We started our day at Musée de l'Orangerie, which is located near the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde. It's not a very large museum and we spent about an hour ogling impressionist and post-impressionist art. If I sound like I know something about art...I don't. Don't be fooled -- I'm just good at reading signs and informational pamphlets.
We did see some of the most beautiful Monet pieces, including many that spanned whole walls!
We then stopped by the Musée d'Orsay....or M|'O as the sign said...
Musee d'Orsay was a particularly neat museum because it is built in the former railway station, "Gare d'Orsay," which was built between 1898 and 1900. That explains a lot about the architecture, right?
After the Musee d'Orsay we took a break from museums and ventured outside for some sightseeing at the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame.
I enjoyed seeing the Arc de Triomphe in person. It was so much smaller than I imagined!
Getting to the Arc was neat because you have to take an underground passage and then pop up under the Arc. This is what you see when you pop up. Then you can take so. many. stairs. to the top. Climbing all those steps was a workout!
It was worth it though because the views from the top were pretty spectacular, even in the bad weather.
After le dejeuner, we headed to Notre-Dame Cathedral. At this point it was POURING. We spent plenty of time walking around inside the cathedral safe and out of the rain's way...
But we knew we would have to brave the rain in order to go to the bell tower. Luckily, we made good use of our raincoats and my mini travel umbrella and managed to stay somewhat dry.
Notre-Dame was so so so beautiful. You hear about the stained glass windows all the time but to actually be there and to see it in real life was a really special treat.
After Notre-Dame we wanted to get back out of the rain so we headed to the Musee du Louvre for the rest of the evening. It is open late on Wednesdays so we had quite a few hours even though we showed up around...2 or 3 pm? I was so worried I wouldn't get a photo in the pyramid because we entered the museum from underground.
Did you know that the Musee du Louvre is actually a part of the Louvre Palace, a former royal palace that was originally built as a fortress in the medieval period? It because a royal palace in the 14th century under Charles V and was used as the kings of France's main Paris residence from time to time. In 1793 the museum part of the Louvre opened....which has expanded to be most of the building now. Fascinating, no??
Afterwards we headed back to the Eiffel Tower briefly before calling it a night.
If you're not tired of me yet, join me next time to see what we did on day four of our honeymoon!
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