The Musee d’Orsay Museum that starts where The Louvre museum finishes

The Musee d’Orsay Museum In Paris

The Musee d'Orsay in Paris was only opened at the end of 1986 and developed from an original railway station, it now holds many fascinating and intriguing works inside.

The museum was initially made up through three other museums, being the Louvre Museum, the Musee de Jea de Paume, which is centred around Impressionism and the Musee d’Art Moderne, which transferred to the Pompidou Centre, now only showing works of art from 1870 onwards.

The idea was to bring together various different collections that would showcase complete and varied forms of art from 1848 to 1914. But even if the various artworks and history of the Musee d'Orsay can be thought provoking, many donations and bequests have also been given to the museum to help it showcase even more, including works from the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville at the Palais de Tokyo.

When the Musee d’Orsay did open, including various long term loans, there were over 1000 pieces of art in its collection, allowing the many visitors to see arts from the nouveau era and slightly before.

On top of the art there were also around 12,000 photographs on display. Skip forward to now and there can easily be over 45,000 works catalogued at the museum, most of which are all on display from time to time for the people who seek them. And the sections have slowly and steadily increased to gain more of an interest in the time period.

As mentioned before there are different sections to visit, one large one being the paintings section including that of artists such as Seurat, Boudin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and more. The section also helps to shed some light onto areas during the artistic period, which were more unusual and found many uncommon reoccurrences.

Another section being dedicated to various sculptures, many of which were extremely popular and used to decorate homes, portray beliefs, show authority and much more, yet many of the statues were discarded despite the craftsmanship as many museums in Paris already had a vast amount of statues on display.

Orsay now has over 2,200 different pieces of work, which now belongs to the museums, having come from various places including the Musee Rodin and other Museums in Paris via exchanges, acquisitions, etc.

Other collections held at the museum include drawings, manuscripts, books, architectural drawings and even more. Furthermore located at the end of the central isle there is a gallery centred around solely the Opera Garnier from plans of architecture, decorations and models to look at as well.

To top it off while you can visit the Muse d'Orsay you can also visit one of the two cafe's as well as the restaurant with its superb quality food.

The first restaurant, Cafe du Lion, is a self service snack style cafe, which is ideal for a very quick stop and to rest the feet quickly for a quick bite to eat. Many foods including that of salads, baguettes, seasonal soups and even standard sandwiches are all there to choose from easily. Not forgetting those typical cafe style pastries and teas and coffees which are also available.

The other cafe is that of a brassiere called Cafe Campana, which serves various different meals throughout the day, found just after the Impressionist Gallery. The designers were two Brazilian brothers who were name the Campana Brothers, hence why the cafe now has its name, yet as you enter the cafe you will find it is much different from what one may expect, including serving many hot and cold foods, intriguing design work, seating and more for a comfortable stop.

And yet, on top of the two cafes there is also a French restaurant, featuring traditional French cuisine on offer and a fantastic authentic atmosphere to tie everything in altogether to give a great experience and the food can vary as it runs in line with current exhibitions at the museum, so as to keep a theme and variety no matter what time of year as well.

Yet the food is not the only amazing thing with elegant chandeliers and detailed paintings along the roof give the restaurant a very rich feel, allowing you to stay intrigued as you enjoy your meal. And in total this restaurant can give anyone a very amazing track back in history.

So with its impressive architecture as well as the cafes and restaurant, the Musee d’Orsay is a monument in Paris and incredible museum that is surely not to be missed when you are on holiday in Paris, the city of lights.