallery is entirely Monet. The ground floor has some more Monet plus other Impressionists (Sisley, Renoir, etc.) and other artists (Claire epecially enjoyed getting to know the work of Berthe Morisot, Manet's sister-in-law and a skillful Impressionist painter); it also has a collection of medieval religious illuminations and period furniture. The top floor usually has more Impressionist paintings on exhibit but today there was a special exhibition of some modern artists.

On the way back to the Metro station, we walked through a very pleasant park where families were picnicking and we bought some panini at a stand. The Metro brought us back to St. Paul quickly (we're old hands at this now). We bought a Sunday Times (London) to read, first in the studio then in a cafe on St. Antoine. We didn't get much reading done in the cafe as the street theater was too riveting.

Bill took a walk to Place des Vosges; there is a free internet signal available there so being online should become easier.












We went to dinner at Arirang in the square at rue Caron. This is a Korean barbecue; Bill had shrimp and Claire had beef, with vegetables an sauce; quite good.