We attempted to visit the Musee d'Orsay this morning but - because the Louvre is closed today - it appeared that every other tourist in France decided to visit the d'Orsay as well. We decided not to waste the morning standing in line so we proceeded through the Tuileries gardens and were richly rewarded as the irises were in bloom.
The iconic green park chairs of Paris (that's the Louvre in the background)
Looking the other way through the park you can see down to the Arc du Triomphe
His casual pose is hilarious: Yeah, I'm naked - what's it to ya...
After leaving the park we headed for the Opera House but first ran into a scarf shop that a friend of Cari's had mentioned. They had beautiful scarves at reasonable prices - and I made a new canine friend! If I could have shoved the chubby little critter in my bag to bring home, I would have...he was so cute and friendly.
We also unexpectedly passed by a striking statue of awesome heroine Joan of Arc, who was born a peasant girl, led the French army to several important victories, was captured, charged with insubordination and then burned at the stake for heresy all before the age of 20 - read more about her here. Oh, and she's now a national hero and a Catholic saint.
We attempted to visit the inside of the Palais Garnier Opera House yesterday but the main auditorium was closed to the public because of an ongoing rehearsal. Our attempt today was successful and SO worth it - one of my favorite places so far this trip. The opera house was built between 1861 and 1875 by architect Charles Garnier, whose participation in the creation of the building filtered down all the way to designing lamp posts.
In 1964 the Minister of Culture - in an attempt to modernize the structure - hired painter Marc Chagall (one of my all-time FAVORITES) to paint over the original ceiling with his own design. The result, as you can see below, is gloriously stunning and I believe fits perfectly in the opulent space. Honoring opera and composers is the theme, with portrayals of Mozart, Bizet, Beethoven, Verdi, etc., and some of their most important works.
They were preparing the set for an Egyptian-themed performance while we were visiting.
The auditorium itself was surprisingly small compared to the grandeur of the main staircase and grand foyer.
One unexpected area was the vestibule leading to the smoking room. There are two vestibules - one representing heat (Salon du Soleil) that was supposed to lead to the smoking room, and one representing cold (Salon de la Lune) that was supposed to lead to the ice cream room (a different kind of vice). Sometime after completion they were reversed, so the cold Salon de la Lune was the passage way to the smoking room. I was surprised by the bats and owl motif on the chandelier plate and the seemingly modern moons and stars. Beautiful.
The scarves look beautiful...I hope there is a scarf in my future....hint-hint ;)
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