21 September 2015

Le Musée d'Orsay et Le Jardin des Tuileries

Yesterday, looking into the image archives on my hard disk, I found a set of photos from the top of the Tour Montparnasse that I took on April 3, 2002. I had completely forgotten that Walt and I went up there that year. We were on vacation from San Francisco, staying in a rented apartment on the Rue Mayet in that neighborhood. So I've been up there at least three times now, including a time in July 2000.

But back to August 2015... Here's a photo looking down into the Jardin des Tuileries at the Louvre.


The image above is a detailed view cropped out of the image below. The Seine runs through the middle of the original picture, but is barely visible. The buildings on the other side of the Tuileries garden line the Rue de Rivoli, where there are well-known hotels and bookstores.


The long building in the middle of the photo is the old Gare d'Orsay, which now houses the Musée d'Orsay, where there is an important collection of impressionist paintings and other 19th century art. The old station opened up as a new museum in 1986, at the initiative of former French president Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing.

2 comments:

  1. I hadn't realized that the Orsay (as a museum) was a project begun by Giscard-d'Estaing!

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    Replies
    1. I didn't remember VGE's role in the Musée d'Orsay project either, Judy, until I looked it all up on Wikipedia. I thought the Orsay museum project was thanks to Mitterrand.

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