Day 23, The D'Orsay Museum & the Eiffel Tower!

Another fabulous day in Paris. We visited the D'Orsay museum today. The building is an architectural jewel. The museum's permanent collection is breath taking. We catalogued many wonderful sculptures made of bronze, clay, and onyx. The temporary exhibit on display now features a female artist, Felicie de Fauveau. Her work includes a handful of delicate relief sculptures that date back to the early 1800's. Another artist that captivated our attention was Jean-Baptistery Carpeaux. The piece of work which we will discuss in class is "Ugolin" by Carpeaux. The D'Orsay had a small preliminary study of this sculpture as a reference for the final bronze masterpiece. You can even see the artist's fingerprints in part of the small study sculpture. Amazing! This museum is full of famous masterpieces. We have talked about many of them in art class, such as Monet's water lilies, Degas' ballerina sculpture and chalk pastel ballet scenes, and many of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. After being inspired by the great artwork in the D'Orsay, we crossed a bridge over the Seine river in order to catch our water bus. To our wonderful surprise, this was the bridge "Ponte des Artes". this bridge holds an old tradition where couples put a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine river as a symbol of their undying love. We spoted locks that date back all the way back to 1982. Love is the soul of this beautiful city. After a short ride on the "Batobus", we arrived at the beautiful Eiffel Tower. The line to buy a ticket to go up the tower was very long but well worth it. This monument is a colossal piece of architecture. It has grace, poise, and makes a very strong presence from wherever you look at it. It's no wonder why people flock in from all over the world to come see this work of art in person. Our day ended with a water boat ride back to our hotel area. Bonne Nuit from Paris! More art wonders to come tomorrow as we have a long awaited date with the Mona Lisa.